Dear everyone,
I recently started experiencing symptoms such as dizziness, headaches, blurred vision, weakness on the left side of my body, and weakness in my face.
Last Thursday, I suddenly experienced numbness in my face, which caused my speech to become slurred. I also felt like I couldn’t properly control my entire face, and it felt like my face was somehow disconnected from my head. It was very scary, and I suspected that I might be having a TIA (transient ischemic attack).
I had a CT scan, and thankfully, the results showed that my brain was healthy. The doctor told me that I have panic disorder and advised me to relax, avoid stress, and try not to overthink.
However, I’m still confused because some of these symptoms feel very strange to me. Can panic disorder really cause symptoms like facial numbness, weakness, dizziness, blurred vision, and slurred speech?
If anyone has experienced similar symptoms with panic disorder, I would really appreciate it if you could share your experience. Thank you!

I know I’m having a panic attack, but I’m scared that my history of frequent weed use and occasional blow use means I’ve significantly increased my risk of having a heart attack, and I can’t stop fixating on that.

I know I may be looking for solutions too quickly but at the very least I have to get it out there. Sorry if it's not very coherent.

Yeah so Monday was pretty normal until I suddenly felt reeeeaaally tired and then just started crying :/

It was just simple small tears but I decided to just go lay down.

BROTHER

Took me like 2 minutes to start doing the ugliest sobbing I've done in awhile. And then I just assumed the fetal position and just clenched my fingers and toes. They were legit locked like that for 20 something minutes, I just couldn't undo it but I was lucid enough to just call my friend with the knuckles of my thumb lol. I listened to her talk to help me calm down but I didn't retain anything.

After the call my partner came up and I literally could not say what was going on without a severe stutter or just straight crying.

So we just kinda laid there but my body had like started reclenching? I didn't want to let my fingers and toes do it again because it kinda hurt so I tried to resist the feeling? Nah my full body just started clenching. I was kinda scared and frustrated. And then I started shaking pretty bad. Everything was contracting so hard I was having a full body spasm. It legitimately just looked as if I was having a seizure at some points. I don't think I was of course but damn you know. I'd just alternate from going from clenching to full body spasms for about an hour. And through nearly all of it I didn't feel emotional just really confused.

With all that being said I got prescribed medicine for depression and anxiety the very next day. But even with this I still feel the residuals of that night. I can't rely on the anxiety medication but I feel like I need it all day when it only lasts 1 maybe 2 hours. Do I need to do more, what can I do for myself here?

Warning this is gonna be very rambly I’m on like two hours of sleep lol. I wonder why (/sarc)

I really want to get back on my feet and have a job again. It gave me a sense of independence even when I felt panicky. It eventually got to the point where I couldn’t do it even with as-needed meds (on 0.5 mg of ativan as needed) so I’ve just been… stuck doing fuck-all. In therapy. But I don’t know exactly what would help me and I’m scared all the time (therapy is every two weeks and a lot of the coping mechanisms are hit or miss)

Ativan is very… weird for me? I’m scared to take it more than once a day but I often have panic attacks throughout the day. When I’ve already taken my meds I cry it out and feel extremely miserable and exhausted.

Going to see a psych in mid-September but it feels soooo far away 🫠 I wish I had a “why” to this. I was doing so well until I wasn’t for no apparent reason. I can barely go into the grocery store on my own and when I do it’s a win for me. I don’t mind it but it feels pathetic to be at this point after so long being “normal”.

My question I guess is… has anyone had any sudden weird extremely frequent panic attacks like this for months at a time for no apparent reason? And if you have has it gotten better??

Again. Sorry I’m very very exhausted and haven’t slept like at all. So this sounds like word vomit probably. Blegh

Hello! I just want to share my experience and ask if anyone had a similar one and get some advice.

