Medical disclaimer: I’ve already seen a doctor, and had my blood taken, chest x-rayed, and heart echographed/electrographed. Apparently, my heart is fine, so they said “exercise and probably don’t worry.” I’m just curious if anyone else has had this and gotten a more helpful answer.
I’m young–21–and I get probably 20 minutes of exercise a day from biking to and from campus. I’m tall and quite thin.
What happens is that at random times–when I’m sitting studying, talking on the phone, biking, I’ll suddenly get this terrible feeling. It isn’t painful, but it’s very uncomfortable, and it starts around my diaphragm before spreading outward. It’s almost as though I feel faint, but I can will myself to walk and talk normally. Breathing heavily helps. It’s confined to my chest–my head feels okay. The worst part is this terror, this sense of impending doom that accompanies it.
Each episode lasts about ten seconds. I feel completely fine afterward. They come in cycles. From about January to mid-March, I barely had any. Before that, I would have two or so a day. The last couple of weeks, I’ve had one every other day, give or take.
Is this uncommon? Apparently it doesn’t worry my doctors (I’ve seen 3), so I’m more wondering what it could be.
This isn’t medical advice either, but talking to a mental-health provider could be helpful. Anxiety disorders can be treated a number of ways, including therapy and biofeedback.
Also, psychiatrists use many types of medication to address anxiety. Therapists usually know which physicians in the area are good at their jobs.
IAAP, but not yours. I can’t make a diagnosis without a proper evaluation. Probably not even licensed in your locality.
You say you had your blood tested. Did they do any sort of fasting glucose test? Does taking in sugar or white flour give you any sort of sugar high, perhaps followed by a crash? I ask because I was having a similar issue, and it turns out I’ve got reactive hypoglycemia, which is a barrel o’ fun. I was diagnosed with panic attacks/anxiety disorder before I actually found out what was wrong with me. Unless they did a fasting glucose test, or checked your blood sugar while you were actually feeling faint, it is a possibility for you.
I had these exact symptoms around that age. It was panic attacks and it is not uncommon. They are not dangerous but can seriously inhibit your social life (if not your sanity) if they get worse.
The hardest part about coming to terms with panic attacks for me was the idea I could not ‘think’ them away. In other words, just knowing what was wrong didn’t allow me to control them.
Ultimately, I sought therapy here. Though I was pretty bad, a place you, thankfully, have not reached.
I haven’t read it all the way through but this site seems to offer some good information. Check your symptoms against it.
Echoing the suggestion that it’s a panic attack. What you’ve described is 100% like the panic attacks that I was having.
A subscription for Lexapro and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy have helped me combat them, it’s now been nearly 2 months without one, where previously I was averaging one every couple of days.
See a head doctor, talk it through with them & it might help.
Because you’re alive?
No, just kidding. Your OP Title just sounded like something Charlie Brown would say.
I’ve had panic attacks, too–used to have them in High School, had one a few weeks ago that made me go to the hospital, fearing I was having a stroke/heart attack. I was, as you were, utterly medically normal, and it soon passed, leaving me feeling sheepish that I had wasted everyone’s time.
Yep, eleventying “panic attacks”. I had them in college as well - but they weren’t *about *college, just saying that I was about the same age as you. And I guess from a caveman’s perspective, that makes sense - now is the time you should be out fighting for a mate and doing the heavy club-bashing of mastodon brains so you can provide for your family. Nice things to have an extra occasional surge of fight-or-flight hormones for. Instead of curling up in a ball and whimpering (which was my coping strategy), try running around the quad for a few minutes to use up those hormones.
