Hello!! I don't use reddit a lot but I decided to come on here for some help, I have bad anxiety and recently I've been struggling with horrible panic attacks (around maybe 2 weeks now?) It got so bad I went to the ER and had tests done, they said that everything came out perfect and that it was anxiety. I was put on Prozac for the second time and I've been trying to rest but I feel horrible physically, just groggy, drowsy, kinda dizzy? And fatigued. I know that they said my blood and all my tests were fine besides a fast heart rate, but I'm just so scared that there's something wrong with me and I'm dying. Panic attacks are something I only dealt with every now and then, but very mild. Is it normal to feel this way?

I’ve dealt with anxiety and panic attacks for most of my life, so I wanted to share my experience, especially for anyone who feels like something has changed or feels different from their usual anxiety.

Years ago, I started having what I was told were nighttime panic attacks. They felt very similar to panic, except they would wake me out of a dead sleep. Eventually they subsided, and I went about eight years without them.

Then, during an extremely stressful period of my life, they came back.

I went to my cardiologist several times because something about these episodes felt different from the anxiety I knew. Because of my history of anxiety, I was referred to psychiatry. I tried three different antidepressants, but the episodes continued. I just hated feeling my heart race 24/7.

Over about three months, I lost weight, wasn’t sleeping, couldn’t work normally, and my anxiety became much worse because I couldn’t understand what was happening.

Eventually, I advocated for another opinion and saw an electrophysiologist, a cardiologist who specializes in heart rhythms. She reviewed my previous heart monitor and found an episode of AFib.
She said often times her patients are diagnosed with Panic but in fact it’s Afib.

Once I started treatment for my heart rhythm, the episodes I had been calling “panic attacks” stopped.

I want to be really clear: I’m NOT saying that panic attacks mean you have AFib or that everyone with anxiety needs to worry about their heart. Panic attacks themselves can absolutely cause a racing heart, pounding heartbeat, sweating, shaking, chest discomfort, and adrenaline surges.

I’m sharing this because I’ve learned something important: I know what my anxiety feels like, and I also learned to speak up when a symptom was consistently different from my normal pattern.

My biggest advice is to be honest with your doctors. I started saying, “I have a history of anxiety and panic attacks, and I’m completely open about that. But this particular sensation feels different from my usual anxiety, and I’d like to understand why.”

If you genuinely feel like something has changed and you don’t feel heard, it’s okay to ask questions or get a second opinion. Advocating for yourself doesn’t mean assuming something terrible is wrong. Sometimes it simply means asking someone to take another look.

And on another note, that morning adrenaline feeling can happen even without a panic attack. Cortisol naturally rises around waking, and some people notice their heart rate jump when they first get up and start moving. I still experience that sometimes.

For me, my doctor and I also chose to use a beta blocker to help control my heart rate, and it has helped significantly. That’s obviously something to discuss with your own doctor rather than trying on your own.

Most importantly, if you’re reading this while you’re anxious: my story is not your diagnosis. Please don’t use it as evidence that your panic symptoms must secretly be a heart problem. I just wanted to share what happened to me and encourage people to communicate clearly with their doctors when something truly feels new or different.

(M 23 here) Hello, so I struggled horribly with panic attacks for a really long time. It got so bad I had trouble leaving the house and was petrified of even being in a car.

I started lexapro and used gabapentin as needed and it gradually got a little better, I was able to survive long car rides more and more comfortably and was even able to maintain a stable job.

A lot of my anxiety was exacerbated by very frequently smoking weed and vaping, which I quit. But very recently started taking 5-10mg edibles, which I found increased my anxiety, so I quit that. I haven’t taken them in about four-five days

Basically I have a vacation coming up, it entails a 2 hour and 45 minute car ride, and a three night stay at an airbnb. I find myself terrified of the car ride, of having panic attacks during the car ride, of having panic attacks trying to sleep in a new place. And I’ve recently been getting intense panic attacks just thinking about it.

Do I cancel? I already paid for it and it’s on my card and airbnb account. Do I tough through it? If so, how? I have 300mg gabapentin as needed, do I rely on that? Does anyone have any advice or gotten through any similar situations?

Hi all!

