Stress Center Peer Support

when my panic hits I get really hot, I cannot breath and I feel like I am going to loose my mind. That I am going insane and I am going to be locked up for life. I also feel that I am going to die. I do not know what is worse, dying or going insane.... A couple of weeks ago in the car, my husband was driving and I had a really bad panic attack. I wanted him to stop the car, I wanted him to call an ambulance, I wanted to run. I was all over the map. After it passed I felt anxious ALL day, I just couldnt shake it. I am terrified to get back in a car. Do any of you have that horrible feeling of going insane?

Hi Laurie ,
I was housebound by those panic attacks for 21 years of my adult life!!! I had every symptom one could possibly think of, and every single one of the above !!!

Here I sit almost 28 years later, and I am still not crazy and I have not died !!!

My friend, you will NOT go crazy and be locked up from a panic attack, nor will you ever die from one!!!

I pray that you have the program and are working on the "tools" in the program to over come these fears!!!

Remember Fear is just "false evidence appearing real"...

You are safe, secure, healthy and VERY SANE, OR YOU WOULD NOT BE SUFFERING FROM THIS DISORDER!!!

Have a great night's rest...God bless you on your journey to recovery!!!

Hi Laurie2,
I can understand to some degree abit how you feel. I say that because I have not walked in your shoes, only in my own.
I've had very similar experiences and felt that I would never be able to travel again! That I would be this way for life, and could in no way see any hope or light at the end of the tunnel. That's pretty scary.
Strangely, I found this unusual scripture in the Bible, in the New Testament, in the book of Romans talking about Abraham: "Who against hope, believed in hope"....Romans 4:18. Please be assured that I am not trying to push any beliefs, religion or anything on you. It's just that I found even when I seemed to have no hope, there was hope! And I could believe in that until I could develop the coping skills, and other necessary skills, to be able to face my fear, anxiety and panic, and float through them without having near the panic and scary thoughts that I used to have. I wanted a "micro-wave miracle"! Instant! I still wish that sometimes! *laughs* But if I got an instant miracle like that, then I saw that I would probably lose it just as fast - because I would not have changed or become what this program teaches us. I need to "learn to fish" rather than have someone just give me a fish that would be gone once I finished eating it. If you are like me, then you probably do NOT like hearing this particularly, either! *smiles*
This may sound like you have "such an enormous way to go"! But, in reality, when I "started" utilizing the course and simply "got going" doing the suggestions - trusting the process - I pretty quickly began to settle down, realized what was really happening, and began applying the simple things in this program and actually started to live again - a little at a time.
There were sometimes when I could not concentrate or even seem to sit still long enough to absorb anything! Sometimes I felt totally hopeless. But I kept keeping on with others support, and things started to work! For me! Really! I really wondered if they even would! Like I was some "super especially bad case"! But it does....it takes time to study, reflect and absorb, and it takes time to recover.
So, to answer your question, Yes - I get really hot and start perspiring until I glisten! Feel like I am going crazy, flip-out or even die! Like I was going to have to eventually be sent to the State Mental hospital to be locked up for life. But it never happened.
Now, I have hope that is turning into rreality in MY life....and I don't believe that I will ever be locked up for life or etc.
Keep hoping and get started. Be easy on yourself in the midst of everything. Give yourself a break. Stay in touch.
John - Guitar7
*I'll add you as one of my buddies, ok? Then you can write specifically to me if you wish.*

Originally posted by Laurie2:
when my panic hits I get really hot, I cannot breath and I feel like I am going to loose my mind. That I am going insane and I am going to be locked up for life. I also feel that I am going to die. I do not know what is worse, dying or going insane.... A couple of weeks ago in the car, my husband was driving and I had a really bad panic attack. I wanted him to stop the car, I wanted him to call an ambulance, I wanted to run. I was all over the map. After it passed I felt anxious ALL day, I just couldnt shake it. I am terrified to get back in a car. Do any of you have that horrible feeling of going insane?

Laurie this has soooo happened to me before. I was in the back seat of a car with a couple of friends as a teenager and all of a sudden I freaked out, in my mind to myself mostly, that I was trapped. That I was not going to be able to get out of the car bc it was moving down the road. I told my friends that I was about to throw up and to pull over immediately, which was a lie about throwing up I was about to lose my mind infront of my friends and couldn't hold it in anymore. Anyways I finally told one of my friends while outside of car that it was my claustrphobia bc she had been aware that I had it, but I didn't want the other friend to know. She let me sit in the front seat and told the other friend that it would make me feel better, so the other friend agreed and got into the back seat. I was so embarrassed! I thought for the longest it was claustraphobia and it may be a little bit, but I was not in conrol of my surroundings is why I filpped out I know that now. I think they call that Agoriphobia? Just started program so not that educated and have never been to a doctor who could properly diagnois me.

Hi,
I have the same problem. My job has paid for me to go to school in the evening and I haven't gone because I get these panic attacks on my way home. I thought I was crazy before I came here. The roads actually scare me. I just got the program, so I'm hoping this helps.