Panic attacks and health anxiety

[DontstepontheMomeRaths]

Everytime I have pmt it gets so much worse. I'm on 20mg fluoxetine but I'm starting to think I need to go back to the GP.

The rest of the time I'm mostly ok.

Any advice? I'm sitting here with this awful rising feeling yet again.

Hi i suffer from health anxiety do you get physical symptoms ?

My problems usually start with my heart beating faster or aches and pains in limbs, I then start to worry what they mean and the panic attack starts.

As a lp my biggest fear is my DCs not having me. My parents are too elderly to help, ex isn't able to etc. So it all feeds into the slightest symptom and me fearing the worst.

Does that make any sense?

Right now my heart keeps having a slight twinge and I've already fought/ breathed out rising panic once

Hi mome I'm sorry to hear you're struggling with your anxiety. Saying a little prayer for you right now.

What you've said does make sense. One of my old counsellors gave me a really good breathing technique but I can't for the life of me think what that was now. I think it was something like breathe in deeply for 10 seconds then push the breath out very sharply. Took me awhile to get it properly but once I did it really helped when I started feeling panicky. I think the only thing you can do is keep breathing it out, though it is horrendous :( 20mg of fluoxetine is quite low too, perhaps GP can up dose or give you something like propanlol slow release capsules for the short term.

Or perhaps normal propanolol which I find works much quicker - you can take as and when you need them, in your case when you get pmt.

Have a look at mindfulness apps - headspace is excellent. Good luck.

I am on a med called pregablin its works so well for my GAD only started last week and for the first time in 3 weeks i havent had any symptoms of being anxious or as my main symptom feeling nausea 24/7

Thank you all. I feel like I'm going mad.

Time to go back to GP and chat.

mome how are you doing now? I hope you're having a wonderful Christmas :)

Hello love
Today was much better. Busy, filled with happiness. Yesterday was awful.

My hormones are triggering them. I'm peri menopausal, so many symptoms. Maybe I should try and regulate it all by going on the pill.

Dontstep, I am very similar - panic and HA at certain times of the month (also perimenopausal) and my absolute worst attack was when dh was away for work for 3 weeks. I couldn't sleep for worrying that my dc would come into the room and find my dead body in the morning. I've never had anything like this before (depression, yes, but never this kind of physical anxiety) and it's awful.

I wish I had advice to give, but I'm interested to know whether treatment for menopause will be more effective than treatment for anxiety - it just seems so complex. I suspect the time of year is implicated as well, because this time last year I was madly anxious about bedbugs (which we absolutely didn't have, but one of the symptoms of my perimenopause is itchy legs in the evenings).

I'm OK at the moment, good time of month and generally very busy, but I always have a kind of background dread that it will be back tomorrow. I try to tell myself that I will never get these days back, so I should enjoy them. Sometimes it works. My heart goes out to you anyway.

Yes masquerade! Sometimes I feel like my skin is crawling at the moment.

I've had one blood test and it was a good month and the result was inconclusive. This month I'm sure my fsh would be showing clearly as peri in a test. Night sweats, sore boobs for 3 weeks now, weird irregular light period etc. It's rotten. Feel like I'm going mad.

Def want to try pill.

The rising panic, health anxieties, fear of my DCs finding me dead too! It's all been over whelming. Glad I'm not alone.

I think about the pill and then worry that my blood pressure will sky rocket and I'll get DVT. Gah. HA is the worst!

My mother's peri/menopause was so awful she ended up having a hysterectomy. Maybe that's where I'm headed...

Yes me too! Every ache I think is a blood clot heading to my heart and I'll die. Sounds mad doesn't it?

Would a hysterectomy help?

I don't know - I wonder if it would be thought of as an old-fashioned solution now (this was in the early 90s). I would always prefer to avoid any surgery as the idea of never waking up etc. etc. But then again, if it actually works... My mum was always a worrier, and I think she did calm down a bit afterwards.

I think if I go through many more months like the last few, especially at PMT time, I'll start to consider anything though. It really is so debilitating, and hard to explain to anyone who hasn't experienced it.

Yes. No one in real life knows. It is awful. My first panic attack I was blue lighted to hospital. I thought it was a heart attack. It was so humiliating.

That must have been horrendous for you and I don't think you should feel humiliated. I understand that A&E staff are under pressure, but if you don't know you're having a panic attack, what are you supposed to think?!

I had my first flutters/palpitations a few months back and I was within an ace of calling an ambulance. It really was nothing! But I was so scared.

Like you, I hide it and haven't spoken to anyone about it, partly because I don't want to make it 'real' and partly because I just think I'd sound crazy. I've thought about making a GP appt. loads of times, but been unsure whether to couch it as PMT or anxiety or menopause or what?

I went to the GP after my first panic attack. She prescribed me ads. As the attacks and anxieties are now worse and it's 3 months on. I need to go back. But I'm first going to try the pill before discussing anything else. As my blood test was inconclusive. But when you're peri menopausal sometimes they need to do several to get an accurate result. I'll ask for a low dose, so less risk See if it helps.

Good luck - I'll watch this thread to see how you get on.

Good luck - I'll watch this thread and see how you get on .

Hi, over the past 12 months I've been experiencing this and I think it is linked to my hormones. The past 2 nights I've been awake at 4am having a panic attack. Haven't told anyone or gone to the doctors (yet) Have tried breathing techniques which do help 'in the moment' but think I need some chemical assistance. I can feel my heart starting to pound now because I'm thinking about it. It sucks.

Oh crisp. I so understand and I'm glad it's not just me.

I had a moment as I drove today. It's awful.

How are you now?

Ok, I can feel the pmt lifting if that makes sense. It's not just the anxiety its the general feeling of bleakness and that life is a big bag of shit. I'm 'lucky' I guess that it does appear to be hormone linked. I'm pretty sure that I'm premenopausal too - the joy! But it's knowing that every few weeks the bleakness and fear and the belief that I'm having a heart attack ( have also been on the verge of dialling the nines a few times) will return. I hope you have a good night tonight.

Well last night I slept and this morning I feel 'myself' again. No doubt I'll be back on this thread in 2/3 weeks with the middle of the night 'fear' Unless I do something sensible like see the Dr!

Yes that's exactly what happens with me. Although as the months go by and my periods become more erratic and my pmt worsens I'm now finding the anxiety is becoming more frequent.

When I read up on peri menopause it can last for a number of years. Menopause is apparently once you haven't had a period for twelve months.

So I guess I go on the pill for now and then revisit it if it gets worse. At that point I may need hrt I guess.

Let me know how the GP goes.