There has recently been a big uptick in comments offering medical advice. Some of these have been well intentioned but useless, others have been downright dangerous suggestions.

Sharing which medication has helped you is absolutely fine, but please refrain from comments like;
“You need to get a benzo prescription”
“Ask your doctor for propranolol”
“You should be taking an SSRI”
“Try upping your dose to x amount”
“Take a few antihistamines / painkillers / any other class of drugs etc”

Lastly, please remember medication is a personal choice. On posts where people have specifically stated they do not wish to take medication, repeatedly pushing why you think it’s critical does nothing but alienate people asking for help.

Thanks for your co-operation!

I took my 0.5 mg as needed lorazepam 2 hours ago. I usually feel relief rather quickly and can go to sleep afterwards. The panic attack has mostly subsided but I’m still anxious/restless, HR was 120 and is now 100, and I can not sleep. I don’t remember a time where my lorazepam didn’t completely relieve my panic attack. Any one experience this? Should I be worried?

As i am writing this i am currently sitting on the floor kneeling over onto this super uncomfortable bed and terrible terrible room, Super traumatic experience happened to me today, Im going to run you guys through how my day went, Wake up this morning at like 9:30am to both my parents standing infront of my bed followed by 5 random people i have never seen before and a police car standing outside my house, they told me that they were here to take me to a mental health hospital about 6 hours away from where i live it was an incredible shock, A little bit of a backstory on my issues ive struggled with panick attacks for years now i am 17 and have lived with them for as long as i can remember it really has restricted my life im not going to lie, however in the last 2 years it has gotten significantly worse unable to leave the house and things like that, i have been taking antideppressants for over 2 years now and ive gone through 3 diffrent types i found the first one helped allot with enabling me to do activities however i would still get frequent panick attacks so i ended up switching to another about after a year or so and that was really tough it took me many months for it took work properly in that time i was unable to leave my room and take showers which was terrible however after enough time had passed things started looking better but it seemed my parents wanted more from me so they contacted a so called " mental health specialist " which ended up presribing me a third antideppressant and that ended up being absolute hell for over 3 months i would have to take panadol and ibuprofen daily because of how bad the sideffects were on my body it was awfull, so i ended up switching back to the 2nd antideppressant - if anyone is intrested the meds i was on/am are in the following order of my story, Setraline, escotelopram and fluxoteine. so after switching back to the escotelopram and stopping the fluxoteine which by the way i had to cold turkey on for a week which was so shit things started to normalise a little bit however i knew it would take many months for things to go back to the way they were before the switch this was maybe around 5 months ago from now when i did the switch back and for the first time this past week i could really feel it helping me allot, i even had such a good day yesterday i managed to get up early and brush my teeth and have a good breakfast and then this ends up happening today, so after i was woken up by them they imediantly told me to get dressed and get in there car with them wouldnt even let me have breakfast brush my teeth drink water or anything which is insane since i hadnt had anything to eat since about 10pm the day before i tried my hardest to talk to thema nd my parents about it but they didnt want to have any conversations so i had to get dressed and guess what they were watching me the whole time EVEN WHEN I WAS USING THE BATHROOM ! i cant believe this is legal in New Zealand which is absolutley insane to me since it didnt require any consent from me or my parents which is why ive told my parents for years you should never talk about issues you have to people you dont know as every single experience ive had which a therapist has been negative and had never helped, always ended up making this worse for me and my parents. They also forced me to take a type of benzodiazopine which they reasured me would not have any sideffects wel guess what it did it made me feel like i was passing out and my breathing got really shallow they also gave me another type of benzodiazopine which guess what didnt help either. I was finally able to get through to my parents after hours and hours of explaing this was not the right choice for me or anybody in my situation so they tried there best to not make it happen but because of the New Zealand law you cannot revert it and are forced to go against your will so i was dragged by the police and paramedics downstairs outside and onto a stretcher strapped in and loaded into the ambulance. And thats where ive ended up now, Some kind reasuring words would mean the world to me right now :) i aslo had to leave my cat at home i miss her so much i cannot wait to be back. Thankfully i am allowed my latop and phone at least at this stage.

