I’ve been having constant panic attacks for the last 2 days?
I’m a 17 year old high school senior that has been stressed out about school and not getting much sleep. 2 days ago I noticed my heart was feeling very weird all day long. I was having palpitations and this worried me into thinking “I’m having a heart attack” or “my heart is going to stop beating.” So obviously adrenaline starts kicking in, I start having shortness of breath, then I think I’m going to suffocate. My vision gets blurry, I feel like I’m sinking and feel not content with where I am. I want to get up and run for life through the walls. I got scared and just wanted to be close to my mom. I started feeling really scared and so my mom drove me to the hospital but I felt better by then so we came home. When I came home I felt uneasy again but fell asleep anyway.
Anyway last night I started feeling heart palpitations again so my mom told me to lay on her bed and watch TV with her. I started getting really scared when I saw a commercial on congestive heart failure….. So it started again. I went to the emergency room with my mom and felt like I was going to pass out walking into the not-so-serioud entrance. As I sat there waiting for the doctor and everything I calmed down immensely ttalking to my mom. Then the doctor checked my heart rate, blood pressure, etc. and my heart is actually extremely healthy. So I guess I’m having panic attacks. Bad ones. The doc gave my mom this anti-anxiety drug that I’m only supposed to take when I’m feeling scared as hell again.
What is causing this? Is it lack of sleep? I generally get about 5 hours of sleep a night, but I know kids that get less.
Also, I had a very important essay due tomorrow in English. This incident has really ruined my week and I haven’t had time to write the essay and feel like I can’t read or write right now because I feel weak. Also the book focuses on death, which is not the greatest thing to be focusing on when you’re having panic attacks. Should I ask my teacher if it’s ok to write the essay over spring break? (starts monday.)
Any advice is appreciated. What do I do to make sure I don’t have another panic attack today?
Chris- yes I get headaches. Not bad ones though and they feel a little different than normal headaches.
sprinkles***- thank you so much. You’re such a sweetheart.
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Well, I have panic attacks all the time at school and they usually leave me pretty disorented but all I do is say ok then, Im doing this to myself somehow so I need to take control of it myself. Just a question, do you get headaches when you have them?
oh leos you poor dear, that sounds so rough! panic attacks are really scary and having several in a row would really wipe you out. of course ask your teacher if you can have more time on the essay, she will totally understand and if she doesn’t then ask your mum to talk to her or get a note from your doctor.
i’ve been in your situtation before so i know exactly how you’re feeling but fortunately i learned a lot from my days of anxiety and panic and hopefully i can help you feel a bit better. firstly i want to talk to you about the heart palpitations, man i remember how scary those were when i first had them, even the slightest bit of a heavy heartbeat was enough to send me into a panic and it took me weeks and weeks to stop waiting to feel irrigular beats especially when i went to sleep at night. so basically i know how scary they are and totally understand why you’re so freaked out.
palpitations are incredibly common with anxiety. i discovered that in a lot of cases these palpitations can be caused by low blood sugar, called hypoglycemia. this can cause all kinds of symptoms such as anxiety, panic, sweating, shaking, headaches, dizziness, derealisation, ringing in the ears and insomnia to mention but a few! i wont go into too much detail here but basically hypoglycemia is very easy to fix with diet changes to make sure that you eat to keep your blood sugars level. so avoiding irritant foods like too much sugar, sodas, caffeine, tea, chocolate, refined carbs (like white bread, pizza, cakes, white pasta etc) and alcohol. all of these things can make you feel bad if the hypoglycemia is bad, but as you get better you can have them in small amounts as long as they’re not the main part of your diet. then replace these kinds of foods with ones that will keep your blood sugars stable for longer like brown breads & pastas, nuts and seeds and pulses like lentils and beans. also never ever skip a meal, especially breakfast and snack on healthy foods regularly, don’t go for several hours without sleeping.
the next time you feel the heart palpitations have something like a banana or some brown bread with peanut butter (as long as there’s not much sugar in the butter!) and it should really help – it helps me out a lot! bananas are amazing believe it or not.
ok so down to possible reasons why you’re panicking. it sounds to me that you’re just totally worn out at the moment with being incredibly stressed from school and also not sleeping. getting proper sleep is incredibly important to your mental health, it seems like the 5 hours a night may not be enough, especially if you’re stressed! i know you say other people survive on less, but we are all different and it is possible that you personally just need more in order to function properly. lack of sleep combined with stress and low blood sugar is a combination that’s sure to make you anxious so i’m not surprised you’ve been having panic attacks!
and when you have that first attack it’s incredibly hard to relax and chill out again, you’re constantly on edge waiting for the next one and all that extra stress will just add up and make you feel worse. fortunately there is a lot you can do to help yourself chill out again
i’m giving you a link to a big post i wrote on all the things that helped me through my own anxiety problems, perhaps you’d like to read it with your mum and figure out the stuff you can do to help yourself? i really recommend that you start taking a vitamin B complex, get exercising, sleeping well and perhaps start a yoga class or buy a mediation CD you can do with your mum, but all that info is here: http://www.anxietyforum.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4087
i don’t want to overload you with too much here, i think i’ve waffled on enough here already but please feel free to email me or send me a PM on that other site (the link above) if you or your mum have any questions. i’ve been where you are right now and i’m just glad to be able to share some of this with you! it is very possible for you to recover from this, and i totally believe with some TLC and a little work that you’ll be feeling better in no time