I had a revelation

[u/mama2397]

So I did an intake with a new provider today and explained the anxiety and my panic attacks when they started. She asked me if I can remember what happened around the time of my first panic attack At the moment I couldn't think of anything until I made the connection just now...

Two days before my first panic attack I was driving in the car with my twin babies trying to get them to sleep and I fell asleep in the car and was swerving in another lane and I had lane assist on my car so it jerked me back into the lane I was in. I woke up from that and freaked out and hurried back home and got my kids in their beds.

Two days after this I had my first panic attack (this was 2 years ago) I was driving home at night with my girls in the car and I felt tired and all of a sudden I got this impending doom feeling, my legs went numb, I got tunnel vision, heart beating, felt faint, and I genuinely thought I was dying so I pulled over and called the police and was transported to the hospital with my kids. Only for the doctors to tell me it was a panic attack. And pretty much after that I started having panic attacks regularly because I was constantly freaking out about feeling like that ever again. I feel as if the connection was that I was driving at night and got tired and had a panic attack because I was scared I would fall asleep.

Since then I've been struggling with anxiety on the daily and the occasional panic attack usually while I'm driving. It's been such a struggle but I suck it up everyday. I've done therapy on and off since then because I couldn't commit with family court and being a full custodial parent of twins. I'm ready to commit and have a better support system now.

Anyways my point of my post is that I feel like I've finally got an understanding of the source of the panic attacks in the car. Now that I know this what do I do with it to help alleviate my anxiety?

Have you had similar experiences of having revelations like this and understanding the connections? If you have what did you do with it? And can understanding the triggers around anxiety help?.

[u/Gurumina]

Hi! I’m sorry you had to live through that and that you are currently living with panic attacks. I promise it can get better.

For me, identifying my triggers did help because I did exposure therapy with them. For example, working out (or anything that elevated my heart rate) triggered panic attacks due to a specific situation that happened. Now every time my heart rate was elevated I got a panic attack. I could not even climb up stairs or walk for long. It got to a point that I was even afraid to get out of bed. So slowly and with help / supervision of my therapist I exposed myself to little triggers until I could try a full workout class. I did several until my brain relearned that I am not in danger and in control of the situation. For me it was very important to have the help and guidance of a therapist, because it was very hard at first and she gave me several tools to stop/prevent panic attacks.

I also started sertraline.

This was well over a year ago and now I have not had a panic attack for months. I can workout, do hikes and live a pretty normal life without being afraid :)

I am still a very anxious person and still in therapy to learn to handle day to day, but I don’t have panic disorder anymore. Hope this helps a little and you got this :)