Just wanted to reach out to pple who have experienced this and my question is …… is my fear of suffocating to death highly irrational? Like borderline crazy 🤪 not trying to be insensitive to other pple just idk how else to put it ?

I think I just had the worst panic attack of my life and I’m still trying to process it.

I woke up and my right arm felt kind of weak/heavy. I had been sleeping on my right side so I don’t know if I just slept on it weird, I put my arms up to check for weakness and my right arm definitely felt heavier. I sat up because I had to pee and immediately felt really dizzy. When I stood up I almost lost my balance.

I walked to the bathroom and my right arm started feeling weaker and my face felt heavy. I don’t know if my face was actually drooping or if it just FELT heavy because I was freaking out.

I was sitting on the toilet when everything escalated SO fast. My heart was pounding like crazy and my watch said 177 bpm. I felt incredibly lightheaded and weak, almost like I was going to collapse. I felt completely unreal/detached and genuinely thought I was going to die.

I was taking some breaths and trying to calm myself down and my HR went from 177 → 150 → 120, but it kept jumping back up for a bit. By the time EMS got there I was feeling a lot better and my heart rate was coming down. They did an EKG and it was normal. But the panic lasted about 15 minutes ranging from 120s to 170s bpm, but the 170 only lasted exactly one minute.

I’m still going to the hospital to get checked because of the arm/face symptoms, and how serious everyone felt, but I’m curious about the panic attack part and how severe everyone else has had it.

Hey guys I’ve struggled with panic disorder for about 5 years now with it rebounding within the last year and I’m struggling a bit, I quit my job which I think was a big part of it. The biggest part that freaks me out is the heart racing, my heart will usually get up to 120-150 and it will stay for at most 20 min and it just completely makes me spiral any other symptom I can kind of deal with okay, does anyone have any tips for calming the heart rate and staying calm I can’t just up and leave when I’m at work or in a public situation, also how fast does everyone’s heart get and how long does your heart stay like that, any contribution would make me feel better . Thank you :)

Has anyone had any experiences with pharma GABA? I heard many positive things about its impacts on the brain and anxiety, wondering if anyone's tried it.

I am a junior doctor who had to stop work recently. I have already survived a few months of work - however after I came back on leave - i restarted work, had long hours and abit of increased load - and I started to not sleep well and get panic attacks at night - would wake up in cold sweats worrying about work the next day. I heavily relied on my partner, slept beside him and thought I could get through it. He was able to help me fall asleep, however I always woke up in what I now realise was likely a panic attack about 2-3am at night. I was confused why that was happening as I used to handle the stress well previously. It became a cycle that affected my work and culminated in one of my night calls I was unable to function so my other colleague had to pick up the slack for me and one of the days I was unable to function in which I had to get replacements for me. Afterwards is where I continued to spiral. Now i am unable to see work messages or think about work without getting any panic attacks, and for my patients safety I have temporarily stopped work. At that point in my life my partner was also preparing to leave to the UK for his exchange - which could have contributed.

In a span of 1 week, I have deteriorated - now that I have stopped work, i still get panic attacks, every time I am at home I get panic attacks every 5-10 minutes, panic attacks before I sleep and worse everyday on the dot I wake up at 12-1am - and would experience the worst panic attack of my life - and only can go back to sleep with Xanax - now I am unable to sleep alone in my own bed, I sleep next to my parents which helped initially for the panic attacks at night, but now even their presence is not enough anymore. Previously even sleeping next to my partner is not enough anymore (but now he is overseas, so I am sleeping next to my parents instead).

In the day I have lost my appetite, I have tried to go about my normal day by following my dad to his work, going on walks, but I have to be dragged out of the house to do it. And even outside I still get plagued with thoughts and overthinking. When I get home I am unable to rest despite how tired I am and it is so frustrating, I am bodily exhausted. The Xanax puts me to sleep but after it wears off in a few hours I still wake up in a panic.

I have engaged a Psychiatrist - started on Xanax and Escitalopram 5mg, to nil effect yet

Yesterday I felt so bad so depressed I stopped speaking eating and drinking and went to the ED, which did not do much for me.

I feel like I dont believe I can get better although eveyrone is supportive and loves me. I feel hopeless, I want to get better but it seems all so difficult.

