I am unable to tolerate ANY of the SSRI’s, or older tricyclics, and rely solely on Xanax during the day and Klonepin at night. Klonepin does next to nothing, and I really render it useless. However, since I’ve been on it for so many years, I am reluctant to just cease taking it.

My attack today lasted about 2 1/2 hours. I am about a 6 on the 10 scale at the moment, and hoping that I can get myself under control. I really despise the 2-3 day attacks.

Happy to have found your site! Have spent the last several hours perusing, and not that it’s “nice” to know that others are/have suffering like myself, sometimes it is just reassuring.

Thanks, and God bless all of the sufferers/suffering.

I’m sorry to hear that you experienced this “event”. It’s definitely not fun; very scary indeed! If in fact you did experience a panic attack (as opposed to some other medical condition), then I think the first thing to do is actually what you have just done: reach out, know that you aren’t alone in this, and try to come to an understanding of what a panic attack really is and is not.

First things to come to terms with: you aren’t dying, this thing is not going to kill you, you aren’t having a heart attack, etc. this is so much easier to write than to do in practice (I know). Mentally/emotionally all of your instincts are telling you (screaming at you) that you are in extreme danger! But you look about and there is no danger. Your brain has triggered a fight-or-flight reaction when there actually isn’t one (physically at least). In doing that, it dumps a variety of chemicals into the body, changes your heart rate so it beats faster, blood pressure, digestive system, eye sight and other sensory systems, all done for the #1 purpose of keeping you alive from danger (ie run, think, and see as best as you can so that you can get away from this lion before it eats you :-). It’s a bit weird that the thing that is meant to keep us alive is, in the case, making us feel like we are going to die!

For me, understanding this helped me to trust that I really wasn’t going to die, but that was/is a very hard thing to do at the time that it is happening.

The second thing to do is to not ignore that this has happened and do something now. The longer it goes on and the more panic attacks you experience, the more work it takes to stop them and “undo” the effects.

As for the question “why is this happening to me?”, there are many different reasons, many of which are discussed in this site. There are also many good books on this subject. Of course, talking to a medical professional (in this case, a psychiatrist ) would be something you should do if you have an ability to do that.

There are also other questions I would have for you which I wouldn’t want to discuss publically on this blog. If you wish to discuss in private, you can contact Mike (the owner of this site) and he will give you my email address.

Take care,
Dave

Glad that you found some of that info useful. Please let us know how things are going and how CBT works for you.

Take care,
Dave

Hi I first suffered a panic attack 11 years ago and after about 6 or 7 years managed to get back to a normal life but in the last year or so the attacks have come back to haunt me and are getting worse. I have been on medication for a number of years and was very negative about any other method which I think was a complete mistake by myself. I’m going to give CBT a go and do the things that I need to do to help de- stress me (as you say cut the alcohol etc). I really hope it works cause I know once you get on a postive roll then step by step life can get much better. Thank you for sharing your experiences – its most encouraging. Barry

All I can say is Thanks and Amen. :-)

Dave