Tell me about Claustrophobia

In My Humble Opinion
1

I just attempted to have my first lumbar MRI. The insurance company approved an “Open View” so I’m psyched and ready to go. I get there, remove all metals and don my lovely gown. I’m laying on the table, an apparatus was wrapped around my sides and across my midsection and the table is moved positioning me into the machine.

As the top of the machine approaches my upper chest, it begins to compress pinning me into the machine. I totally freaked out. Complete and total panic attack. The dude had to stop, undo everything and let me out…like now. I literally bawled for an hour afterwards. I’ve never had an experience like that in my life.

I’m a large woman to begin with but they advertise they can image people as heavy as 450 lbs. I’m nowhere near that. Plus I don’t have 88GGG breasts so I don’t know what the hell that was about.

I’m uncomfortable in crowded spaces like elevators but never to the point of panic.

Is this what it feels like to be claustrophobic? They offered to do the test with Valium but having just had 2 Valium before a lumbar injection last week, I know that will not be enough to keep me from The Panic. I guess IV sedation is the next step and I’m waiting to be approved by insurance.

Please tell me I’m not crazy.

2

It happens to a lot of people, including me. What I have found that gets me through it is a Valium, plus a washcloth over the eyes. Not being able to see it really helps.

3

It was more the feeling of being pinned down than the closeness of the magnet to my face.

I was pinned in my vehicle for quite a while when I had the accident that caused the back injury but I didn’t feel any “trauma” at the time. I was in shock and it was almost a surreal experience. The emergency guys had to cut the roof off of my vehicle to get me out (I had rolled over 3/4 of a revolution) and my leg was pinned under the steering wheel during that time but I didn’t consciously feel scared about being stuck in there.

4

I’ve had quite a few MRIs and I have always wondered how extremely large people even fit inside the closed machines. I am a relatively small man and I am situated pretty tightly inside, I don’t see how the top could even close on a really big man (or woman).

As far as the claustrophobia, no, you definitely aren’t crazy, that is what that was. I am not even claustrophobic but the first couple of MRIs I had were very uncomfortable because I felt somewhat trapped and helpless. The washcloth over the eyes sounds like a good idea.

5

You’re not crazy. I had an MRI several years ago and I declined the sedative because my sister said it was no big deal. I didn’t react as strongly as you, but I was in a controlled panic and had to play head games with myself to keep from freaking out. I closed my eyes and pictured myself sprawled out on a wide open field. There were moments I thought i couldn’t hold on any longer and came VERY close to full on freak out. It took me a long time to get this MRI appointment and I knew I had to suck it up somehow or else they’d have to reschedule me and I didn’t want to wait a long time for another appointment.
I did make it through the whole procedure, but I was a nervous wreck for the rest of the day. It was traumatizing like I never expected and now i realize I’m a true claustrophobic.

6

The time in the machine would have been 40 minutes. 40 MINUTES pinned down. I’m anxious just thinking about it. Ugh.

7

Can they stick you in feet first? I think I’d be fine if just my feet and legs were stuck in the machine for 40 minutes, but my head - I’m gonna be needing the valium, too.

8

My first MRI (head) was no big deal. In fact, I dozed off, pinging and knocking notwithstanding

My second MRI–panic attack. Part of me was astounded that I was panicking over something I had pretty much slept through the first time. I could not figure out what was triggering it, but dealt with it by reminding myself repeatedly that I had been through this before, it was no big deal, I was perfectly safe, etc.

IANADr/Psychiatrist, but maybe your reaction is more related to PTSD from being pinned in the car wreck than it is a case of “sudden-onset” claustrophobia?

Regards,

9

CatWhisperer, I know somebody who freaked just from having her legs in there. It’s really, really confining.

Last time I had one I went with the meds (which didn’t really kick in until afterwards when I got home, I lay down for a nap at 5:30 and woke up at 1 AM) and the washcloth trick, which I thought would make it worse but actually helped a lot. Mostly it was boring.