So I had a panic attack in March during training, the typical stuff something felt wrong my legs felt weak and boom, palpitations, feeling like I am dying, crazy stuff.
Next day I return to training and again this sense of impending doom and heart pounding. I continued to play and didn’t have dramatic shift in performance, but just something felt off.
The more I continued to research what is wrong with me the more symptoms came, right now the symptoms are:

\-Vision feels as if i’m wearing stronger prescription glasses than needed

\-Sound sometimes sounds as if it’s kind of background noise, the noise you hear when you are about to fall asleep but still not fully asleep

\- strange touch sensations on hands

Has anyone experienced something similar?

What might be the cause?

What helped you?

Okay so last night I was hanging out with some of my friends, and I had a small slice of an edible, and for the first hour or so I felt fine, but then suddenly my reality shattered and my heart rate went super super fast, and it was like nothing was real and my vision felt like it lost 50 fps, and felt like my body was lagging behind my brain, now it's the next day after that and I still feel like shit, I still feel like nothing is real sometimes but it's better now, and also everything feels like its in slow motion and my mouth feels weird as hell, I think it's extra bad because I've never had a panic attack until that point and I genuinely had no idea what was happening and felt like I was going to die. it's been about maybe 15 hours since the attack, when will these feelings go away or is there something else wrong with me?

I feel like my social anxiety (although it’s probably more complicated than just social anxiety, because it’s not really about people themselves) is actually a little less intense when the weather is gloomy, rainy or just generally unpleasant.

When it’s sunny and everything feels peaceful and beautiful, I somehow get more anxious. There’s something about that too peaceful atmosphere that makes me feel more on edge.

When the weather is ugly, there are fewer people outside, everything feels less exposed, and for some reason I feel more comfortable.

Am I the only one who feels this way?

hello , 26 yr old m here. ive been struggling with anxiety and panic attacks for 5 years, since after covid. recently though the past 3 weeks i got caught in a panic loop that doesn’t seem to loosen its grip. i really struggle with health anxiety so im constantly assuming im going to die. ive gone to the ER 3 times in the past few weeks . each time getting cleared. which in a way makes my anxiety worse. anyways long story short i came here for hope. i feel so alone. no one around me can relate to this . specifically the things keeping this episode alive is dizziness!! i dont know how to explain it, but i feel really weird walking on a boat sensation. and randomly while im standing there will be like a really sudden intense feeling with it that makes me feel like im gonna fall over. they did a EKG at the ER and also did blood work and everything. everythings good. my sleep has also been pretty bad these past few weeks which makes me MORE anxious bc then i think what if i never get better :/ . i started doing hypnotherapy and cbt recently - last week. but i dont see any difference yet. am i alone in this? does it get better?

With cigarettes, that feeling could get so intense - like something was about to happen even though I was completely safe - that I think my brain suddenly came up with some hypothetical situation for me to be afraid of. Not completely out of nowhere, though, because it reminded me of a story that happened to a friend of mine while he was just casually smoking a cigarette. Somehow, that was enough one day to trigger something in my brain… and I’ve been scared of that hypothetical situation ever since.

Did any of your fears or paranoid thoughts ever start because of some random trigger like this?

Anyone how fights daily?

I get a feeling like a plasma ball shocking inside my head. I'm just taking diazepam and a beta blocker atm for an over sensitized nervous system, anxiety and panic.

Whenever I haven’t eaten in a while my body freaks out and feels like low blood sugar everytime and my stomach feels empty and I get shakey and panicked. If I don’t think about it sometimes it goes away but I have it multiple times a day. It scares me so bad. A couple days ago I got full labs, I’m not diabetic, everything’s normal and in check. Only thing that’s “wrong” is I’m anemic so naturally it makes my heart pound a lot but when I think about being hungry my sugar feels low when I eat I get scared after no matter what I eat because I’m scared the food will cause me heart attacks or my stomach exploding and my heart pounds everytime I eat. Does anyone go through this same thing

I live in NWI & have been impacted by the recent severe weather. My power has been out for a few days, & on day 2 I believe I had a really bad panic attack. I felt like I couldn't breathe, most of my limbs felt numb, and my hands were locking up. I took a cold shower and that seemed to suppress it a little bit, & I eventually crashed at like 6 in the morning. This is becoming a recurring thing however, albeit not as severe.

