I think i've had a few, but i'm not 100% sure they were panic attacks.
For some reason they have all happened when i'm doing something sporty!
Apologies for the length of this. Any thoughts anyone could give me with items raised below would be appreciated.
First one was on a running track. Had just run 100m in my fastest ever time, smashed my personal best by a huge mark as had only just been taught some proper technique. When i finished i had an oxygen debt as is to be expected, but my heart wouldn't slow down and neither would my breathing. After a few minutes i realised something was wrong and that's when everything started getting worse. I was breathing a lot but felt like there was no oxygen in my body, then i became dizzy and had to sit/lay down. The breathing may have been hyperventilation but i don't remember it being stupidly fast, i just remember doing everything the way i normally do things and my body not returning to normal, which started scaring me. It took about 45 minutes to get back to normal.
The next one got me hospitalized for a couple of hours. I was at the gym and had just finished a pretty normal session. I had eaten the same food I normally ate before i trained, drunk water throughout the session, had generally been sensible and not gone overboard, and had done things the same as always and pushed myself a little, but certainly not to anything i couldn't handle. Walking back to the changing room i started feeling a little dizzy and remember thinking about this being odd. Once i got back into the changing room things went from bad to worse. I realised something was wrong and asked someone to get help for me. My breathing was pretty much fine but my body started cramping up. After about another minute my entire body had severe pins and needles and i couldn't move anywhere. I was in severe pain. My body felt like it was being crushed, especially my hands which started to (hard to describe) lock up completely and felt like they were being crushed from within. After a couple of minutes more help came. I was given a mars bar and once i managed to get some of it inside me things eased off, as if this was the catalyst. I was wrapped up warmly, walked to an ambulance and taken to hospital to be checked up. The weird thing when i got tested and diabetes was completely ruled out. The doctors thought i must be unfit but when they checked my heart rate and blood pressure they found i was in great condition. Nobody had an answer for me and soon enough i was deemed as fine and the incident seen as a one off and i was off on my way again. Incidently, my hands hurt for 3 weeks afterwards but everything else stopped hurting after only a day or so.
The last one was 2 days ago. I've been kickboxing for a few months and have recently moved on to full contact. Everyone I spar against is much better then me, and pretty much everyone is also bigger then me aswell which doesn't help things. On the plus side everyone i spar with doesn't take advantage of me, they all ease up on compared to what they do against eachother and they all give me help and advice too which is cool. Anyway, I was sparing and was being outclassed as usual, but not being battered and things started feeling weird. I was tired as it was a draining session and I was taking a lot of shots, though none had any power in them. Normally i get a little dazed for a split second with these shots but suddenly every shot was really disorientating me and i started getting really scared. I couldn't even defend myself to anywhere near my normal poor standards, instead my guard became almost non existant and all i could do was back off from everything because i just couldn't think straight. I regained my composure and tried to attack back but all i could do was move backwards with my guard open taking hit after hit. The weird thing was that i started becoming very scared and i even felt myself crying. This was right at the end of the session and so when i finally couldn't take anymore and had to sit down things finished 30 seconds after. I calmed myself down and regulated my breathing to stop any problems and everything felt fairly normal again. I decided to talk to my main instructor to tell him about it so that he could help and look after me in the future but he was busy. I waited patiently, feeling a little weird but pretty much back to normal. After about 5 minutes he was able to talk with me. I started talking to him and managed to tell him a couple of things but before i could say much i suddenly started crying softly, but it was so forceful that i couldn't stop it. He was really nice (he's always really friendly and a nice guy) and tried to help me. The really weird thing was that after i managed to stop crying i couldn't explain why i was even crying. I had calmed down after everything that had happened but when i finally went to talk about evrything it was like all of my emotions all poured out at once.
Once again, big apology for the big post, i just needed to get things off my mind.
Did I have panic attacks? Were they anxiety attacks? Or was it something else completely?
Thanks in advance for any thoughts.
p.s. sorry if it turns out i hijack the thread, not my intention
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The more I learn, the more I realise, the less I know!
09 Sep 2007, 8:54 pm
