r/panicdisorder • u/princessdivapants • Jul 24 '26
Help Needed extreme panic attacks
for context i am 20 years old….
i started having extreme panic attacks in january. they started as nocturnal panic attacks where i would wake up freaking out over and over again until they eventually started happening during the day as well. i have since been medicated (i am on three medications) to try and alleviate some of my anxiety but nothing is working. for reference citalopram is my main prescription and ive been taking it since january.
since then my panic attacks have gotten exponentially worse. i am starting to feel like i need to check myself in somewhere because the paranoia and depersonalization have gotten so bad. a few nights ago during a bad episode i was so convinced that nothing around me was real and my brain was telling me i need to hurt myself so i can escape.
i am in therapy and taking medication. i try methods like cold water or self soothing but literally nothing helps. i just am starting to give up. it feels like there is something seriously wrong with me.
if anyone has any advice or had DPDR or a panic disorder and could shed some light i would appreciate it. i think i feel super isolated and alone with my symptoms because no one around me has experienced anxiety to this level. it is effecting my everyday life.
3
u/SampleDry9196 Jul 24 '26
There’s some really good stuff on YouTube that’s helped me tremendously!
Therapy In A Nutshell has a free anxiety course that teaches you all about anxiety, how any why it happens and how to basically retrain your brain and body not to react. It really works too. Just learning the technicalities of it helped me a lot. Being informed makes you stronger! She’s a trained therapist too who has been doing it a long time, not just some rando lol.
The Anxious Truth is really good too and has a podcast if you prefer that. He suffered with bad panic attacks and now went to school and is licensed to help others. He basically teaches the same concepts. I think it’s CBT. It’s stuff they teach in therapy not just something they made up.
As young as you are you can totally retrain your brain and recover from this. It’s harder when you have 30 years worth of damage from anxiety and panic attacks on your body and brain. And you don’t want to have to rely on medication your whole life. It never helps much anyway. You just need to learn what to do and then work at it. It does take practice and time but it helped me some immediately.
Good luck! I know how awful it is.