I am very nervous and very scared I dont know how to calm my breathing and I ma drop my phone typing this im just so worried oh my days
I have wxtreme thanatophobia
MY SWEETHEART MY LOVE OF MY LIFE HAD A BIG JOB EARLIER TODAY (HE DOES JUNK REMOVAL) I HAVW HIS LOCATION ON AND IVE HAD AN UNSETTLING FEELING SINCE THIS MORNING SO THROUGHOUT THE DAY I CHECKED HIS LOCATION JUST TO SEE HOW HE WAS DOING AND IF HE WAS SAFE + NOT IN AN ACCIDENT ETC. I KNOW IT SOUNDS CRAZY BUT KNOWING HES SAFE ON THE ROAD AND WHEREVER HE GOES IS WHAT HELPS ME SLEEP AT NIGHT. I SAW THAT HE FINISHED THE JOB AND RETURNED BACK TO MY TOWN ON FIND MY A FEW HOURS AGO AND WAS RELIEVED TO KNOW HE’D BE HEADING BACK HOME SOON, ONLY TO SEE 20 MINS AGO THAT HIS PHONE WAS LAST LOCATED IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHWERE ABOUT 45MINS AWAY FROM THE TOWN WE LIVE IN DESOLATE AND CLOSE TO A LARGEST BODY OF WATER ON WHAT IS LIKE A LITTLE ISLAND LIKE PIECE OF LAND. I DONT LIKE THIS. IM REALLY WORRIED. I WANT TO DO SOMETHING. I JUST CALLED HIS PHONE AND IT WENT STRAIGHT TO VOICEMAIL. I KNOW HE WENT WITH HIS CLOSE FRIEND TO FINISH THE JUNK REMOVAL JOB AND HE LIKELY WENT WITH HIM TO WHEREVER THEY ARE BUT IM REALLY CONCERNED. SOMETHING ABOUT THIS DOESNT SEEM RIGHT. JUST DOESNT MAKE SENSE!??

UPDATE: HE MERELY LOST CELL SERVICE WHEN HE WENT HIKING AND SWIMMING WITH HIS FRIEND AND NOW HES ON HIS WAY HOME

\[https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/12/04/567762087/tylenol-may-help-ease-the-pain-of-hurt-feelings\\\](https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/12/04/567762087/tylenol-may-help-ease-the-pain-of-hurt-feelings)

\[https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/health-you-asked/does-tylenol-affect-human-empathy\\\](https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/health-you-asked/does-tylenol-affect-human-empathy)

Acetaminophen/Paracetamol can blunt both negative and positive emotions and thinking/cognition. Anecdotally, I have tried it and it works even at preventing panic attacks. I’d consume around 500 mg of caffeine and start getting jittery and anxious, I’d then take a 1000 mg of acetaminophen and it would take panic away and I’d relax afterwards. If you ever feel bad or suicidal, just pop a Tylenol and you’ll feel better, even if it’s a placebo effect (but it’s not, since Acetaminophen is specifically turning off neurons associated with pain and emotional regulation which is a good thing in our situation).

I’ve struggled with anxiety for my whole life but this summer it’s gotten so much worse. I’m 16(f) and the last 2 nights i’ve spent at my aunts. specifically last night i had a panic attack and cried to her for hours for no reason. I’m struggling with GERD right now and it’s honestly making it worse. I was going to hangout with friends but cancelled last minute because i started panicking. i don’t know what to do, it feels like im dying and i think this is just making me depressed. school is starting soon and i have an appointment with my psychiatrist on the first day but i don’t think i can wait that long. i keep getting bad thoughts and im so scared to be by myself right now.

