Question for those with "random" anxiety attacks

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Do any of you get numb-ish hands and/or a constricted breathing feeling without it turning into a full anxiety attack? It seems to vary in intensity and feels the same as what starts turning into an attack, but it just subsides instead. It can last a few minutes, a few hours, or happen off and on throughout the day.

Occasionally when I start feeling these things they lead into a full blown anxiety attack. For a few months last year a full attack happened almost everyday. But more often, even when attacks were happening everyday, I just get these subtle feelings.

These attacks and feelings are all "random", there is no obvious cause. I even had a lot of things tested and they all came back as normal.

I would have never thought that those are possible without a trigger, including triggering it yourself, like by thinking about some painful memory.

My panic attacks are triggered by being way to tuned in to my body and how it feels. I get numb hands and I do (at times) feel like my breathing is constricted. Sometimes i feel lightheaded and just plain weird - like the world is not real. I then start thinking that I'm dying or maybe going crazy. And then I have the full blown panic attack. I went to the ER several times in my 20's because I thought I was dying.

I've had these feelings for about 20 years so I've gotten to the point where they often don't become full blown panic attacks. I've learned to identify the physical pre-cursors (as you have) and then talk myself down.

When I was a teenager I had panic attacks all the time and I would also have a numb feeling in both my hands and arms. I remember one time I even had trouble moving my hands. Sometimes I still feel panicky, but it doesn't last and I don't think I've had a full blown panic attack in years. Mine usually get triggered when I feel trapped somewhere.

Well I get this feeling that I just call an anxiety attack because I don't know what it really is. Somethimes I get this feeling in my hands like someone is pulling on my veins and my chest becomes tight and tingly. I usually shake my hands to relieve the feeling in my hands. I don't know if this is actually an anxiety attack though

I thought this too, but apparently the anxiety can build up slowly without you noticing and then it can all dump into an anxiety attack even if you feel fine at the time. So, I would say there is a trigger, but its many small ones that occur sometime before the attack.



This is accurate to how it feels for me sometimes, I tried to explain to my dad how my hands felt and I told him that my veins felt tingly. My head and chest get tingly too. I shake my hands and head when they feel this way. The head shake looks like a tic, and the hands I shake in a way like looks like I'm trying to fling something off of them. I can control it if I wanted to but it feels worse not to do it.

Last edited by DaughterOfAule on 09 Jun 2016, 3:20 pm, edited 2 times in total.

This sounds similar to what I've been experiencing in the last year or so. My mom finally took me to the ER because I didn't know they were panic attacks. I have asthma and it felt like I couldn't breath. I thought I was going to pass out and the asthma medication made it a lot worse. The people at the ER probably thought I was on drugs, I was stimming a lot, legs bouncing, finger flicking, snapping, I looked crazy twitchy, and was chewing on ice cubes because I felt like I was overheating and the cold helps my throat feel a bit less constricted. My oxygen levels ended up being fine, so that made me feel a bit less like I was going to suffocate.

The worst attack I had made most of my body feel numb-ish, even my head. I couldn't feel my feet or ankles at all and felt like I was floating. I felt so weirdly light headed I sort of laughed and asked my dad if I was dreaming, and I was serious. It also made me stutter really bad and I normally don't have a stutter. Its all so sureal because at the time my mind isn't panicking, just my body. Once it feels bad enough my brain catches up and I start feeling afraid.

It makes me feel a little better to hear other people feel weird and numb-ish. Knowing the feeling is normal (well, in this situation) might help it from turning into full attacks more often, since I know whats going on.

With me, my anxiety attacks are unpredictable. Because they are "random" in nature, I often feel that whenever this happens, I feel that I am losing consciousness. Just yesterday, I experienced an anxiety attack where I screamed.