Suffering with panic disorder!

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I am an Aspie....who has been suffering through panic disorder for a year or two. It's just getting worse despite the medicine and therapy I've been given. I feel so hopeless but not suicidal. I guess just having this so long and so bad, I'm getting more and more scared where it's going. Is there anyone out there who is suffering from any kind of anxiety disorder and has AS? I just feel so alone in this....

You are not alone in this. DX'd panic disorder here.

Sucks. Meds can help. Meditation can help. Pleasure can help. Peace and harmony can help.

Not actually being in potentially catastrophic situations is good, if you can swing it.

Breathe.

It's going to be OK.

Yup. GAD, which very easily escalates into panic attacks and shutdowns/meltdowns under any additional stress.

I haven't had a full blown panic attack in a while, but I do sympathize. Anxiety is still a constant for me, but medication does help. I hope for the best, and expect the worst because the worst has blindsided me one time to many.

Thanks guys. It's so good to not be alone. And it's so nice to have people who understand. I really hope I find the solution.

Yes! I have the most severe anxiety.
What exactly causes the anxiety for you? Is there anything specific, or is it a general thing (or both haha)?

I hope you find the right coping methods for yourself!

super high anxiety can be unbearable It is so hard to focus on anything except the jolting mindnumbig fear. I saw a hypnotherapist once who specialized in mindfulness techniques and i found that it helped considerably. you are definitely not alone. I hope it improves for you

I used to have panic attacks so badly that I would end up at the A and E thinking I was having a heart attack.

They stopped several years ago now though and I don't get them anymore.

Sorry you are having problems with them, they can be very unpleasant. Fearing them can make them worse though. So if possible try not to do that.

New research is coming out all the time showing how much exercise can help. If you go for a half hour walk every second day you'll start to sleep better and in a few weeks you should start to feel an improvement. The added exercise will have made new speciality brain cells to cope with stress, depression and anxiety just from exercising! Also exercising burns off adrenaline which people with anxiety produce too much of. Your heart and lungs become healthier and more relaxed in a non-exercise state. Your whole physiology just starts to loosen up and relax. You should read up on the reward chemicals like dopamine and endorphins that are released in the brain from exercise too. Being more aware of that makes you actually notice a slight 'high' when you're mid exercise or later on afterwards. Good luck

You poor thing. I can TOTALLY relate. Panic attacks are terrible. I get kind of irritated with people who throw that phrase around "I almost had a panic attack when...". They have NO idea how bad a panic attack can get. I wouldn't wish it on anybody.

I have been suffering from panic attacks since 2004....at least, the obvious ones started then. I think I've actually had anxiety problems my whole life. I was officially diagnosed with Panic Disorder about 6 months ago. At my peak, I was having panic attacks almost continuously -- several a day that could last for as long as an hour each. The longest series of attacks I've had was for about 36 hours straight. I've been to the ER probably a dozen times over the years because I truly believed I was dying. I've been through gastro tests, sleep tests and two complete rounds of heart tests -- EKGs, stress tests, Holter monitor, etc.

What always set mine off were health-related issues -- a chest pain, a stomach cramp, a back spasm, a headache. Anything like that my brain translated as heart attacks, strokes or cancer. If I ever felt out of breath, the idea of suffocation swamped my mind. I got so bad that I couldn't even watch TV commercials for heart conditions or COPD meds. The attacks would even wake me up at night!

I've taken Lexapro, Effexor, Xanax, Paxil and Ativan at various times to help control them, with varying degrees of success. I'm still taking the Paxil, although only sporadically -- one a week or so. Any more often, and I am overwhelmed with fatigue and lose any personality I have. The Ativan I keep with me because it stops my attacks dead in their tracks in like 10 minutes. I actually haven't had any in a while because I can't afford to go back to the doctor, and she won't renew my prescription without a visit.

But the good news is that I seem to be learning to recognize and control the attacks before they get out of control. I'm trying to get to the point where I don't need the meds anymore. My mother has noticed that when I don't get enough sleep, my anxiety gets worse (Interestingly, she has said the same thing about my AS traits.) I've also noticed that even if I can do something to get my mind off the attack -- part of the problem is dwelling on the symptoms during an attack. That might include getting involved in a movie or talking with someone, or getting busy at work. I've heard the theory on exercise as well, and I'm sure it works. But because so much of my terror is based on the idea that I might be having a heart attack, I tend to move very little for fear of making things worse. I sit on the couch or bed in a ball with my arms crossed over my chest, and rock until it's over.

My last really bad attack -- I began hyperventilating and started dry heaving because my brain was being deprived of oxygen -- was nearly a year ago. Hopefully I'm done with the worst of it. I think 9 years of attacks is plenty, don't you?

I think it's interesting to realise I've probably been anxious my whole life. It only really started to take off in my late teens early twenties but when I think back to how nervous I was as a kid it makes sense that the potential for it was always there. I remember being a bit of a hypochondriac as a kid. My mum was a nurse and I would sit in front of the book shelf and read through her books in a cold sweat thinking I had nearly everything I read about because the symptoms were often so general. I also hated being pried out of my little lego playing or treehouse building ruts and being forced to do things like play weekend soccer or sleep over at other kid's houses.

Fair enough but remember, you shouldn't let irrational fear rule your life. Even someone who's had a heart attack has to do some walking when they leave the hospital to go home. You have to remember how unlikely your impending sense of doom actually is and even if you did start to have one while out on a walk or after you got home it sounds like you have a good management strategy in place now, ie you know the signs of an attack so you can control it or if you can't you can take something to stop it.

There's my literal thinking again. I was just thinking in terms of exercising while in the middle of an attack, which isn't going to happen. I can tell myself all day that a panic attack is just that, and something I can control. But in reality, when an attack starts I'm just not that rational. You have to remember that while I can talk myself down from an attack to a certain extent, the physiological symptoms -- the adrenaline rushing, the racing heart, the trembling and panting, dizziness, in other words the whole "fight or flight" response -- are still very real. It might be based in faulty or exaggerated information, but it's still all there. That response is doing exactly what it's supposed to do -- make me feel afraid so I will do something to save myself. I'm likely having a gas pain rather than a heart attack, but in the midst of an attack, all my mind can see is "It wasn't a heart attack last time, but it could be now."

That being said, I'm sure that exercise in general would calm me and keep the attacks at bay. I may not be able to do it in the middle of an attack, but it could help the attacks from starting in the first place. I'm told that yoga and/or meditation is/are good relaxation tools as well.

Xanax. Xanax. Xanax.

Secondly, decide to take ownership of your life.

Thirdly, Xanax.