Panic Attacks

[edelweiss]

I also had a chapter in my mid 20's - 30's with anxiety attacks. In hind sight, I know now that it had a lot to do with my hormones - giving birth twice during that time frame. But, then as now, I find that I'm am really sensitive to alcohol. Just a glass of wine is enough to bring on some strange feelings of anxiety and fear. There is definitely a connection there

[ruby]

I"m so glad I found this site. Thought I was going crazy until I read some of the messeages. I am having a lot of anxiety and feelings of dread. Had my uterus removed 2 years ago, still have my ovaries. My age is 49.

Doctor has me on low dose of estrogen and just started Zolof 50 mg. Has anyone had any relief with Zolof and how long did it take?

Thanks for listening.

Ruby

[DayDreamer]

First of all, welcome Ruby. I am so glad you have found this site too. Minnie Pauz has also been my saviour and countless others as you can see from all the messages.

Although I cannot comment on taking Zolof, I,m sure somebody else with direct experience of taking it will.
As you can see by how many postings, a drop in estrogen and panic/anxiety is definitely linked. You are NOT going crazy, this site will help you realise that.

Just wanted to say Hello and welcome.

Hugs to you

DayDreamer.

[minniepauz]

I took Zoloft for about 3 years and it worked great for me, plus when I decided I was ready to stop taking it, there was no problem. Since then I take St. John's Wort when I'm feeling down. Mainly because I don't have insurance to pay for doctor's visits and prescription medication.

[Rhiannon]

I took Zoloft for depression for about 9 years, but I also took Ativan for panic attacks and anxiety. Several months ago, when my menopause symptoms started getting worse, I started having anxiety again - the racing pulse, pounding heart thing. My GP switched me to Lexapro 10mg daily. I also take 30mg of Buspar and 1 or 2 mgs of Ativan everyday. Things seem to be on an even keel right now thank goodness!

Ruby, I will say that the Zoloft takes a couple of weeks to start working, and when I started taking it, I actually felt more panicky (hence the Ativan). Once my system got used to it, I calmed down and it worked great for me.

[Peaches]

I have recently had terrible anxiety related to my rapid hair loss. I have been seeing a Chinese herbalist and have a remedy that is helping a great deal. Exercise is also a great help, though sometimes it is hard to get motivated when I am too anxious. Now that I have started the powdered herbs, I am able once again to focus on my Tai Chi which has been a great stress reducer and am walking every day (almost). The SSRI antidepressants do work, if you are willing to put up with the side effects - of which there are many. Thus, my trial with Chinese herbs.

I am able to empathize with anyone who has difficulty with anxiety and panic attacks in a way I was not able to do before. It is just an awful feeling. But... we CAN overcome it!!!

Peaches

[iluvtolaff]

I discovered L-Theanine about a month ago and it is working great! It is a natural amino acid found in green tea. I started out low--50 mg.--then after a week I increased it to 100 mg. Now, I take 100 mg. in the morning and 100 mg. in the late afternoon. It causes no drowsiness/tiredness and I'm alert and able to focus on my day and stay calm.
It is available many places. Just do a Google on it.

[SLee]

My anxiety is hilarious and not funny at all. My mother died the year I got married. She was 65 - Colon Cancer. I am 46 - my daughter
just married, and I'm CONVINCED I'm dying of the same disease!!! My original Panic Attack was in a Mall in a Food Court when my children were small. My kids are all in their 20's now and I still can't eat in a Mall and don't enjoy restaurants. My father died of a massive heart attack while driving the car when I was 13. I hate being in a car and I hate driving. My Panic and Anxiety are so out of control it almost makes me laugh when I'm not crying. I suffer with Sciatica, and it got really bad about a year ago, the same time we got a Black Lab pup for our Down's Syndrome son. I have not bonded with this wonderful dog and in fact get physically ill when I'm near him some days because I associate adopting him to the onset of my Sciatic pain. And I am CERTAIN my Sciatic pain is a tumor, so I don't go to a Chiropractor, because my neice went to one and he diagnosed her with Lymphoma. She's dead. I went to an MD for the 1st time in 3 years last week and told her I needed sedation in order to make a real appointment and left my fate in her hands. I asked for Wellbutrin and she gave it to me. I scheduled a physical as a sign of good faith. I am sorry to sound sooo messed up.

