thought i was improving but...

[averica]

hi..a few months ago i started having panic attacks out of the blue at age 42.ive always been an anxious person but its never manifested itself in that way.after a while things seemed to improve...however today in the grocery store i could feel an attack coming.i admit i was thinking about something stressful,but ive done that countless times with no problem.the heart sped up and hurt a little..dizzy...i steeled myself and it passed..but for a second i had visions of myself dropping my basket and getting the hell out of the store.
my question is..does this **** ever go away or am i destined to deal with it the rest of my life?
im not on any meds,btw,although she did give me ativan altho ive only used it twice.

[Borninps]

Having panic disorder in my opinion, is the worst malady that one can have.....(except cancer of course).  I am 64 and have had it since my teens.  My mother passed it to me, my sister, and now my eldest sister (she's 80) just got it.   I wont go into the mental HELL that I  have been through, but Paxil stopped them cold.   I was on Pamelor which was great until it wasn't, prozac was eh........I was SO TERRIFIED every time i took a new med.......I cannot even explain the terror as I swallowed a NEW pill.   The first week of Paxil (Paroxetine) was tough, dizzy and a bit of nausea, as well as daytime sleepiness, which felt great.....I went from insomnia (which has come back ugh) to napping every day.   Slowly, the paxil was THE ONE, along with xanax at night and I was finally feeling the anxiety go away.   THAT WAS 25 YEARS AGO......STILL ON PAXIL (30mgs now) and half mg of klonopin which isn't doing much anymore, but i've been on it sooooooooo long.......I have started gummies, with the paxil AND the klonopin (and a Margarita every afternoon/evening_) and I STILL CAN'T FALL ASLEEP............................................I lay there till about 4 a.m. THEN, I finally fall asleep and don't wake up until 1:00pm in the afternoon.   I am too scared to try Benadryl, mixed with Melatonin, my daughter can take that when she's out of xanax and it works for her, but i'm too afraid the Benadryl will give me a racing heart............I have had to leave markets MANY TIMES until I got onto the Paxil.........it has stopped my panic attacks.......I just need to call my psychiatrist and talk with him........you can go for years withou a panic attack (on no meds) and then all of a sudden, it will come back..........it's a HORRIBLE Mental illness, BUT.........It seems to strike super social, intelligent, funny people......when they are resting......or not even thinking about anything stressful.    Everyones brain will react differently to different meds.  The thing that sucks THE MOST IS, WE HAVE TO BE THE GUINEA PIGS FOR ALL OF THE MEDS OUT THERE......................................................UGH..........AND THAT IS THE SCARIEST PART FOR ME.......But I have GOT to get rid of the insomnia.........it's my only ESCAPE........I know you all will understand what I'm talking about....xoxoxoxoxo God Bless all of you

[Paxiled]