Now the bill, that was the really scary bit!

I’ve been fairly claustrophobic since the Northridge earthquake. I wasn’t trapped in a small space or anything but it apparently flipped a switch in my brain. It’s not nearly as bad as it once was, but MRIs are highly unnerving.

10

I WAS going to be a “healthy control” for an MS CCSVI study, which included an MRI and a carotid ultrasound. I had to answer about a million questions before being brought in… one of which was whether I was claustrophobic. I blithely replied “no.” Ha ha ha. I was wrong.

I didn’t know about the halo that goes over your face. It is RIGHT THERE and it is locked down to the table… I wasn’t too sure about that. I had the washcloth over my eyes, but I just knew when my head was going into the machine; there was just less air around me or something… By the time my chest was in I was saying “No. NOPE. Not going to happen!” and pressing the call button desperately (I knew that they can hear you until the machine is imaging, but nevertheless I was squeezing like my life depended on it).

I was scheduled for an hour in the machine and the tech talked to me for a while after I was out and calm, since she had the time. They do a test on everyone before they put the IV in for the contrast. She told me that she suspected that I wasn’t going to go when I asked her if the lead apron could be moved down so that it didn’t touch my chin. (???) She told me to tell any providers that I would need some kind of sedation, but that they don’t do it unnecessarily for the study.

I walked six blocks to my car, and when I got in it, it was too small. I had all the windows open, even though it was February.

Man, I WANTED to go, too, just for the experience. I can’t imagine if I was already frightened of it before I even got in the room. I guess I’ll find out if I ever have to have a diagnostic one.

11

Is it worse than a CT scan? Because those never bothered me. But I’ve never gotten an MRI.

12

Requests for medical and psychological advice, anecdotes, and diagnoses go in IMHO. I’ll move this thither for you (by way of the above-ground, plenty of space route).

twickster, one of whose best friends just started a job as a nurse in an MRI unit

13

I’ve never had an MRI. I do not consider myself claustrophobic, but I suppose I could envision some level of anxiety in such a situation.

Here is my dumb question: Doesn’t (or, why doesn’t) the feeling of claustrophobia abate when you close your eyes?

I’m not trying to minimize the reality of claustrophobia. It just seems to me that, if I close my eyes, I can tell myself I am on top of a mountain, in an open field, or home in bed (banging noises notwithstanding).
mmm

14

I mentioned in another thread that I had an MRI on Monday. I’ve found it to be claustrophobic at times. For me, it’s usually about not being able too move.

I’ve never done the Open MRI thing…although my report says it used “a 0.35 T open MRI protocol.” I swear I was in a tiny tube.

For me, it matters how far in the tube I have to go. My three knee MRIs were not bad. My one shoulder one was…harder. Lots of relaxation exercises. Eyes closed for the whole half hour or so.

I imagine with an open MRI, it wouldn’t matter as much.

-D/a

15

I’m somewhat claustrophobic. I get freaked out in elevators and don’t like to be in large crowds with people pressing around me. I had to have an MRI on my shoulder a couple years ago, and I took one look at that tiny opening in the machine and said “no way are you putting me in there!” Then I found out my insurance wouldn’t pay for me to go to the open-view place. (WTF?) So instead of shelling out $1300 for the open-view place, I sucked it up and went to the regular MRI place. They had to blindfold me before I would go in the machine. I couldn’t be sedated though, I had to go to work that day and being sedated would’ve rendered me useless the rest of the day.

16

About ten years ago, I opted to have an MRI on my hand (synovial cyst on my thumb). My PCP had told me that in all likelihood, I would have to lie on a table with my arm stretched above my head and thus only my hand would be in the machine. This is what I went into the imaging place expecting to happen.