[colopam]

Slee

Hun, please get that physical even if you have to take a friend/family member with you for support, this is affecting EVERY part of your life. My personal opinion is that altho hard it would benefit you to talk to someone too, see where the connections between all this come from and what you can do about them. You're still young and have alot to live life to the fullest for. You owe it to your son and especially for YOURSELF!!!!

Welcome to the board too!! You'll find great info as well as comraderie here. Humor can go a long way in easing this time of our life and tho I can tell you're hurting you've also got a thread of humor running thru too, use it!! Hope to "see" you around the boards often.

Hugs Pam

[Audrey Nair]

Hi All! I guess I'm one privileged MINNIE PAUZ-ER to be rubbing shoulders with the rest of you gals. Being new, I just wanted to introduce myself to you all. This is one light-hearted yet infomative site and its helped me lighten up when my mood swung way way down recently. Looking forward to befriending many more pauz-ers ... Audrey

[minniepauz]

Welcome Audrey! We feel privileged that you decided to join us!!

[fiona]

Lately I've been having very bad anxiety attacks. I've always been a nervous person, but last week I had what I believe to be my first true panic attack. I've only had about 2 periods a year for the past 2 years, so I'm thinking my hormones are really running wild and all over the place triggering these panic attacks. Seems like every silly little thing sets me off. Geezzz, I hope they settle down soon.

Blessings,

~Fiona~

[Anxietyannie]

Hi all,
Just read some of the posts about Panic attacks. I have had them in my twenties and do have an anxiety disorder that flares up during stressful times or right after a huge stress in my life. Now I am in menopause, age 51, and seem to have a kind of constant anxiety and foreboding feeling. The physical discomfort of tightness in my chest, clenching teeth during sleep, churning tummy and palpitations make me feel I am wearing my body out and then I worry about how unhealthy this anxiety is!! It becomes heightened with any new venture - even good things, like taking a drive, buying a home, vacations, etc. I will think of the worst. I do not take anything for menopause and am thinking of getting some natural progesterone and estriol from a qualified doctor. (Can't take HRT due to cystic breasts.) I take a little xanax when I am really bad and it does help but this exaggerated response to things seems to be realted to my hormones...I hope!!!! Just venting. Feeling weepy and lots of hot flashes too, a bit of insomnia. I can take all those symptoms but the anxiety is really scary to me. Very discouraging. Thanks for listening. -Lin

Hi Linnie,

Your post could have been written by me! I am 54, have had a hysterectomy (kept ovaries) in 1998, so I don't know when menopause started for me. I didn't know HRT isn't recommended if you have fibrocystic breasts, as I do. But I have been rejecting doctors offers to put me on HRT. I seem to have the free floating anxiety as a poster says, below, as well. I can't enjoy anything. Either the anxiety/palpitations/stomach distress ruins anything I want to do or I'm too tired to do anything. Or I am an old worry wart and am negative about everything. What a bummer. I thought this time of my life would be so great but it sure is a trial!

If you find anything that works for anxiety let me know!! The doctors told me HRT would help for hot flashes - I can deal with that - I WANT SOMETHING TO HELP WITH ANXIETY! You'd think in the 21st century that some studies would have been done for women to help them through this phase. It seems that the drugs they give us only cause more problems. How did our grandma's deal with it?

[minniepauz]

Who's got Suzanne Somers' book? I believe she says progesterone helps with anxiety. Who knows???? What works for one doesn't work for another.

[Brighid Moon]

I've had these panic attacks for four months now. They've been debilitating. I'm in counciling for them, and have been prescribed medications (which I can't abide; I don't like being a zombie). I still have to get my thyroid checked, and I realize that a part of it is definitely the menopause. But I found this awesome website! Matter of fact, I'm having a panic attack right now again, and still writing!

