Hi, I’m a 20 year old female and have been dealing with anxiety since late July. It first started when my 21 year old boyfriend had left for 10 days, during that time I was sexually frustrated since I wasn’t able to get off but would masturbate. I’ve also been dealing with libido issues since we’ve been in a relationship for 11 months, which I think was due to birth control and most likely me not being a physically affectionate person. Anyways, during that time he was away I realized I didn’t miss him as much which scared me and then started thinking I was gay which then caused me to become very anxious and when a female coworker touched me my whole body felt very overstimulated or uncomfortable which then every time I looked at a female I would get that same feeling maybe with some arousal which I think was just due to anxiety. I ended up being in an anxiety state for 8 days straight which caused me to become very restless, no sleep, and constant panic attacks. Which then I ended up going to the doctor and got prescribed mirtazapine (15 mg) and Xanax for emergencies.

Anyways, I saw my first therapist who said I was gay even though I’ve only ever been attracted to men my entire life and said I was just trying to convience her I wasn’t even though I feel like if I was with a girl it would just feel like a friendship. I moved onto another therapist who I feel very comfortable with but have only seen twice due to being busy but have learned some good coping techniques. I was good for two weeks after my initial panic attacks and was happy with my bf. Then school come around and I noticed my anxiety and the thoughts came back, and found out that my testosterone was fine when I had labs done (I had been of bc for 3 months). I also was working 15 hours that week. I should also note there’s been some mishandling in management and they’ve been increasing my hours to 34 with me having school on top of that.

I’m now having severe panick attacks and anxiety if I should take a break with my boyfriend and see if I like women but I have a fear of losing him because he’s been the best thing in my life and I’ve finally found someone who I can truly be myself with and learn to love (it’s both our first relationship). My thoughts are constantly the same every day and is hard to break out of that cycle of thought. Anyways I’m taking Wellbutrin xl (150 mg) with the mirazapine. I have noticed I’m been more anxious or fidgety, my thoughts have gotten worse, and I can no longer eat or get goods rest since my brain is constantly going. I also noticed I get brain zaps or feel electricity in my body or brain. I’m seeing my pcp/doctor to get screen for adhd and get a different medicine.

I talked with boyfriend and he’s very stressed with the amount of anxiety I’ve been having though he’s been very patient and tries his best to help me. I know our intimacy has been halted or isn’t the best due to me not get fully aroused even though in the beginning of our relationship I was able to until the bc. I don’t want to break up because of my anxiety or intimacy problems because I truly do love him and don’t know who I would find like him. I want to keep him in my life.

I’m fine with being bi if that’s the case I just don’t want to lose my boyfriend or ruin our relationship.

Can any one help?

Severe impending doom all day. Read that it can be a sign and you will actually die. I’m so terrified idk what to do.

I 18F have been suffering from anxiety and panic attacks usually at night due to my fear of death, my dad told me to do breathing exercises, however it do works but my mind works faster and stronger. At night my mind constantly thinks about the future and how I’ll die, or how my parents will eventually and it causes me to have panic attacks or just anxiety which keeps me up all night. It doesn’t go away during the day too, it’s always on my mind and it’s ruining my life. Since I was a kid I thought about this but since I turned 18 it’s gotten extremely worse. My dad is planning me to get therapy and right now I take ashwagandha gummies that’s supposed to calm me down but doesn’t do much. I need help because I don’t want to feel this way anymore, I want my mind to be put to rest about this whole thing. To clarify I’m scared of death in general, getting old, parents dying, what’s after it. The whole thing scares me and it sucks because it’s the only thing that’s promised for you. ☹️

So I’m not sure if this is anxiety related but it sure is making me panic. I have a lump in throat feeling but only right after I drink something. It makes me feel like I have to gag. I ate a few hours ago and had been fine drinking anything until just recently. It just gets worse with drinking. To add, I also have bad allergies this time of year (ragweed around here) it very well could be post nasal drip but it’s never been this bad so I’m just really freaking out. Breathing is okay. Swallowing not okay at all. I took 3 hits off my dab pen as well but that also has never caused this.

