Question:
I've had panic attacks for about a year
now. Was just wondering if I am the only one that feels their is
really something physically wrong with them, even if the doctors
say it is anxiety. I feel they haven't done enough testing. They
are taking my age and family history and basing all their results
on that. I have the high blood pressure and pulse, nausea, sweating,
the whole 9 yards. I've had the EKG, halter monitor and ultrasound.
Is it common to feel this way about their diagnosis?
How do I overcome this. I feel so stupid going to the ER (my 2nd
trip now in the last year) and it being a panic attack.
When I have one I usually pop a xanax, but it is usually too late to
prevent it from coming. I've already changed jobs and they keep coming.
I can't really see any stress that brings them on. I'm really getting
tired of this though. It ruined my whole Saturday afternoon. Arg!!
This is so frustrating. Please email me any advice since I don't get to
read the group as much as I used to.
Answer:
I feel the same way you do. However, I do have periods of a week to two weeks
of no symptoms, and then for absolutely no reason that I can determine, I get
lightheaded, then I start to worry, then comes the anxiety, and a possible
panic attack.
Sometimes I think we all have a disease or illness (besides panic disorder)
that has been undiagnosed simply because know one knows what causes this. I
think that the twitching of my small muscles is due to an unkown, undiagnosed
nerve disorder which I started to worry about, which then gave me chest in my
chest (blocked arteries), about which I worried, which caused something else,
ad nauseum and infinitum. I've gotten to the point where I am almost
embarrassed to see my doctor, because I think when she see's me coming she'll
"dis" what I tell her and write it off as a mental panic problem.
I didn't have anxiety/panic until about a year ago - I don't know what brought
it on, but I hate it as I'm sure we all do.
You might want to ask your doctor about taking ativan when you start to feel
anxious (instead of letting it go on too long and growing into a full blown
panic). I've read on this newsgroup that xanax is extremely effective for
stopping panic very quickly.
Anyhow, I wanted to let you know I feel very much like you do when it comes to
the complexities of this disorder and the whole lack of a complete set of
tests to rule out anything else. It's like the doctors just chalk certain
symptoms to stress. Everything is caused by stress? It's scary to think that
you could have something wrong and no one will take you seriously enough to
check things out.
It's hard to trust your doctor's dx when you're having physical symptoms. Not
only do I have physical symptoms, I have abnormal labs. I have chronic anemia.
Anemia symptoms are almost the same as PD, ie, heart palpitations, shortness
of breath, fatigue, dizziness.... Would I be more active and involved if I
weren't anemic? Or do I really have a panic disorder? When a person has a
chronic health problem, this can bring on depression and anxiety; or if a
person had a serious surgery, this can bring on depression and anxiety. Many
people will avoid crowds when they have health problems. Wouldn't you avoid a
crowd if you thought you were going to have a seizure right there in front of
everyone? Wouldn't you avoid a crowd if you thought you were going to have use
the bathroom every 10-30 minutes? If you get heart palpitations, when you're
in a crowd or away from home, was it related to over exertion or PD?
Who knows? What if your psych doc and your internal med doc disagree about
what's causing your symptoms? I agreed with my shrink cause the klonopin works
for my anxiety and decreases my fears. My internal med doc gave me lopressor
for my heart palpitations and it does relieve the heart palpitations; it
doesn't relieve the anxiety.
Since I was a young child, I've had physical health problems, and abnormal labs
that the doctors couldn't find the answer for. I remember them keeping me
overnight (more than once) for observation because they thought that I had
appendicitis. I had all the symptoms for appendicitis. Today, I still have
my appendix and they just call my bowel problems IBS/IBD.
Klonopin works for my anxiety, so I must have PD. The AD's don't work for me;
does this mean I'm not depressed? The doctors here in town will be trying a
new drug that works on "substance P", or something like that; it's supposed to
work differently then all other AD's. They're looking for "subjects" to try
this med on....
