IOPList.Org

Hi folks,

 I've had 'General Anxiety Disorder' for many years, been to the ER maybe 10 times for many different so called panic attack/anxiety symptoms, usually diagnosed as stress related. I was finally diagnosed with general anxiety disorder after at least a decade on and off incidents and heavy suffering. I've been feeling pretty good for the last 8 months but I'd like to share, starting with ONE instance, of some symptoms I experienced some years ago. I'm typing this out because I've never been around others who have experience with anxiety and personnally I've never read of symptoms as I'm about to describe.

Story:
One of my most profound experiences with anxiety was at work. I was a chef for 10 years at a 5 star restaurant, made Hells kitchen look like childs play, withouth the cursing, professional behavior only. Pulling a standard 12 hour shift, our kitchen was in the latter part of the dinner rush. When I went to lift a plate up using my left arm, I was unable to lift
the plate and my entire arm went numb, breathing was hard, vision blurry and heartbeat skyrocketed to the point I almost
blacked out. I hunched over and leaned on the counter and was bum-rushed by my cooks as they noticed I was having a problem.

They held me up and took me out of the kitchen then my best friend, my Boss, came to my aid to see what was happening. By this time the left side of my body was completely numb, hardly movable and the left side of my face felt like it wasn't working, It was completely numb as well. I could hear someone mention my coloration, I was pale, and white as could be. I looked down at my dead arm and sure enough it had lost all color, looked dead to me and was I fairly scared at that point. I simply don't have the vocabulary to explain the pain and discomfort I was in. Just horrendous, too many different sensations and pains to word properly

I was taken to the ER which was luckily right across the street and they ran a battery of tests on me, EKG, blood, CT scan and more and they found nothing wrong. Their concluson, this was stress related incident. Sheesh! So after 8 hours of testing I was released, picked up by my mom and taken home.

In order to go back to work I had to be cleared by a doctor and after a few days rest I payed my doc a visit. I couldn't drive at that point so mom to the rescue again. Thanks mom! Apparently the Doctor went over the ER report before I arrived, as I tried to explain what happened, he interupted and said straight out I experienced a very severe panick attack. That was actually good news for my ears but I just couldn't understand how these attacks could be so damn bad. I was in disbelief and didn't buy his story at first, as I experienced these attacks many times before, but couldn't wrap my head around how extreemly horrible this latest episode was.

In the long run he prescribed two different psycotropic drugs, basically trial and error, with little affect. In addition he referred me to a phcychiatrist. Taking everything into consideration the phcychiatrist prescribed librium, in case I was hit again at least this would help with some of the symptoms. The librium was the best thing to happen in this instance. This ONE panik attack dragged on for about a month. Taking a bit of Librium killed off all the bizarre symptoms and HARSH!! discomfort I was suffering from.

IMO, my panic attacks are far from 'panic'. In my experience the lable 'Panick Attack' is  a serious misnomer. I can be having the best day of my life but when hit with one of these episodes it's like being dtruck by lightening lightening, no chance to prepare.. Being the pill hater I was, this incident broke the camels back on that view and Benzos enable me to stay out of the ER and live a mostly normal life.

Thanks for listening
Mr. Hind

Yes, certain meds really make a positive difference;often the ones they're trying to do away with.

This sounds horrible, never heard of stress manifesting like that. Thanks for sharing.

at first symptoms sound like mini stroke specially when you mention almost half your body going numb, then again im no doc, i guess working 12h shifts in high pressure environment wouldnt be unusual specially if you have some psychological issues, even regular people burn out,at least it wasn't stroke.

ive always theorized that general epidemic of anxiety is of our current fast paced society, look at japanese they kill themselves nowadays due to trying to work 16 hours, everything has to move at 24/7 pace , but if we looked at cultures where they are more chilled out, or say countries that are poorer you actually have less of psychological illnesses there, i was on a trip not long ago and was amazed how going few hours into another country changes whole life work perspective, people take break and live balanced life - they take priority over family rather work load.Western culture is filled atm with you have to perform to reach something- and think that pressure over last few decades really made impact on how we behave or should i say that everything moved so fast in last few decades that our brains are still arent capable to adapt to such changes, like fight or flight response is still rooted deeply in us but instead we fear things that actually cause us no harm in many cases.Sometimes i wish society in general took step back but we live in world where are taught to sacrifice anything to reach something which does nothing really once you look back.

Hi folks, sorry for the late response.

 I failed to mention the above symptoms were several years ago and I haven't had a full blown panick attack in quite some time, maybe 3 years now. Just bad anxiety here and there, nothing a v can't help mitigate. Mainly I posted this thread just to check if anyone had any scarey incidents, for the sake of comparison.