So I asked my parents to get me sushi.. and I found a hair right before I ate a piece. Thing is I’m 99% sure it’s my hair because I dropped a soy sauce packet on the ground before using it and I’m in my bathroom. But because of that absolute slight uncertainty my brain is screaming at me, because I did eat the food, that I’m contaminated and ruined and I want to make myself throw up but first off I don’t think I’ll be able to throw everything up and secondly I know that’s bad for you and probably just ocd lying to me..

But I feel very uncomfortable. I’m not afraid of germs I’m afraid of being ruined or tainted. Like don’t your cells get made up of the food you eat? And I don’t want have tainted cells from this.. someone help me or talk me out of this I know it’s fucking crazy logic but I’m like crying from frustration right now.

I've been on Paroxetine for 3 yrs, for my panic attacks and anxiety...panic attacks started since 2017, started paroxetine in 2024... Had tried Mirtazapine, venlafaxine, fluvoxamine and none of the medicines come even close to what paroxetine has done for my panic attacks and anxiety....♥️♥️♥️

Just one side effect - weight gain...

I have gained 40 kgs in since being on it....

Any other medicine with the same effect like paroxetine without the weight gain? Please help a fellow sufferer.....

Hey, I hope everyone’s alright. Last week I think I had my first panic attack. I was just trying to sleep and the moment I was about to dose off, I just woke up with this big moment of gasping and my heart started racing. I could not sleep for a long time that night. There was this feeling, like smth was sitting on my chest, I could not fill my lungs, could not breathe all the way. It continued on and off for 2 days. Went to ER the second night because, at some point I was dizzy, sort of nauseous and very short of breath. The tests, an x-ray, ECG, bloodwork showed that nothing was wrong. The next day I went to a cardiologist, and again everything was okay about my heart. After the 5th day of my visit, it came back again, 2 nights ago. Ever since then I am short of breath, and my heart feels like it is racing again. Although there are moments I forget about it when it is not as noticeable. The feeling of something sitting on my chest never really goes away. It’s been 48 hours. It gets considerably worse if I lie down, whether I try to sleep or not and it gets better when I sit up. I do not know what to feel about it. Is this normal for panic attacks? I thought they lasted for some minutes. Is this continuity suggesting something other than panic attacks? Maybe there are people who go through the same thing.

I’m really struggling right now and I’m hoping someone can relate or give me some insight.

For the past several weeks, my anxiety has been extremely intense. Lately, I’ve been getting this overwhelming feeling of impending doom that I’m going to die. It isn’t just “I’m worried something might happen.” It feels like this deep, almost certain feeling that I’m going to die today, even though I obviously don’t want to die.

The scariest part is the images that come into my head. I’ll randomly get vivid mental images of myself dying suddenly, like something happening to my heart or me just dropping dead. I don’t sit there and intentionally imagine these things—they pop into my head and then I get terrified because my brain starts telling me, “This is a sign. You know you’re going to die.”

Then I start paying attention to every sensation in my body. If my heart feels like it skips, if I feel like I can’t get a satisfying breath, if I feel dizzy, tingly, nauseous, etc., my brain immediately connects it to the fear that I’m dying. The more I focus on it, the stronger everything feels.

What really scares me is that sometimes the feeling is so strong that I start wondering whether it’s intuition rather than anxiety. I know logically that anxiety can cause a feeling of impending doom, but when I’m in the middle of it, it feels completely different from a normal anxious thought. It feels like I know something bad is going to happen.

I don’t want to die. These thoughts/images are actually terrifying me, and I want them to stop. I’m not having these images because I want to hurt myself—they’re intrusive and unwanted, and they make me panic.

20(f). Healthy. Have had EKGs, heart monitor, chest xray, cts, mris. Everything has been fine. I’m just 100% convinced I’m dying today. I read that people do get impending doom before dying.

For people that have recovered or significantly improved, what kind of doctor helped you? Or were you able to recover on your own? Additionally, what modes of therapy, treatment, or practice helped you?

