Stuck, trapped, scared...
Hi all. Hope everyone is doing well. So...I've been having panic and anxiety for almost three months now. Ever since August 20th 2010 when I had my first panic attack I have not been the same since. For an entire month I had a 24/7 panic attack. For another month I had atleast 1 panic attack a day. I had all the symptoms..shortness of breath, dizziness, spacey,heavy chest, trouble swallowing, memory loss, trouble sleeping...etc.. I went back on my medication (Zoloft) Since I have been on that I have gotten much better. I was agoraphobic for a good 2 months. Now I just have anxiety. Some days are worse then others. But I need help. I feel as though I am going to feel this way forever. Even when I'm having what I consider a "good" day I still feel not myself and scared. I keep feeling Like I am going to lose touch with reality and that I am the only one that feels this way. I keep feeling as though I am going to forget how to have fun and not want to live anymore. I am just going through the motions. People keep telling me how much better I seem and stuff but they don't understand that it only looks like I'm getting better and this is becasue I am just forcing myself to do things. I'm still completely scared out of my mind while I'm doing everything I normally once did. I feel as though I am going to feel like I am going to die everyday for the rest of my life. Im frustrated and scared because I've been feeling this way for almost 3 months and I feel like that is WAY to long. I feel like I am never going to be the happy loving kid I once was. I use to get enjoyment out of everything I did, now I am just scared and spacey all the time. I keep thinking that my medication is not going to work even though I was once on it already. I always look to other things to make me feel better. I say to myself...well worse comes to worse I can just max out my dosage of medicine, but then I say to myself, what if it still doesn't work? Then what? I feel as though I will one day run out of options. Can anyone relate? Can someone please give me advice? I'm scared I have lost all fun in my life and that I am going to be in this hole forever.
Hi RyanEK
My heart go's out to you ryanEK Im not to far behind you. my anxiety started September 4th 2010, i've been having axiety with most all the symtoms every day and around 3-4 attacks a week. for me lexapro and zoloft made my symptoms worse. im now just taking natural stuff from a natural Dr. but i still take lorazepam when i need to. im having better days but still not 100%.some of the key things that have helped me the last two months are my faith in Jesus, my wife and close friends, getting help, a good counselor, and i am almost done reading "from panic to power" from Lucinda Bassett, and lorazepam :p. I plan to buy her program next. I dont know where you are with getting help but i recommend all of those things. one of the hardest things for me is i drive 15 miles to work every day! somehting my counselor said to me was " Im doing better then yesterday but not as good as tomarrow" i like that.....I will be praying for you.
JonB5150
My heart go's out to you ryanEK Im not to far behind you. my anxiety started September 4th 2010, i've been having axiety with most all the symtoms every day and around 3-4 attacks a week. for me lexapro and zoloft made my symptoms worse. im now just taking natural stuff from a natural Dr. but i still take lorazepam when i need to. im having better days but still not 100%.some of the key things that have helped me the last two months are my faith in Jesus, my wife and close friends, getting help, a good counselor, and i am almost done reading "from panic to power" from Lucinda Bassett, and lorazepam :p. I plan to buy her program next. I dont know where you are with getting help but i recommend all of those things. one of the hardest things for me is i drive 15 miles to work every day! somehting my counselor said to me was " Im doing better then yesterday but not as good as tomarrow" i like that.....I will be praying for you.
JonB5150
Hey Ryan, I know exactly how you feel and my panic attack happened Aug. 22,2010. Ever since I've always had a constant fear of having a heart attack , although like you said there's days that I feel good and I've had a few I feel great days. I take xanax but only when needed so there's days I feel like I don't need it but I still have the same weird feelings I just tell myself that there's nothing wrong with you so calm down. Just recently within the last week I've been getting these horrible headaches and all I want to do is sleep, and I tell my wife man if I could just stop feeling like crap I'd be so happy. So I also feel am I going to get better or feel the same and my answer to myself and you is "yes" we will get better we just have to continue to believe that GOD put us here for a reason and we will get thru this. Good Luck Buddy hope you feel better each and every day.
RyanEK and Raul F,
I had a period where I was having strong panic attacks in December of 2000. I was recently fired from a job, it was a job I did not want to do, I felt trapped in and I did not do very well, so I would say I deserved to be let go. The thing that helped to calm my nerves was getting anther job, cause the whole time I felt like I spent years getting my degree so I could get a good paying career and everything just went up in smoke and my life was over as a result, I wanted to kill myself. I would ask you if you have given a lot of thought to what was going on in your life that could have started the panic attacks.
Paridygmn
I had a period where I was having strong panic attacks in December of 2000. I was recently fired from a job, it was a job I did not want to do, I felt trapped in and I did not do very well, so I would say I deserved to be let go. The thing that helped to calm my nerves was getting anther job, cause the whole time I felt like I spent years getting my degree so I could get a good paying career and everything just went up in smoke and my life was over as a result, I wanted to kill myself. I would ask you if you have given a lot of thought to what was going on in your life that could have started the panic attacks.
Paridygmn