 I had my first panick attack when I was 20 and been dealing with anxiety on and off approaching 30 years now. [Plenty more stories to tell if interested :-)] I've just been plagued with it for some reason, but that's not to say it controlled my life by any means. Matter of fact when young, personally, anxiety was never something that slowed me down or affected me to the point I couldn't be a normal person. Life was good and FUN till reaching the age 33-34- when I had more severe attacks, like the one listed above. lotsa exciting times before then and I guess bad times too but that's life, nothing to complain about. Had quiet a bit of bad panick attacks growing up but I dealt with them or sometimes had to go the ER not know what the heck was happening to me. They'd tell me not to drink caffien or eat less sugur and I went on my merry way. Maybe drank a beer or 6 feeling better knowing the symptoms were'nt a heart condition or something worse.

I've been through the medical system long enough to know what works.. for me. As per my Doc and Psychiatrist recommendations>> 10mg per evening. No deviation from protocol, unless anxiety approaches intolerable levels, then slightly up dosage till symptoms go away. This has worked for me for the last decade. I was prescribed other Psychotropics in the past, to no avail......

Thanks for the responses all!

Take care.

Mr. Hind

Wow Mr.Hind that sounds scary. I’ve had panic attacks before but nothing like you describe. I’m glad you found something that has worked for you. I just recently got put on z@loft again i tried it and a few other anti depressants years ago but never gave them a fair shake. This is the first time I have actually taken it for long enough for it to be effective. I am also still on my go to which is alpr@z.
So far so good for me I havnt had any panic attacks but still deal with daily anxiety which is where the alpr@z helps.
So I’m giving z@loft a try I’m just worried about the side effects I hear about ...weight gain,impotence etc.. don’t need either of those in my life

Hello.

Well, Mr. Hind, my experiences don't quite match the intensity of the panic attacks you've experienced but given the circumstances in which they happened on a regular basis and time of day, they certainly posed a serious problem for me.

As I got into my late 20s I began noticing that immediately upon waking, even before stretching or getting out of bed, my heart would jump up to 170 bpm and couldn't think because my mind was preoccupied with figuring out WTF my body was in a state of shock. After 5 minutes or so it would slow down and level out around 100 bpm until I got to work where it would go down further to about 70.

3 psychiatrists and some behavioral therapy sessions later (didn't help) it was determined that I was having panic attacks upon waking. No concrete explanation except that I wasn't releasing stress through normal mechanisms and my subconscious, along with a nice shot of adrenaline, were creating the perfect environment for a panic attack upon waking.

I know it doesn't sound like much. But geez. What a pain it was to wake up (still do sometimes) and immediately go into a panic attack before you've even had 1 thought or even smelled the coffee brewing!!! AHH!

Thank you for sharing your story Mr.Hind, reading through your experience I was very moved, especially on reading the part about your mother helping you, that part made me quite emotional.

The support from family during hard times is so important, and I am grateful to my own mother for helping me during a hard time myself, if it werent for her I wouldnt be here today.

I hope things continue to go in a positive direction for you Hind, you have an entire forum of like minded humans here, with a lifetime of experience to draw on.

We are here for you

Something very similar happened to me a long time ago, where my face started going numb, heart racing, then both arms started going numb, vision going black. This was while I was driving. It scared the crap out of me, so I pulled into the next rest stop and asked the security guard to call him an ambulance. They told me it was a panic attack at the hospital. Very strange and scary stuff.

Hey thanks folks, for all the responses and sharing. Very nice of you to take the time. I've had some pretty bad experiences with anxiety and with the help of meds and lately this forum things are good. I'm not a good writer and it really takes me time to formulate a response sometimes, especially on this topic as so much has happened in the past it's sometimes hard to put into words to remotely come close what was actually felt during an attack. Just saying wish I was better at this, sometimes because anxiety can be pure HELL and I'd like to better express my experience.

A doc once told me my attacks will feel worse than death and in some cases and he was correct. Some time back I looked at my medical records and saw the check in symptoms, what the nurse writes down: Two intake forms say-- QUOTE: I FEEL LIKE I'M DYING............ Those were my words. FYI this was before I met the doctor just mentioned. This is a nasty ailment and wouldn't wish it upon anyone. While not life threatening in most cases there's tremendous suffering, in my experience.....


Seeker47

Thanks for the post,

Not saying it's a good thing but kinda nice to know that someone has had similar symptoms to mine. I've had road issues as well and the were never good as you have to deal with the vehicle and anxiety at the same time and that just exacerbates the situation bigtime! One day I was driving and was struck down by a heavy attack, luckily the next few freeway exits was the ER room. I swear to god I BARELY made it to the front door, then some nurses or EMT's rushed over and threw me on a gernie!!!! Was a very bad day but they were my hero's! Definately needed help that day!

Thank you for sharing!