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My Story - Submitted by Noony, 03/07/2007    Next Story

I wanted to write and tell you about how ill I feel every day with anxiety and depression. I spend nearly all my time feeling sick and aching so much and every day I notice something else about my body that feels not right. I am always thinking about cancer and I'm convinced I have it. I always feel tired and can't remember the last time I woke up feeling energetic. I know deep down that a lot of it is because of anxiety and depression but I still can't stop thinking that I am going to die from a horrible disease. I went to have my heart checked out because it always feels like it will fail when I have anxiety but they couldn't find anything wrong.

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My Story - Submitted by JP, 25/06/2007    Next Story    Previous Story

Hi

I have just read your article about fear and anxiety during thunderstorms and feeling like the world is ending.

For about 4 years now I have been having panic attacks and these get much worse during a storm and, like you said on your page, when anything makes me think about outer space or infinity. I feel like there is no way I am going to survive through to the next day. When a storm comes I try to go to sleep but very often I can't. If I can get to sleep I always feel relieved and surprised to wake up again.

I would like to hear from anybody who suffers the same.

JP

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My Story - Submitted by Chris, 30/05/2007    Next Story    Previous Story

Hi everyone

About 8 years ago I went to bed one night after dropping my girlfriend off at her house and after being in bed for about 10 minutes I had a really strange feeling in the back of my head. It wasn't a pain or anything, it just felt like something was wrong. I could feel myself getting more and more scared and within a few minutes I was shaking all over and I had an overwhelming urge to get out of the house. I got dressed and ran downstairs feeling like my legs were going to give way. The only thing I could think of to do was get in my car and drive so that's what I did. I could feel my legs shaking every time I tried to press the pedals in the car and I was getting more and more convinced that I was going to die.

After driving round for about two hours I finally felt calm enough to return home but even then I couldn't go to bed. I sat on the sofa with a duvet and tried to take my mind off the fear by watching television but it took me about another three hours to go to sleep.

The next day I made an appointment at the doctor's and he told me that it was a panic attack and that I should just ignore it because it was completely harmless.

I tried to ignore it and for the next couple of weeks everything went back to normal but then it happened again - and again a few days later. I went back to the doctor's and he prescribed me a drug called Seroxat. I took Seroxat for a few months but, looking back, it was doing me more harm than good. I was getting pains in my arms and legs and finding it very hard to control my anger so I eventually stopped taking them - which resulted in about a week of bursting into tears for no real reason.

In the years that followed the panic attacks got more and more frequent and I tried several drugs - citalopram, dothiepine, fluoxetine - and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to get rid of them but nothing seemed to work. I was getting more and more obsessed with my health and found that I was constantly anxious about illness and death. My social life was suffering and I was missing a lot of time off work because I was just too anxious to go.

In August of 2005 I was walking down the street near where I live and I suddenly got a feeling that I was too far from home and I had to get back. This was the start of my agoraphobia and over the next year my movements got more and more limited to the point where I would hardly ever venture out of my bedroom. I lost my job and had to move back to my parents' house because even simple things like walking 100 yards to the shop seemed impossible.

In September last year (2006) I registered with a new doctor near my parents house and he came to my house to see me and prescribed a drug called escitalopram. This seems to be working quite well and I am now much less anxious and going out for occasional walks. I have had to push myself to do this but I feel like the medication gave me a helping hand to be able to do this.

Chris

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My Story - Submitted by Jayne, 29/05/2007    Previous Story

 

Hi

I had my first panic attack seven years agoI thought it came out of the blue,but lookng back I realise that I had been depressed for a couple of months before it happened because I was suffering sexual harrasment at work. Any way I had just came home from picking my son up from school he was in reception year,I was finally telling my husband just how bad things had got at work when I suddenly had this tingling sensations go down my left side, my mouth drooped for a split second, then my fingers clenched for a second, it was almost as though something was travelling down from the top of my head and out of my hand. The feeling lasted only about five seconds max,but then I started hyperventilating and had rapid heartbeat. I was convinced I had had a stroke and in a panic called my GP who said it said sounded classic symptoms of panic attack. I went along to the surgery and had blood pressure checked and a thorough check up, thenkfully everything was normal NO stroke. Howerver this triggered off a breakdown,but luckily with the help of my husband a good GP and the thought that I needed to be strong for my son I was back to myself within three months. never had another 'major' panic attack after the first but if I started to feel 'weird ' I would have to get away from people and this seemed to calm me down,

Since that first incident I have been unfortunate to have suffered another breakdown two years ago when I had a miscarriage,again with support I was able to get back to normal within a couple of months. However last september things got really bad again due to overwork that I again had a smilar panic attack to that first one,and even though I knew what it was it still didnt stop me panicking, again all check ups were fine, I was off work for a couple of months with anxiety and depression but had such a bad time n the anti depressents that I came off them and with the support of a fabulous GP managed to get back to some sense of normality,

However this time I have unfortunately developed a driving phobia, I dont know wheter this was triggered because I had witnessed two serious crashes leading up September,although I wasnt involved in them both were so close it was a miracle wasnt hurt,One a car it the car ifront of me head on sending it spinnng back about six inches from my car, and the second I had just parked outside my house got on to the path when there was a collision with a transit and a car six fet away sending the car onto mine where I had been standing seconds before,I was showered in glass but not injured. Sice then I really struggle to drive far, I am the only driver,husband doesnt drive, so I force myself to drive,but still can only manage about ten miles maximum and no way could I drive on a motorway or duel carriageway!! We used to have a caravan on the East coast but had to give it up because I daren't drive. I hope in time that I will be confident again behind the wheel bit who knows.

I hope my story may give others a bit of support to know that they are not alone with their feeling and that it certanly is nothing to be ashamed of.

Jayne

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