Not sure what you are saying.  Are you saying the panic attacks have returned and the Paxil isn't working anymore?  Or are you complaining you have a new problem now, which is insomnia?  Also, anxiety attacks can affect anyone, and since we don't actually have a way to measure intelligence, there is not way to know if anxiety more affects intelligent funny people.  (Intelligence tests don't measure intelligence, they measure what the people who write them know).  Intelligence is the ability to learn, but whether or not someone learns can be attributed to so many different factors that, again, there is just no objective way to measure intelligence.  My sister got it and I got it, and you couldn't find two more different people.  Anyone can get it, and anyone can also not get it.  Some day we can all hope somebody discovers the why of it and then we might be better able to cure it, but the fact remains, medication we have today cures nothing.  Only therapy has been proven to be a cure, and only for a percentage of the people who try it, but meds just tamp down the symptoms and eventually for most people they just poop out and then we're faced with the nightmare of trying to stop taking the stuff if we've been on it for a long time, as you have.  Do talk to your psychiatrist, but if it has pooped out, you might have to increase the dosage (the clonazepam you're just addicted to -- if you miss a dose, you'll notice, but my experience matches yours, it never helped much and I wish I had never been put on it daily).  As for benadryl, as with all meds, it will affect different people differently, but it is used for sleep because for almost everyone who takes it they get tired unless they take it regularly and get used to it.  It's an unwanted side effect, and the manufacturer would have been much happier if it didn't make people so tired, but they made lemonade out of lemons and marketed it illegally for sleep because of that side effect.  I'm not sure why it would cause you to have a racing heart, but piling up meds can be a problem so do again talk to your psychiatrist.  I do think, however, that you can safely try melatonin.  While taking it along with an antidepressant does kind of double up the effect on melatonin (ssris like Paxil work on serotonin, and serotonin manufactures melatonin), melatonin is one of the safest things we can take.  Just know that small doses work better than large ones, so you don't need to take much.  Also know that age by itself can cause sleep problems.  I would ask, how active are you?  Do you do enough activity in a day, including exercise, to make you tired?  Also, my experience with Paxil was that although it also sedated me, at the same time it changed my personality and made me more aggressive and angry and also caused me to start thinking obsessively before falling asleep.  Don't know if that's happening to you, but I really noticed it when I stopped working at a very physically demanding job and switched to writing full time.  Every time I tried to go to sleep, my brain on Paxil would start getting all kinds of writing ideas that I hadn't had before trying to sleep.  It was that obsessive thinking.  These side effects can be dealt with sometimes by knowing they are there and working around them, assuming the Paxil is still working for you.  It never worked nearly as well for me.  If you have to stop taking it, make sure your psychiatrist knows how to do that really really well.  It's a very tough one relatively speaking to stop taking.  If it's still working, stay on it and try to fix the insomnia a different way.  But given you are actually sleeping, just not when you'd like to, you don't really have insomnia, you really have a cycle problem, which again is either due to you just not doing enough to get tired out or your Circadian rhythm got whacked and melatonin can be really good for that without needing to take the benadryl too.  About 1mg is a good place to start, sublingually.  Peace.

[mammo]

I hear ya on the medication.  Unfortunately for some, it's the only answer.  But people live normal, productive lives while on the medication, as I have.  But if you can beat the panic attacks on your own, that would be greta!  Good luck and take care....

[averica]

yea..i just hate the idea of being medicated all the time...

[mammo]

Panic attacks can and do come out of the blue for no apparent reason.  It's difficult to beat them on your own, but some say you can.  Understanding what is happening during a "panic attack" may help.  You know the "fight or flight" feeling one gets when something is about to happen?  Well, for some reason your brain senses this is needed and floods your body with adrenaline.  Because you don't have a need for it, your body doesn't know what to do with all this adrenaline, and as a result...panic attack.  The best thing to do is get physically and mentally busy, giving the adrenaline something to work on.  Talk yourself down by telling yourself this is a normal reaction just happening at the wrong time. There are good medications for this also.  I hope you can beat them on your own, but have not known anyone who could.  Take care....

[averica]

well,i work out all the time..have been for about 20 years.
funny you mention hormones tho...they put me on testosterone therapy a month or so before i started having issues...im thinking it screwed up the balance in my body somehow and is the cause...altho ive been off it for several months now....who knows..

[alliebaby]

i can relate to your experience, i too started w/ anxiety out of the blue when i was 43. started w/ not sleeping one night, which is not unusual, but for some reason i started w/ the what if i don't sleep again tonite etc, and as a result i didn't sleep for over a week. then started w/ fear, what if's thinking, panic, and was lucky that i was just substitute teaching for a job. i couldn't eat and felt like i was in a crashing plane when i was just sitting in front of the tv. aghhh. thank god i had a supportive husband, i held on to him some night for dear life. i wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy ha. i confided in my gynecologist and saw a shrink right after. i was prescribed klonopin to take as needed, small dose. it lasts longer in your system. it helped alot. i finally came out of it after 3 months. i too am an anxious person, an overreactor. i have experienced minor spells over the last 6yrs. i go to shrink, practice skills learrned to deal w/ it and take the klonopin if necessary. seek help it works, exercise, and take the adivan or ask about klonopin. breathe through the dizziness and racing heart. I honestly think hormones played a factor in my experience, who knows. hang in there it will get better.