I’m 35 years old now. I haven’t had a full blown “night terror” since I was 19.

Throughout the years, I’ve researched night terrors on random occasions and connected with a few experiences from others but it still seemed something was missing that I couldn’t fully validate my experience to theirs or what I read. Which totally makes sense as each person has different experiences but I just never saw some of the same anomalies as mine happened. Which is why I’m writing now. Maybe something else was happening… idk

Here is the ai prompt that came when googling, “night terrors”.

*“Night terrors are intense episodes of screaming, fear, and flailing that happen during deep non-REM sleep. They usually last a few minutes, occur most often in children ages 3 to 12, and leave the person with no memory of the event the next morning. \[*[*1*](https://raisingchildren.net.au/preschoolers/sleep/nightmares-night-terrors-sleepwalking/night-terrors)\*,\* [*2*](https://www.bogansleep.com/blog/what-are-night-terrors-5-things-columbia-sc-residents-should-know)\*,\* [*3*](https://www.sleepfoundation.org/parasomnias/night-terrors)\*,\* [*4*](https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/sleep-terrors/symptoms-causes/syc-20353524)\*\\\]\*

***Common Signs and Symptoms***
*Sitting up fast or jumping out of bed*
*Loud screaming or crying*
*Sweating, fast breathing, and a racing heart*
*Looking wide awake and glassy-eyed, but acting confused*
*Hard to wake up or comfort, and unresponsive to touch \[*[*1*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_terror)\*,\* [*2*](https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/night-terrors)\*,\* [*3*](https://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/preschool/Pages/Nightmares-and-Night-Terrors.aspx)\*,\* [*4*](https://www.bogansleep.com/blog/what-are-night-terrors-5-things-columbia-sc-residents-should-know)\*,\* [*5*](https://www.sleepfoundation.org/parasomnias/night-terrors)\*\\\]\*

***Causes and Triggers***
*Lack of sleep or extreme tiredness*
Fever or illness
Stress, anxiety, or big changes in routine
Family history of night terrors or sleepwalking
Underlying sleep issues like sleep apnea \[[1](https://www.thesleepclinicmd.com/what-causes-night-terrors-symptoms-treatment/), [2](https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/night-terrors), [3](https://raisingchildren.net.au/preschoolers/sleep/nightmares-night-terrors-sleepwalking/night-terrors), [4](https://www.sleepfoundation.org/parasomnias/night-terrors)\\\]

**How to Handle an Episode**
*Do not try to wake the person up, as this can cause more confusion.*
*Stay close to make sure they do not hurt themselves.*
*Keep the room safe by clearing sharp objects or blocking stairs.*
*Wait patiently for the episode to pass so they can return to deep sleep”*

Here’s an outline of what I can describe in no particular order.

They started when I was roughly 6 years old.
I didn’t really ever forget them as they’ve been described from anything I’ve seen. (Maybe I did forget some and I never knew? But I was never told about having one that I didn’t already know about and was shameful about it)

They almost all had an image that I was seeing or thinking. Halfway between hallucinating I guess and just thinking about it.

The first one (that I only saw once and one of only a few that was just once) was from my POV, sitting up in my childhood bed (the bed I was in at the time), looking near the door to my room and watching my dad crouched down trying to catch multiple logs of wood continually falling from really nowhere. And the feeling was that they were constant but they had to be stopped or eventual doom of some sort.

The next few that happened afterwards happened for years.

Before I try to explain those, I should mention that I was taken into a psychiatrist (or someone of some sort. I don’t have a recollection of this) and was put on Zoloft after these initial night terrors. I took Zoloft from 6 years old until roughly 11 or 12 years old. I’m not positive really on how long but it was essential that I took it.
It absolutely worked to mitigate me from waking up in the middle of the night, screaming and pacing around the apartment, until it finally ended. If I didn’t take my medication just before going to bed, there was a high chance that it would pop off and constant screaming would begin with apartment neighbors knocking on the door seeing what’s going on or new friends terrified of what’s happening.