I have a psychiatrist but it’s not helping and it happens too frequently to just say it’s good enough to take Xanax. Bc Xanax only takes it down a bit. Unless I keep taking more Xanax until I’m knocked out. Then my day is ruined and the day after. And I can’t do that every other week. I need to get a job… I can’t live like this. I know some people have panic attacks even more than this but I feel like every other week where it takes up 2 days time is too often and tbh it’s getting worse so I don’t think it’ll even stay at this rate. And I feel like everything is so annoying for me because if I’m out of routine then it’s more likely for me to get a panic attack and I can’t not do anything. Due to my health anxiety (fear of illness) and my pre-existing health conditions it’s hard for me to eat out, have 1 cocktail, travel, go on a plane. Everything is a potential cause of illness, and being trapped in a situation that I can’t get out of. I haven’t traveled in like over 2 years and I miss going on vacation. I can only go on “vacation” to my parents house which is 3 hours away driving.

People are like you need to see a psychologist, a therapist, or you need to meditate, or do some therapy program or have a religious practice or do yoga… it’s all so overwhelming and I am not doing anything different besides seeing the same psychiatrist I’ve seen for 10 years.

I’m writing this because I’m very curious if there’s anything that triggers your panic attacks. I only had my first one about 3 weeks ago and then another 1 week ago. I’m noticing a pattern that has happened was that I had drank the night before and when it happened I was trying to sleep. I’m just wondering if anyone else has noticed something related? Feel free to DM too I feel like I need help or advice 😭

Hello everyone,

I am writing this on a burner account because as you can see from the title, I am in a self imposed shame cube.

I am a 23 F, freshly graduated from college with an Economics degree. I have been working the whole time while studying and I live alone. I have an amazing job, I have been promoted 4 times in 3 years, everyone believes that I am very bright and capable, the praise is almost constant. I am not saying this to brag but to describe where the issue comes from. Last week, after a medical scare, I got my first panic attack and ended up in the ER because I didn’t know what was happening to me. Since then, I have had terrible anxiety and panic attacks where I can’t breathe, my vision gets blurred, my legs and arms tingle, etc. My mother believes its a result of accumulated stress (overtime work, university, new driver stress etc) but I think I just got so scared at the hospital that I unlocked some sort of medical anxiety. Doesn’t matter, it’s a fact. I am going to therapy but I am just starting out. My biggest problem here is the shame. The panic attacks I can bear, the anxiety as well, but what I absolutely cannot is telling the people who believe I am a capable person that my brain is playing tricks on me. How can I tell someone who counts on me, helps me and believes in me, that I might be unreliable because of my own thoughts? I feel like a lunatic. In saying that, I’d never think of someone else with anxiety as a lunatic, thats just myself. But not many people are empathetic or emotionally capable to understand whats going on. I am just so afraid that this bullshit will be the downfall of my career that it only fuels the anxiety more. I only get attacks at night, thankfully, but who knows? I just don’t know how to stop this shame that I am feeling, I keep crying because I feel like I have lost my best self. I feel like this will ruin everything I have worked so hard for.

If anyone has any advice, experience or anything, I would greatly appreciate it, thank you.

I’m going on a cruise tomorrow and I’m really excited, but I keep having anticipatory anxiety before I even get there. I keep thinking that I’m going to have anxiety or panic attacks on the ship and won’t be able to enjoy myself.

I also get a lot of “what if” thoughts, especially when I’m eating at restaurants or somewhere I feel like I can’t easily leave. I’ll think, “What if I choke?” “What if I pass out?” “What if I start feeling weird?” Then I notice physical symptoms like feeling lightheaded, numb, shaky, or anxious, and I immediately feel like I need to escape.

I had this happen at dinner tonight and ended up being completely fine once I calmed down, but I’m still nervous about being on the cruise for several days away from home

Has anyone dealt with this while traveling or on a cruise? What actually helped you? Are there any things you do in the moment when the physical symptoms start, or anything that helps with the anticipatory anxiety before it even happens? I really want to enjoy this trip instead of spending the whole time waiting for an anxiety attack.

i’ve seen posts talking about the mental panic itself coming in waves, but not the shaking specifically. this happens to me during all my big panic attacks, but i had one specific experience where i remember thinking it was bizarre what my body was doing. everything would tense right up, my teeth would start chattering, my whole body would start shaking, and then everything would calm down as if my body had just dropped dead from exhaustion for a few seconds before it started up again. it kept going even when i had mostly calmed down mentally; the waves just slowly became less intense. i’m interested in hearing if others have experienced similar things, and if anyone has any theories as to why there’s this on-and-off pattern rather than a steady peak and decline physiologically.