I got there, and they asked me some preparatory questions like “Are you okay riding elevators?” and I was like, “Sure, they’re no problem!” Then the technician shows me the MRI machine and explains how I’m supposed to lie on the table on my stomach with my hands resting in front of my face, and I’m going to be completely inserted in the tube and will have to remain motionless for 45 minutes. And for some reason, this is not sinking in at all…I’m still in the “Oh, just my hand will be in the machine! Tra-la-la!” mode.

And perhaps because I didn’t appear nervous or concerned, I didn’t get handed a panic button device.

So I put in the ear plugs and lie down on the table and the table slowly slides into the machine…and I immediately become aware that the tube is so narrow, my arms are touching the sides. I shut my eyes and try to meditate, but with the darkness, my muffled hearing, and my arms being penned in, I start feeling like I’m being compressed into myself, like I’m about to be crushed. I try to focus on the meditation, but it doesn’t work – the panicked feeling gets worse and worse and worse, and I know I can’t last another minute, never mind 45! And a couple seconds later I completely freak out and slide myself feet first out of the coffin-tube.

The technician comes running in and asks me if I’m okay, and I’m shaking and nearly in tears and am like, “Um, NO?” He asks me if I’d like to try again in a few minutes, and I say I don’t think that’s possible. So I get dressed and go home, and for the next week or so, every time I think about what happened to me in there, I leap out of my chair and have to contain the urge to cry. It was genuinely traumatic.

I wasn’t claustrophobic before, but I am now. I don’t know what I would do if I had a serious medical condition that necessitated an MRI and I couldn’t be sedated beforehand.
Also, “Are you okay with elevators?” – what the fuck kind of screening question is that?! You’re in an elevator for like 30 seconds and have plenty of room to walk around – that does not compare in the least bit to being shoved head first in a 2-ft wide tube and being told not to move for 45 minutes. :mad:

17

“Are you okay being stuck in a crowded elevator for 45 minutes?” might be a better question.

18

I had an MRI and got through it. I didn’t know what it was and the guy asks me “are you claustrophobic?” I said, no and he just smiled.

I must say by the end there I was a bit of a panic, but the guy would talk to me every so often and what was really weird was the mirror directly above me that made the look at myself.

On the other times there have been times I’ve been on a New York Subway and it gets so jammed packed, I just have to get off. I feel like there’s no air left. But outside of the few time in the subway, I have managed

19

CT scan is like a thin vertical portal with a bed sliding back and forth through it, poking out both ends. The solid “tube” section is really only about a foot thick. It looks like some sort of sci-fi teleportation device, really. The one I was “in” wasn’t a small opening at all - the hope you slid through was pretty sizable, I’d say about 4’ from side to side on the inside.

MRI is an actual room-sized machine with a slightly smaller than coffin-sized tube inserted into the middle, and closed off at the inside end. Maaaybe 3’ from inside of the tube to the other side, but not much bigger than that.

In addition to the total enclosure and the noises which are more overwhelming in the MRI, there is also the restraining part - my CT scan was generalized enough that you just get the normal x-ray admonition to lay still and occasionally hold your breath for a few moments (that part WAS anxiety-creating for me) but for a MRI, they’ve usually restrained the ever-loving crap out of you, so you don’t twitch or unconsciously move away from the perfect alignment that they need.

When I got mine, I wasn’t able to be sedated (in hindsight, I should have been) and so I was very determined that I would lie still on my own, and not be strapped in. I was lucky to get an understanding tech, who let me do so, otherwise there would have been no chance of me lasting inside there that long. Also, mine was on the short side, around 35 minutes, and by the end, I was hyperventilating and basically babbling nonsense to the tech like a madman.

I don’t even *mind *most enclosed spaces, it’s just the … helplessness of the positioning, with the stress of trying to be a ‘good patient’ just about did me in.

20

I have had probably 10-11 MRIs over the course of my life (most, if not all in the span since my SCI) and I never once was offered sedation. I had no idea that was even an option. Is this pretty routine or only under certain situations? Because MRIs, at least the lengthier ones (which are for larger areas of the body), are BAAAARUUUTAL! :frowning: