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Mental health

Are These Anxiety Attacks or Something Else?

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LadyNym · 05/06/2015 08:11

I've had these little 'episodes' for years and for a long time I didn't really think much of them. In more recent years, having been diagnosed with depression and knowing a lot of people with various MH problems (especially anxiety), I've started to wonder what they actually are. In the past I've tended to only get them maybe a few times a year but I've been getting them much more often.

It's not the cliched hyperventilating/rocking or even feeling like there's something crushing my chest so I'm not sure whether it really is an anxiety attack or something else. The worst/most consistent symptom I get is shivering like I'm really cold even though it's perfectly warm. Then I also get a knot in my stomach like I'm anxious about sitting an exam or something even though I don't mentally feel nervous (if that makes sense). Sometimes I do get a bit of a sort of breathlessness but it's not severe.

I have started to take note of when it happens and it is often when I'm in situations where I'm stressed or perhaps a topic of conversation that's linked to something that makes me stressed comes up. Two recent examples are when I was trying to make a birthday cake for DS1 (I'd never baked anything more complicated than a simple sponge with butter cream before and he wanted something far more complicated) and when my mum put on a TV show about whether children are 'naughty' or have a condition/disorder that explains their behaviour (DS1 is undergoing ASD diagnosis at the moment).

So, could these be panic attacks/anxiety attacks even though they're milder than I would have thought? Or something else (I used to assume it was low blood sugar levels or something)?

If they are anxiety attacks, should I do something? I'm already on long term antidepressants. Should I ask my GP to put me on one that also treats anxiety (the antidepressants I used to take also happened to treat anxiety but when I started this lot I was breastfeeding so had to go onto different ones but have stopped BFing recently)?

Sorry it's a bit long!

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