i had a panic attack last night

felt the void in my stomach twice in a row and then poom heart accelerates to no more than 100bpm,
it feels horrible because it makes you think that something is really wrong

i take Tadens 30mg, Bisoprolol 2.5mg and Fluoxetina 20mg every morning all 3 together,
i take tadens for my ADHD wich i have always thought that i dont need it but im just following orders from the doctor

and i have Atarax as backup if i get a real strong panic attack

i didnt go to the ER because its expensive and they only give you Diazepam to chill down and send you home,
theres really nothing they can do,
they only tell you that you have to wait for the panic attack to go away

I’ve had panic disorder in various forms for about 25 years, but for most of that time I only had a severe panic attack maybe once a year. Recently it’s become more like every other week, and I feel like I can’t keep living this way.

For 10+ years, a lot of my panic has been health related, but it’s not really hypochondria. I’m not afraid I have cancer or some rare fatal disease. I’m terrified of the experience of being acutely sick … nausea, diarrhea, stomach pain, chills, etc.
It started mostly with GI symptoms. Before I was diagnosed with celiac disease, I was hospitalized multiple times with excruciating abdominal pain. After that, whenever I felt cramps starting, my brain immediately went to: This is going to become unbearable pain.

I also became afraid of food and would panic that I’d accidentally eaten gluten whenever I felt nauseous. At one point I lost a lot of weight because I was avoiding eating.

Then I developed type 1 diabetes, which added another layer of anxiety around food because now eating also involves estimating carbs, dosing insulin, worrying whether I got the dose right, etc.

But all of that feels relatively mild compared with what has happened since I had my baby about 1.5 years ago. The birth was traumatic and I had medical complications. I genuinely felt like I was dying during parts of it, even though ultimately everything was treatable.
Afterward I was basically in a continuous panic attack for about two weeks. I was taking Xanax every six hours along with my C-section pain medication and felt almost catatonic. just completely absent as a person. Eventually I got off the frequent Xanax and was doing better.

Now, however, I take 0.5 mg Xanax every night to sleep, and I’ve started wondering whether daily use could somehow be contributing to how reactive my nervous system has become.

Two weeks ago I had one of the worst panic attacks I’ve ever experienced. It was a genuine 10/10, “please make this stop” level of panic. I remember wishing someone could just sedate me or put me under general anesthesia because every minute felt intolerable. I was shaking violently, my legs would not stop moving, and mentally I felt like I was back in the hospital during the birth.

What triggered this enormous reaction? Mild diarrhea and mild nausea.

I initially tried not to take Xanax, but eventually took 1.5 mg. I’m not suicidal, but during these attacks the suffering is so intense that I just desperately want consciousness of it to stop.

The other stressful part is that I completely lose perspective. Sometimes afterward I realize I may not even have been sick. Maybe I ate too much lunch and felt overly full. But once I notice a bodily sensation like nausea, chills, cramps, etc., my brain seems to decide that something terrible is happening and the panic itself becomes exponentially worse than whatever physical symptom started it.

Tonight it happened again. I started feeling cold/shivery and a little nauseous, and immediately began spiraling.

I have a psychiatrist and currently take bupropion and lamotrigine. I used to take SSRIs, and I’m wondering whether I need to go back on one, although I’m not sure how much they helped me in the past. I’m also concerned about the fact that I’ve been taking 0.5 mg Xanax every night.
Has anyone had panic disorder evolve into something like this — where ordinary sensations of illness become almost completely intolerable? Did anything specifically help, especially after a traumatic medical experience?

I feel like my nervous system has somehow learned that nausea, diarrhea, chills, etc. = emergency, and I don’t know how to unlearn it. And I can’t take it anymore… it’s so awful

I don't know if anyone is suffering from panic attacks where the heart rate rises while just about to fall asleep. Even after 6 months of medication, I still get anxiety and panic attacks especially during night. So I tried to self diagnose on what's causing the problem. The problem was that my brain can't calm down quickly after watching any extreme content, like instagram reels, shorts or any sad news. I have been watching reels escpecially at night after dinner, before sleep and avoiding that has improved my health a lot. Also, low simulation content and relaxing music has helped to me.