Panic End

(Emphasis Mine - except Caps)

You are aware of some strange sensation in your body usually brought about by tension. You become worried about it because it arrives unexpectedly. Rather than seeking out the source of the tension, you seek out the source of the fear. "Why am I feeling afraid?"

But your past worries had known reasons! You also knew "fear" from experience as something related to your environment.

If someone threatens you, you may fear THAT person! If you see a highway CAUTION sign you will worry about driving carefully. But for a newly felt sensation like a racing heart, rapid breathing, muscle ache, giddiness, blurred vision, headache, nausea, etc. - all possible symptoms of stress overload - once you assign an unknown source label to it, you have created a conflict within your conscious logic of how to react to the fear. This NEW fear doesn't seem to have a reason, a source, a purpose! It arrived seemingly out of the blue! Because of the unknown nature of this new fear, you analyze it and the worrying becomes more pronounced. You may begin to extend your new unknown fear feeling into your future well-being with "what if" questions - hypothetical situations to determine how you might feel in the future IF the same fear existed. The worrying seems endless as you cannot identify the cause. You begin to fantasize about odd possibilities like tumors, cancer, glands and aneurysms. At this point you feel threatened for your life or your sanity!

This threat launches another bodily function which takes over your worrying for you - the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) which is responsible for your survival. This is the "BIG GUN"! It stimulates heartbeat, raises blood pressure, dilates the pupils, dilates the trachea and bronchi for breathing, converts stored glycogen (starch) into glucose (sugar), inhibits digestion and movement in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and inhibits contraction of the bladder and rectum. In short, makes you ready to RUN! Through this flight/fight response it socks you with a rapid and intense fear so powerful that your immediate response is to run and/or hide. But you can't! You don't know why or where to run. This is the inherent contradiction in panic.

The SNS is not controlled consciously by you. It is influenced by your thoughts and beliefs but it is independent of your control. It is a part of your instinctive brain. And this is perplexing because in the past your fear feelings had identifiable situations or sources. These were ones you could avoid or change.

Panic is really your SNS now in charge of your worrying. You can't stop it. You have no conscious control over it once it kicks in. At this point trying to exert control only makes it last longer. Conversely, by trying to NOT stop it makes it stop. This, I believe, is the way out.

It's important to note that this can happen to anyone at any time. It is not related to how weak minded or sensitive the individual is. I have emails from miltary personnel, fire fighters, politicians, sportsmen who are all confused as to why they have these panic feelings. They keep fighting the panic and their own SNS.

The SNS is your protection, your survival albeit overblown for today's modern stresses. As you increase your worrying and focus all your thoughts and energy (stress) on the unknown reason, the SNS has to take over. Extreme stress initially produces a physical reaction which initiates extreme worrying which prompts the SNS response once you feel threatened. That's its job that developed over millions of years of evolution - WAY before the industrial revolution, the fast pace of the new age, and cell phones. A higher degree of worrying warrants the survival mechanism of the SNS. It's nature. It's what your body is supposed to do in response to your fear.

The SNS needs to be fed a continuous supply of worry/fear to stay alert and active. The fear of panic essentially becomes the reason for the SNS to react. A circular process for sure. By letting the panic go on without preventing it you are showing your SNS and your instinctive brain that it needn't worry, that it isn't necessary. That the panic it produced for you to "save you" is overblown for the given situation. There really is NO impending doom. When you face what you fear (the panic) totally and willingly, the SNS process shuts off and the panic shuts off.

This is how simple it is! And why you must completely stand down when panic occurs and take the opposite track. Not away from the panic but towards it - allowing it to "kill" you. You have NO control over it. All the analyzing and wishing away the fear feeling can't work. It, in fact, will do the opposite. The panic is your body's mechanism for survival. But if it is at the wrong place at the wrong time you have the means of proving that it is not needed and, in effect, switching it off.

This is working for me! It's very empowering! Check out the entire site!!!