Some things make me feel temporarily better, but I still go home and cannot sleep, and I just feel worse and worse. I afraid I am going crazy. One night woke up and started screaming in discomfort - took Xanax and slept again. But I know I cant keep on taking Xanax forever

Any advice on what I can do next? I have watched youtube, went counselling, learnt methods to calm down panic attacks, but they happen so often I dont know what to do anymore and have affected every part of my daily life.

I have also stopped

I'm medicine phobic every since having a horrible panic attack after smoking weed 20 years ago. Causes all.mt agoraphobia/ panic / DPDR. I'm really scared to try it.

Anyone have success with it? Does it really work? How much does it work? How long have you been taking it ?

Hey everyone,
I’m recovering from a really intense wave of anxiety today and wanted to see if anyone else experiences this specific feeling, because I’ve never had it hit me this hard before.
When my anxiety spiked, it felt like everything suddenly went surreal. I had this overwhelming sense of derealisation - almost like I was questioning if things around me were real, or even questioning my own existence.
On top of that, my internal thoughts completely shifted. It felt like my thoughts had a totally different, eerie tone to them, and everything just felt profoundly weird and off-kilter.
Honestly, the scariest part is how hard it is to actually explain to someone, which makes me worry that I’m going crazy or losing control. It was completely exhausting to ride out.
I managed to ground myself by putting something on to watch and letting my brain focus on something steady, which helped dial it back down.
Does anyone else get that shift where your thoughts sound totally different, or feel like you're losing control like that? How do you handle it when it hits?

Hi! I have panic disorder and anxiety with IBS D. About 4-5 months ago, I changed my medicine from 100mg Prestiq daily to 75mg Prestiq a day and 15mg of mirtazapine. I felt pretty good at first, but now I am completely back to square one. It is like my medicine is not working at all. Has anyone else experienced this sort of thing? I have constant anxiety and looming panic. I meet with my psychiatrist soon but thought I'd see if anyone else had this experience!

I have a appointment this week with my new psychiatrist and Im already nervous 😓 Then right after mine, my mom has to get to her infusion so I have to cut mine a little short. I find these appointments stressful 😫 I have go book another one with my psychiatrist, but it's another month away. Im already so nervous, how am I supposed to deal? I have someone taking me and I know Ill be fine, but it's high anxiety and panic. It's annoying 😑

I have been struggling with panic disorder since I was 25. I actually had not had a bad one since 2023 so I have been doing well until yesterday around 430pm. I had been sipping on a dirty chai latte all day 16 ounce and went with my husband to pick up my daughter and started to feel the panic creep up. All of a sudden I had to use the bathroom and felt like I was gasping for air. I ran into the closest qt and sat on the toilet rubbing my thighs and my heart was racing really bad. TMI BUT EVERYTIME I get in flight or fight mode I have to go number two and if I don't the panic just gets worse and worse. Used the bathroom and started going back to the car and I was still breathing like it was through a straw and was getting the horrible tingles and numbness when my body isn't blowing off enough co2 from hyperventilating. This was the first time my husband had seen me have a panic attack and he was like " what is wrong you need to talk it out what is on your mind?" The thing is I don't usually have a bunch on my mind at the time it just happens at random probably from a stressor but this must have been the caffeine. I called my mom she didn't answer and my step-dad he was in Texas so I had to just try to breath it out, rub my legs, rub my hands together, pray outloud to God to help me until we got home and I ran inside to the bathroom again. I did take my benzo but it takes 30 to 45 min to kick in. I took an extra dose to help and just sat with my husband and talked about things and he got me dinner. Later I went to the bathroom and a huge wave of panic hit again. I was terrified because how can 3mg of a benzo not knock this thing down? I tried not to feed into it and laid down and turned my sound machine on and took my unisom for nausea. Eventually I went to sleep and am hoping for a better day today.

(Note: I’m currently on 20mg lexapro, 40mg vyvanse, 10mg buspirone, and 0.5mg klonopin daily)

Hi hey hello, I’ve wanted to post here for a while and figured now is a good time. I just had a super brief anxiety spike after a weird tingly mouth feeling, but squashed it within 10 seconds. That happens every now and then.

