Anxiety and panic attacks increasing with age

[IGuessIllbetheFirst]

The list of things I can’t do has been increasing as I have got older (now 50, this started around age 35). I used to have no fears or anxiety other than the usual daily life worries but I have gradually developed fairly severe anxiety and panic attacks around the following - motorways (am unable to drive on them at all), bridges (I simply cannot walk / cycle / drive over large bridges), heights (I get panic attacks now in those lifts where you can see the outside and I can’t go up more than 5 floors without starting to feel panicky). Just recently I began to get panic attacks on a flight, and I could feel this was going to be the start of a new problem.

Is this usual? I thought people got more relaxed as they grew older. I don’t know where this has all come from and why it is getting worse. My father’s family has poor mental health - depression, anxiety etc so it could be a genetic thing.

Has anyone else experienced this and what help have you got? Any advice much appreciated.

Ask your doctor about propranolol for situational anxiety. It's a beta blocker, it stops your heart from racing so you don't get the physical symptoms of anxiety. I took some for a while after my anxiety about a psycho head teacher I worked for boiled over into all areas of my life, it was really difficult. I called it The Creeping Dread, eventuallyanythibg could set it off. Then id just take one when I knew I'd do something that might trigger anxiety, starting a new job or public speaking. It really breaks the connection between your brains over active alarm system and the things that are triggering it

Try HRT and regular exercise.

Exposure, which isn’t easy, but start small and work up from there, little and often.

Was there a particular incident or trigger 15 years ago - a near miss accident or something that shock you up?

Thanks for all the suggestions.

I take HRT already, but I think a low dose so maybe that could increase. I will definitely look into propranolol, as the creeping dread sounds exactly what I am experiencing, like an underlying fear that is always present and then turns into a anxiety attack on these triggers.

I don’t know why though it is increasing over the years and that is beginning to worry me. I have never been afraid of flying, now I have this thought that is this the new thing I can’t do and will it get worse?

I swim regularly and have done for years, have a relatively high pressure job but have also had that for years and have been fine with that. Sometimes I think that life’s stresses have caught up with me but I am only 50! Thought I would have years left of ok health.

Look at CBT and exposure therapy. Exposure therapy is about exposing yourself gradually to situations which cause anxiety & panic attacks. If you have a good job you might want to pay privately or does your work place have an insurance scheme or mental health support? It's very treatable. Maybe discuss with your doctor to start with.

@Eyesopenwideawake Yes there was a near miss incident 15 years ago, that is the start of it all. We were driving to see family, it was late, we were very tired, it was raining heavily and we had been driving for hours. It was my turn to drive and I decided to overtake a lorry but couldn’t see the road with the spray coming from the lorry’s wheels. I had the first panic attack then, I thought we were going to die.

It has just got worse slowly over time, sometimes I have been able to drive on the motorways but not at all these past few years. Bridges are a real problem as they can be hard to avoid.

Its just worrying that the triggers seem to be increasing randomly, and I don’t know why. Will look into CBT, thanks.

If you keep avoiding things it will get worse. The only way to deal with it is to start moving in the opposite direction and gradually expose yourself to situations. As I said above, it's very treatable.

Your hrt isn't the right dose or type by the sound of it. The anxiety started at 35 which is the exact age progesterone starts to drop.

OK, so there's the answer. When something happens that scares the bejayus out of us we (not unreasonably) do whatever is necessary to stop it happening in the future. Normally it would be limited to that particular set of circumstances (in your case driving at night in heavy rain when you are tired) but sometimes that fear spreads to similar situations and then to other times when there is the potential for danger - even if it's in no way related to the original incident.

Think of people who are deathly scared of dogs because one dog snapped at them once, or - as happened to a colleague - someone who was attacked while singing karoke on holiday and developed a terror of singing anywhere as a result.

We sometimes have negative things happen to us and we simply can’t work out what we did to cause it and therefore don’t know how to change our behaviour to keep us safe from it happening again in the future, and that's when the mind develops the strategy of triggering fear to keep us away from any possible danger, no matter how remote.

As others have said, gradual exposure, with or without propranolol, can help prove that there's nothing to worry about or remedial hypnosis can reset the parts of your mind which are causing the problem.

Thanks @Lovelyview, I’ve tried to increase my exposure myself e.g. driving or walking over a small bridge, going on the motorway and coming off 1 exit later but its been a disaster and made it worse - I had a panic attack on a motorway and had to pull over and stop on the hard shoulder until I was able to slowly drive to the next exit. It felt very dangerous and irresponsible and I think has led to me deciding I can’t go on a motorway again. I am totally fine with someone else driving, just not me. I’d prefer to go the non-medical route, but it feels impossible to put myself in these kind of situations again.

I’d prefer to go the non-medical route Happy to chat by DM if you like.

And thanks for your last post @Eyesopenwideawake , that makes a whole lot of sense. I haven’t heard of remedial hypnosis, will look into that too.

@IGuessIllbetheFirst I know this is almost a year ago but how are you doing now op. Hope things have improved for you and you've found a way to manage your anxiety. I came across your thread as im struggling too with increasing anxiety over various things.

Ditto to @fuzzyfeltfan I'm looking for help as my anxiety has increased massively over the last year (55 and on HRT) and despite there being loads of pressure and stress in my life, the level of stress increased about 4 years ago so why the anxiety is rearing its ugly head again now, I've no idea!! Did you find anything to help @IGuessIllbetheFirst ?

@IGuessIllbetheFirst your best bet for therapy is CBT. https://babcp.com/what-is-cbt/

Sorry, I didn’t notice this was an older thread! @Canijustsayonething you might find my link helpful.

ah thank you @YouOKHun I have already done two lots of CBT. Thank you for the link