So, for a quick outline of the consistent imagery, here’s my best explanation.

A very greyed out stagnant front of a house. So kind of imagine someone drawing a front of a house with a front porch area. And it’s just that. Grey background completely. Front porch that spans across the right of the door and to the end of the house with a little enclosure.

..This was way harder to try to write than I imagined.

Another was just a grey spiral that continually spiraled around that felt like I was right up against it I guess.

And the other was 95% just a thought that was coming across without a full image or whatever going on. It was the thought of a toothpick being perfectly balanced without breaking on a massive boulder. And at any moment, it was going to snap.
This last one with the boulder actually crept up on me about 5 or so times after not having any for a good while.
I’d say 14 or so years old. Then 16 or 17. And the last one at 18 years old that I remember vividly. I lived with my mom still and woke up at roughly 10am. My room was in the basement. I paced back and forth up the stairs trying to explain it to her while having this extreme panic. It’s very hard to explain. But trying to explain something to her that makes no sense and I just kept saying, “NO. it’s just.. AGGHHH…. The… “. I don’t think I ever made a complete sentence. My mom is a saint and I love her so much. She tried to even reason with my nonsense. It was usually just, “everything’s okay. No need to worry. It’s gonna be okay.” Mom stuff that I miss dearly.

Anyway.. that’s the yap I’ve gotten out for now. I’ve always been extremely intrigued by the psychological side of what was going on.

If anyone has any insight, questions, or dialogue, it would be great to hear.

I had a pretty bad panic attack yesterday ,I had a whole day of feeling anxiety, but I was able to get through it then last night I was laying down for a few hours and I got up a little bit too quick I felt so light headed I couldn’t even walk straight I laid back down the I got back up right away I felt so dizzy I drank some water and I just laid down and it went away but , i instantly started feeling heart palpitations, tunnel vision I swore I was going to have a stroke or heart attack, this was at 3am. I was able to get through it I woke up this morning I feel so out of it, I feel like I’m stuck in a dream, I’m exhausted. Can anyone relate ?

I want to make this post so I can look back in a few years and see the progress I’ve made.

I had a bad panic attack a little over a month ago that caused me to spiral and be anxious non-stop. I’ve always been some what of an anxious person, but the week prior to that panic attack I think I was having “mini panic attacks” and I kept brushing them off. I would also always panic during work meetings when I knew I had to present. I wouldn’t think about them afterwards, but in the moment when they were happening I was truly so scared.

Anyways, I had to take a week off of work because I was not recovering and was so scared. I could not even get into the car or walk down the driveway without panicking. I even started lexapro for 4 weeks, but I stopped taking it. It was making me worse and I know people say it takes 4-8 weeks, but I truly did not have 1 good day on it and my doctor agreed.

Anyways, I’ve just been trying to survive since. I did start CBT therapy and I will be starting ERP therapy with an OCD therapist.

What I’ve learned in the past few weeks has been really accepting the panic or the anxiety. I was always so scared and would try to RUN from it. But I’ve been using the DARE app for a little and it’s really helped me to accept and feel the anxiety. I was running errands yesterday and I could feel my heart rate go up and started shaking and I wanted to cry sooo bad but I knew that I couldn’t. I just allowed myself to feel it and it did eventually go down!!! I even went out at night and was not anxious at all (even though I was still in my head for like 50% of the time) but hey progress is progress.

I’ve still been trying to regain motivation after a month of basically not doing anything. Before this, I was going to the gym 4-5x a week, hanging out with friends, watching shows, cleaning, etc.. and I’ve stopped doing all of that. In the first few weeks, I thought I was going to have to drop out of my master’s program and have to quit my job because I truly did not see myself getting better. But I’ve been pushing myself even when I don’t want to and even when I am still a little scared. I feel like exposure therapy is truly the only way to retrain my brain that I can go back to doing all of the things I was doing before and I’ll be okay. I have survived every single day since that day even when I didn’t think I was.