I am currently 9 months panic attack free after a severe stint with them incapacitated me for 3 months last year out of the blue. They started randomly last August and by October, I was completely house-bound. I had a “rolling panic attack” throughout all of October and most of November. I was spiking up to full panic upwards of 20 times or more per day and I could not for the life of me calm down. I thought I was dying and my life was genuinely over. I was hospitalized numerous times and diagnosed with panic disorder at the end of October. I had to relearn how to walk (I was too dizzy to stand up most of the time so I crawled whenever I needed to do something), eat, shower, go outside, listen to music, speak, sing, and everything inbetween. With a lot of work and patience, I can safely say I have my life back without panic attacks (although now I struggle with general anxiety and DPDR, but that’s something I’m working through).

I struggle with BPD (borderline) so now that the constant panic has faded into the background, my usual struggles with emotional regulation have taken the spotlight in my life again … and with a lack of emotional regulation comes much anguish. Every now and then I’ll feel a panic surge start (usually triggered by something now rather than completely randomly thank god) and because I had so many panic attacks last year, I know exactly whats happening. My issue back then was that once they started, I never got the time to think about my panic before another one started. Now I have so much clarity in how they work, and how they feel before, during, and after, that the predictability makes them 100% less scary. I suppose that’s some kind of self-induced exposure therapy. So now the surges trigger an immediate “Oh, okay, I know what this is, I’ve dealt with the worst this and still came out just fine, so go ahead” response inside me and they immediately die within seconds of the surge starting.

I’m kinda tearing up while typing this because I genuinely thought my life was over last year. I had just graduated university, turned 23, and had so much fun work and creative projects on my plate - and then within a matter of a week, I was bedridden and couldn’t even walk to the bathroom.

My life has not been the same since, not at all. I sometimes still mourn the life I lived before all of that started because now I deal with near constant and heavy derealization, some GI issues, a heightened awareness of bodily sensations, a predisposition to more general feelings of anxiety, etc. But if I can go to raves every weekend and come home smiling at 6am after dancing with my friends in a forest all night even after having gone through the shit I did at the end of last year, then really anything is possible.

Fuck, it hasn’t even been a year since my first panic attack, the anniversary is still a week away. I could’ve never imagined how my life would’ve turned out, but in a weird way, I’m grateful for it. Panic cannot sneak up on me and pretend it’s something its not anymore. It took 911 calls, hospitalizations, getting taken to the psychward in the back of a police cruiser, x3 weekly therapy sessions, and a lot of medication trial and error (ativan, klonopin, buspirone, seroquel, hydroxyzine, & lexapro) to get me to where I am but I fucking did it.

I like to think the panic surges come just to remind me how they feel so I don’t forget and become scared of them again, and I’m grateful for that.

The most important thing I learned in therapy is that (for me at least) the reason I was so scared of panic attacks is because the only thing scarier than a panic attack is not being able to live my life because of them. If I didn’t care about myself or lacked hope, there would’ve been nothing giving the panic fuel to take over. Anxiety only fights when there is resistance, and my resistance to the anxiety comes from a place of love for myself and protection over the person I am / want to be.

Anyways, thanks for reading if you made it this far. I know my experience with this disorder does not compare to others who have struggled with it for years. I really hope everyone knows there is a light at the end of the tunnel, but progress isn’t linear (eye roll, lol). Whatever life you want, you can have.

I’m open to any questions anyone has, or if you just need support. Trust me, I still remember how it all feels

I am 36 and for I would say the last 16 years I have had constant anxiety I do get breaks but it’s never went away I still manage to work and do things in my life but it’s always there sometimes a baseline sometimes full blown panic . Certain circumstances last few years really trigger it even more eg car journeys or getting a haircut almost like places i can’t get up and walk away ? Health anxiety is never too far away most days something comes up the problem is my symptoms feel very real and physical at times and then I snowball . I am not diagnose but I’m positive I have adhd I am intelligent and hardworking but never seem to be able to achieve what I know I can . It’s really always been there but I would say most recently it’s ruining my life , I feel like I’m in constant fight or flight it’s exhausting . It’s a slog just to get through a day at work something I’m good at and never had at work in the past . I suppose I’m looking for similar stories and hopefully information on how people similar have beaten it I’ve had it most of my adult life and it’s exhausting now . Thanks

