I thought I had a panic attack a few months ago and went to see my Doctor who hooked me up to an EKG in which everything turned out fine. I still don’t know what exactly happened (though I was totally stressed out and my chest hurt) and every once in a while I still get an aching sort of pain on the left side of my chest.
Could it be a form of panic attack or maybe muscle pain? I don’t know if I should return to the doctor or not.
Has anyone had a panic attack before who could explain to me what it felt like?
I used to get them occasionally when I lived in NJ. I’d get this overwhelming feeling of dread, and the great desire to be far far away from where I was. They always happened in my house, which I feel was haunted*. There was never any chest pain or anything like that, except for the typicla fast beating heart you get when you are scared shitless.
I’d definatrely go back to the doctor.
Haunting being here defined as something unknown and freaky going on. It doesn’t matter whether it was a ghost or just some weird gas in the air, that house was often scary, and I wasn’t the only one who felt it was haunted. I’d be lying in bed, and suddenly feel a dark presence, and the overwhelming need to flee.
I was never quite sure if it was me being crazy, or the house. But in 8 years since moving out, I have never even been remotely as scared, or felt anything like that, even though I’ve been in many genuinely scary situations. Heck, I explored an abandoned navy hangar office and shop area without a flashlight on my own many times to try to scare myself like that, but I never felt anything.
Overwhelming fear that comes out of NOWHERE and hits you like a brick. One minute you’re normal, the next you are convinced that you are going to die soon. No, seriously: you’re gonna die. Something bad is about to happen. You’re not going to live much longer. And there’s nothing you can do about it because you don’t know HOW you’re gonna die. But it’s gonna happen, soon. Because you’re a bad person and you’ve done bad things and you deserve it.
For me there’s not so much the imminent death - just this crushing, overwhelming hopelessness. There’s FIFTY BILLION THINGS THAT NEED DOING RIGHT NOW and I DON’T KNOW WHERE TO START and NOTHING WILL EVER BE FINISHED and NO ONE WILL EVER HELP ME BECAUSE I AM A HORRIBLE, UNLOVABLE PERSON. Yes, it’s always in allcaps. Accelerated heartbeat and breathing, often a headache, a feeling of pressure… like being on a very tight deadline, but there’s nothing to DO. No time to do it in. No way to start. Trapped and helpless and hopeless and unable to even identify the problem that needs to be solved.
This statement is correct. Overwhelming feeling you’re going to die within moments. I disagree with the last sentence about “being a bad person”, since you don’t need any such feeling to suffer a panic attack. Also, not necessarily about the “you don’t know how” part, either. You might not know, or you might know. In the latter case, your death, generaly is going to be related with whatever physical symptom you’re feeling : might be a pain in the chest (you’re going to have a heart attack), difficulty in breathing, anything goes including realy weird ideas (a friend of mine was affraid trhat she would “swallow her tongue” and suffocate, for instance).
There’s no need for the supposed threat to be rationnal. Rationnality doesn’t work anymore. You might think it’s not rationnal while it’s happening, but it doesn’t import. The feeling stay the same. Remember, you’re in a state of panick and in an (imaginary) life-threatening situation. This threat appears and feels real during the panick attack. It’s not necessarily related to hypocondria, though the person could be or could become hypocondriac. But he may also jave no particular irrationnal fear of disease/ailment/death outside of panick attacks.
That’s the main difference between panick attacks and various strong feelings of anxiety people might have : this overwhelming feeling of imminent death.
As for the chest pain, though a common very mild chest pain, AFAIK (but I’m not a doctor) can be unrelated to the heart (I don’t know the english word for these aches : it’s called something like “inter ribal pains” in french), I can’t see a reason not to see a doctor if you feel a chest pain. If it’s nothing serious, then great. But I would say it’s best to investigate it. If only to be relieved of your anxiety, that’s enough of a good reason.
Panic attacks are real and very frightening. Thing is, we live through them. When you objectively realize that, the battle if half over. Yay! I did not die and I am not certifiably mad. The next thing you need to do is look for answers. My answer came quite by chance. An article in a local yet prestigious magazine suggested that those prone to panic attacks were those who were really more sensitive to their surroundings … the hypersensitive. We see, hear, smell and feel more acutely than the average bear. Why yes, I am that and a hypochondriac too. Or is that just because I am hypersensitive? Who knows? In any case, the article suggested that if I was so hypersensitve I would be aware of the feelings I had just before I lost myself to a panic attack…for example, racing thoughts of doom and gloom. It further suggested that when I was overly in touch with myself, and aware of that, I could stop those thoughts. I am and I did.
That describes how I felt pretty well. Generally I had to leave the house as fast as possible or I felt I would die. I’m amazed I didn’t kill myself going down the stairs 4 at a time in blind panic. Only once did there seem to be a proximate cause. Somehow I hit the sleep timer on my TV without realizing it, and I had never seen it before. It basically comes onscreen and says “goodnight” then counts backwards from 10. For some reason this brought on an attack and I might have broken the sound barrier getting out of there!
Fortunately, this only happened about 5 times total in my life, and not once since I moved out of that creepy house. There must have some weird outgassing comming up through the basement or something. Being in NJ I wonder if it was radon. shrug