Panic disorder

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Anyone else struggle with this? I feel stressed out every day, even with a good amount of medication (100 mg of sertraline, 0.5 mg of clonazepam in the morning and 100 mg of trazodone, 0.5 mg of clonazepam at night). I'm not sure if the medicine needs increasing, but out of no where sometimes my heart will start racing really fast, I get sick, sweaty, have worrying thoughts and fear of losing control. The thing is though, I've never had a panic attack with chest pain at all, I've had stress pains that mimic chest pain and pain everywhere else, but never during an attack.

Sorry for venting, just had a moderate panic attack and had to take a lorazepam to calm me down a bit more. I just worry about everything, like every move I make, thoughts I think, thing I say, about my interests, my parents and my health in general.

Yeah, suffered from panic disorder for almost 30 years. Been to the ER a number of times thinking I was having a heart attack even though there actually is no pain just a 'tightness'. Also suffer from Clinical depression and Anxiety disorder but the panic is the worse because it sneaks up on you.

Yeah, I find most of my panic attacks come literally out of nowhere.

Like I was having a fun time playing a video game (Shadow of Mordor, don't know why I'm being so specific yet I am about everything though, guess that's why) and all of a sudden my heart started racing and I got all panicky. I think it's just that the stress builds up over time and hits you when you least expect it. I'm hoping if I increase my medications the panic attacks will be basically all gone. I'd rather have a slight "buzz" and "spacey" feeling than feeling I'm going crazy and stressed out, if that makes sense.

I wish you luck with your meds. For me, I have yet to find anything that will make my panic attacks go away. Probably the closest I ever came was doing deep, slow breathing but that was AFTER the attack began. It does seem to bring it to a more manageable place. Sometimes an ice pack on the back of my neck for a few minutes seems to help (dont know why), but once again, that's after the attack has started. Basically, I just ride it out.

The way I see it sometimes is if that I'm okay a couple hours after having the panic attack and I haven't fainted, had any severe pains or dizzy spells, I'm good. Listening to my audio Bible books helps too, plus watching videos of dogs and cats and listening to calming video game music (mostly orchestral stuff and chiptune stuff)

I used to get panic attacks, and several were triggered by reading a book.

I read somewhere a long time ago that a panic attack can come on during a change in one's conscious state. This made sense as I was reading a book and as soon as I "settled in" to reading the book, getting absorbed in what I was reading, and my eyes kind of zoned-in on the words, BAM the panic attack would hit.

I wonder if the same thing is happening to you when playing the video games.

Like you, I had a lot of stress in my life and was anxious in general. The panic attacks involved feeling dizzy and lightheaded, tingly in my extremities, heart racing, thoughts racing.

I think being "relaxed" was an unusual state and made me feel unsure. Once I realized what was happening, I could accept the panic attack as "oh, I must be getting relaxed." This caused those particular types of panic attacks to lessen in severity and then finally go away as I got used to the "change in consciousness" as I moved into a state of relaxation. (I really have had to teach myself how to be relaxed, and I am still working on it.)

I have had other panic attacks, too, but they were not brought on out of nowhere by doing something relaxing.

Yes, I have panic attacks almost every day. I didn't always, but it's been bad for the last several years. I mostly have them in the morning when I'm getting ready to go out to my work, but I kind of think those ones have a good reason, as I find my work situation is often stressful and less predictable than I want it to be.

But I have other panic attacks that come out of nowhere for no reason, like you say, and can happen even when I'm relaxing at home and even in the middle of enjoying something supposedly relaxing. Same symptoms as yours. Suddenly I feel an adrenaline rush but not a fun one, a scary one, feel like I'm panicking (literally), breathing faster and harder, heart rate seems to be accelerated, feeling of fear and "fight or flight" sensation, high anxiety that is very acute, I start pacing around trying to control my fast breathing and calm down. It's a horrible sensation. Then it fades almost as fast as it arrived.

I'm not on any medication as I have never yet taken this problem to a doctor. I'm just kind of living with it at them moment. But they are horrible. And they come out of the blue. I would say mine are mostly "mild" -- meaning they only last a few minutes, don't hurt my chest, and although while I'm having them they feel like hell, the hell is over soon. But the first one I ever had was a HUGE one. It lasted for hours and started to give me pains in my chest so that I did feel I might be having a heart attack.

^ This is really interesting, do you remember where you learned that? Thanks for sharing it.

It has to do with dissociation.

Apparently, there are also things called dissociative seizures which are not the same as panic attacks, but can have some similar triggers and have some similar strategies for learning to avoid them.

I found this website, which seems helpful: http://www.neurosymptoms.org/#/attack-t ... 4533276198

The website specifically says that when our bodies are in a relaxed state, we are more prone to an attack.

I know that I have had moments of "dissociation" (I don't think I have an overall dissociative personality, but I wonder how many of us here on WP tend to dissociate.) I also know that this has happened when I have read, because when reading I enter the world of the book and get a little detached from physical reality. It makes sense to me that a video game could bring about the same kind of thing.

I had a panic attack I think. My friends were pressuring me to go to a crowded bar with them, and I tried making excuses as to why I couldn't go. I felt lightheaded, and I lost all motor control and collapses to the ground. It felt like I was dying. Afterwards my heart was beating very fast. This only happens when I feel I'm being cornered

I thought I had it but my panic attacks were triggered by my generalized anxiety & getting on Buspar stopped me from getting panic attacks.