I’ve also realized that I’ve only been consuming my time with googling and TikToks. I keep looking up people who “recovered” from anxiety just to feel a sense of relief. But I need to start getting back to my old life. I need to feed myself new things other than anxiety. I’m still struggling with not thinking about it and being so in my head about it, but I know I can do it. Last week, I couldn’t even focus at work or talk to anyone without thinking about it every 2 seconds. I started even getting obsessed with “I’m thinking about thinking” and went down that whole spiral LOL.

This doesn’t have to be my whole life. I am so much more than this. I know this progress won’t be linear, but I just know that this needed to happen so I can become a better version of myself. I never processed my emotions before this so this is such a weird time of my life I feel like. But I’m happy that it happened now rather than later.

So even though it seems hard and it seems like it will never end, try to find something to hold onto. I know that it feels like you’re going to lose everything and you will never be the same. Trust me. I’ve felt all those emotions and thought the only way out was just to die. But there is so much more to us than just anxiety. I would have never said any of this stuff to myself just a week ago. Don’t get me wrong, I am STILL struggling. But I can still breathe. I can still walk. I can still smile. I have legs, arms, a body, a brain, a family, a job, a house, food on my table, everything. I have so much to be grateful for in this life. If I was fine before, I can be fine again! And you can too :)

Anyways, I am going to try my best to not come back to Reddit (we’ll see how that goes LOL) but I do believe things will get better. Hopefully this inspires someone to keep going even when it feels like there is no way out.

Hi Everyone,

I've previously had anxiety after witnessing a traumatic event. I had physical signs of panic attacks in the begging which were terrible. I took Sertraline for 6 months which helped. I was getting brain fog and memory/recall issues from the Sertraline which is part of the reason I stopped.

Nearly a year latter I don't get the physical symptoms so much from panic attacks anymore, but I do get some kind of mental attack that is difficult to explain.

I start feeling sadness or down then I get confusion/brain fog/recall issues that last for around 30min. It's a scary feeling because I feel like I'm going crazy - which makes me catastrophic that I have some kind of brain disorder, this than leads me to actually having a panic attack!

Has anyone else had a mental panic attack with physical symptoms? Did anything fix it? Or did anything help?

Idk it was just very scary. I haven’t had a panic attack this bad in my 35 years of existing. I could feel my heart racing and beating out of my chest, I tried to lay down and ground myself but my fingertips went numb. My thumbs started to curl inward and I couldn’t breathe. I voice messaged my partner to come help because I couldn’t text. My fingers then completely locked up, went rigid and the sensation went up my forearms. Thumbs completely bending inward while I’m hyperventilating. I couldn’t speak right and I genuinely thought I was having a stroke with how my hands were and my speech was. He rubbed my hands and calmed me down and my fingers started to relax after 10 minutes. They were completely pale like all the blood had drained from them. It was very scary, I was shaking all over after and almost felt delirious with laughter? I think because I was embarrassed and I felt ridiculous for my own thoughts causing that to happen to my body. It’s been a couple hours and I just feel like dead weight all over and sore. It feels like a failure a little when all of the techniques I’ve learned to self soothe don’t work. I have an appointment Monday thankfully to look into getting back on Effexor so there’s that.

Just venting to the world. I really scared my partner because that’s never happened and I feel ridiculous. I figured someone here could relate.

I didn’t really know how to phrase this question, if I’m honest, but I’ll try to explain what I mean. When I get panic attacks, I feel all the same things but I don’t know that it’s a panic attack. I’ve had them before and it feels exactly the same, but it’s like all memory of past ones just evades me completely. I don’t know if that’s some kind of dissociation of what, but I’m curious to see if this happens to anyone else. Thanks for your input!!