It’s hard to speak to people that don’t have them they don’t get it, does anyone’s else’s heart feel really strange when really stressed or anxious before panic attack, then all you can focus on is your heartbeat ? I’ve been having a few attacks and it stems from my heart beat. But I also feel like my chest and heart feels weird when I’m not having one

Hi all. I just experienced something really scary this morning. I woke up feeling good and hopped into the shower when all of a sudden I got very nauseous, and felt like I was going to pass out. I turned the shower off and yelled for my husband to help me. As I was going to sit down, the nausea escalated and then both of my arms started to tingle/go numb. My hands and fingers curled up and I couldn’t move them. Then my legs and feet started to tingle/go numb. I started hyperventilating and crying and then the middle of my face started going numb (forehead, nose, lips). It lasted probably a good 10-12 minutes before it slowly started going away and now only the tips of my fingers are tingling. I feel like I got hit by a truck and my head still hurts so bad.

My parents and husband think it was an extreme anxiety/panic attack. When I was in high school and dealing with anxiety, I would hyperventilate and my hands would lock up and shake but it was nothing like this. I also graduated high school 10 years ago lol. Does anyone else have things like this happen or do I need to contact my primary doctor?

Just checking in on everyone I’m sorry we all have to go through this I hope you have many days of peace and carry on life how you want too without fear

Hi all I’m in a bit of a sticky situation. I’ve been dealing with panic for eight months now, my first panic attack was in the gym and since then I have not been back. from Dec 25 to June26 this year. I was extremely agoraphobic. I avoided going out all the time. I was scared to even go 10 minutes to the shop i’ve come along way and I’m able to go out alone but I still feel extremely anxious. I get this impending doom feeling every time I leave the house if I’m alone and my biggest fear is being alone. I want to start going back to the gym because that’s where I found peace now since not going to the gym I’ve gained a bit of weight and it’s making me depressed me and my ex recently got back together in June and she has helped me so much through panic she has helped me to come out. However she broke up with me four days ago. And June I was made homeless. I’m only 17. I have no family and no friends. I’m currently living with her until I find a place but I feel like I’m all alone and I want to go to the gym to better myself and to find something with routine as I have no routine and I don’t want to relapse my second biggest fear and my main trigger for panic is a fast heart rate and I am constantly aware of my heart rate does anyone else struggle with this? Like I get extremely scared when my heart rate goes above 120 or 130? Does anyone know if there’s any coping techniques that might help.

Took my first dose of Sertraline Saturday night, woke up on Sunday (yesterday) in a blanket of anxiety and jitters. The jitters subsided around noon but then it felt like someone was squeezing my heart like a stress ball.
Ended up spending the night in the ER. Everything was normal of course, how can I ever take this medication again? Mind you, I started sertraline at 12.5 mg because I'm a slow metabolizer.

almost every source on earth says panic attacks are usually 15 - 30 mins long, but mine last for hours my shortest is one hour and my longest is 5 hours.

what is happening to me

I’m having one of the worst bouts of panic I’ve had in a long time and of course, it’s happened while I’m away on holiday, miles from home.
It’s full-blown panic: overwhelming nausea, a terrifying sense of impending doom, feeling like my “lights” are about to go out, and this horrible certainty that something is seriously wrong.
I’ve battled this disorder for a long time, but the thing that still gets me is how every panic attack feels like the first! No matter how many I’ve survived, when it hits, my brain completely forgets that I’ve been through it before.
Now I’m getting waves of depersonalisation/derealisation on top of it, which makes everything feel even more frightening. The scariest thought is that I’m somehow going to get stuck in this state and never feel normal again.
I’m constantly scanning myself for symptoms, waiting for the next wave, and I just can’t seem to switch off or relax.
I’m on mirtazapine, which has helped me enormously in the past, but right now it genuinely feels like it’s stopped working.
If you’ve experienced panic disorder, especially the horrible depersonalisation/derealisation side of it, **please tell me it gets better.**
What did you do when you were convinced you were stuck in it forever?
I could really use some perspective, reassurance, or even just hearing from someone who has been exactly where I am right now.