OMG!!! I can't stand this anymore!

I have SO much anxiety, I just don't even know what to do! I don't know how to handle this anymore and I just need it to stop before I just have a heart attack. This has been going on ALL DAY since I woke up 10 hours ago!!

HELP!

I don't think you'll have a heart attack but I think I understand how you feel. Are you on an anti-anxiety med? There are also meds to slow your heart rate if that is a problem. And they are dirt cheap. Exercise is a great natural anxiolytic as well. Meditation too if you can force yourself to sit still long enough.
I don't know your dx so this may be useless info
Take care

I'm sorry its been such a hard day. Is it anxiety over a specific thing or more general? Either way, and I know how annoyingly silly it sounds due to its apparent simplicity, but take a moment in a quiet place. Take a few slow, deep breaths. Know that this too will pass. things will be ok and give yourself time to relax and be kind to yourself

Hi Insideout
Really sorry for you.
Relax. Just try to relax. Here are a few tips for you. Slow down a bit and listen to your favorite music. Take a long slow walk. Get some hot bath or showers. write in your personal diary whatever goes in your mind which will help you in venting out Your self. Are you on pills?

i WISH i was on anti anxiety pills. My doctors refuse to give me benzos cuz they are addictive.

My doctors are the same, insideout. They will tell me how to manage it on my won but it is very difficult to when it hits. Like today...I have gradually weaned off of sleeping pills, because I have read from medical journals that they don't help me sleep, they simply make me lose recall of the night. I might have tossed and turned all night still, but simply cannot recall it. So, I slowly weaned myself off of them.

Now, with mild insomnia, my sleep is broken. This can feed the anxiety. The doctors tell me to practice mindful breathing and relaxation techniques. However, with my overactive mind, I cannot get it to relax. This leads to frustration and more stress. My heart rate will not slow down regardless of exercises and healthy diet, and cholesterol meds and antidepressants. The rapid heart rate scares me more and feeds into the anxiety.

When I was prescribed Ativan.....it worked beautifully, and, I only used it maybe three times a year. However, due to the risk of addiction.....docs won't prescribe it for me now. There fore my anxiety is getting out of control now and then. I understand your pain, insideout.

I understand these feelings of anxiety. I feel like I am going to jump right out of my skin sometimes. Then tardive dyskineisia kicks in and I can't relax at all.

Lately I have been listening to a radio show on line. This helps me to relax a little.
My doctor told me to stop reading fiction stories. Now I read nothing but non fiction.
I hope you start feeling better soon. Write a journal, and give it to your doctor. Maybe he will have a better understanding of what is happening to you. This does help.

The Doctor cannot break confidentiality so it's just between you and your doctor.

Sardean

Sorry your are feeling so bad. Anxiety sucks! You have gotten some great advice above really nothing more I can add. Just wanted you to know you are not alone people do care and do the best you can to try and close your eyes and relax. Hope you feel better soon.

(((insideout)))

Your post yesterday sounds as though you were nearly in full panic mode. Is there something, in particular, that brought up the intensity? Or do you fight this intensity daily?

Have you noticed the anxiety start to go down a little bit ever? What's happening when it's going down? Is your mind being taken off things and onto simple things, like playing cards, or is the cause due to the anguish of someone else?

I'm not a doctor of any sort, but I have done significant studying of the disease over the years. My words are like a report (I just won't write a bibliography or quote anyone!) .

The first and foremost advice: see a doctor to rule out possible physical causes (like neurological). I, unfortunately, skipped this very important step due to not being insured at that time in my life. We therefore, skipped the neurological cause, which made the battle even harder to fight.

Second: build a happy place that you can escape to in your mind. Go there during good and bad times, so the anxiety isn't brought along with you there. Close your eyes, and focus on a small stone in your hand. How does it feel? Smooth? Rough? Jagged and sharp? Or rounded edges? Can you feel any crevices within the stone? Any tiny holes that water can evaporate in? Does the stone have any smell to it? How does the stone make you feel? Does it bring up any thoughts or memories? You can use any object, I just like to use stones, leaves, fabric, seashells....
After 5-10 minutes, come back to reality. You should feel more calm. The better that you are at meditating, the more quickly and easily you can relax yourself out of an intense panic.

Third: Keep a journal to record your success and your hard days. I used to call my bad days "splats" ~ I'd say, "I had a couple of splats today. It was rough." and let it be. Other days I said, "No splats today ~ It was great! Though I am kind of worried about _____." Just keeping track of those little things really helped me put things into proper perspective, instead of simply looking back and seeing intense panic. In retrospect, I can now see that my splats were actually seizures, which then brought up panic inside of me. Once I learned to manage my stress level better, my seizures came less frequently and with less intensity.

I hope that my words of advice can help you a little bit (or a lot! ~ I know that I happily took every bit of better I could get my hands on back then! Very best wishes to you!

I'm glad all doctors don't share that view...and I'm sorry yours does. How about a med to slow your heart rate...assuming it's up around teh 190-200 BPM range.
I'm trying to remember the name of the med...inderal? ...propranolol? I don't believe it's addictive.
Are you on any SSRI or SRNI meds? If so then I wonder why your doc doesn't consider those addictive. IMO they are as difficult to stop as a benzo.
And you cannot overdose lethally on a benzo. Buspirone is one alternative to benzos. It isn't addictive but I've read that it takes 2 to 4 weeks to be effective and it doesn't work for everyone.
Feeling any better now?

Today I haven't been as anxious.

Are you thinking of a blood pressure med? They told me my blood pressure was on the low side w/ rapid heart rate. And they say it will pass WELL IT HASNT IN YEARS! (im not yelling at you, im yelling at my doctors.)

but, My doctors are pizsing me off! I AM in full panic many times a week. Sometimes it lasts hours at a time, goes away for 10-20 minutes and comes back. In my opinion it is cruel of them to withhold appropriate medication for panic = klonopin, and I want to find out how to sue them or something. When someone comes to you with a resting pulse of 175, you should give them a pill to help them! not just say I'm a recovering addict and i cant have them.

Thats just gonna make someone need to take heroin.
ugh!

Heart rate or as you said more properly, resting pulse rate. Def not talking about blood pressure. I don't know anything about medical ethics or how a doc views a recovering addict. I'm pretty sure I've read that klonopin has been used for recovering addicts. It's obviously less addictive and less dangerous than heroin. And much less expensive. Have you ever taken klonopin?

As quoted by shezbut.....focus on a small stone in your hand. How does it feel? Smooth? Rough? Jagged and sharp? Or rounded edges? Can you feel any crevices within the stone? Any tiny holes that water can evaporate in? Does the stone have any smell to it? How does the stone make you feel? Does it bring up any thoughts or memories? You can use any object, I just like to use stones, leaves, fabric, seashells....

Shezbut: Thank you for this advice. Perhaps a tactile stimulation is what I need instead of simply thought control. I will try this, this evening.

I like the idea of focusing on the texture of an object in your hand. I will have to do that with a cottonball cuz I'd end up throwing the rock.

A cotton ball will work too. The point of this exercise is to focus all of your thoughts and attention on the cotton ball. Your mind will probably go into something else during the exercise a time or two. That's okay ~ it's perfectly normal for our minds to wander. Just bring your focus back onto the cotton ball again.

It really does work well ~ it's worth a shot! (((hugs)))

I'm kinda in the same boat. I used to take benzos for 10 years and they helped me a great deal to manage my life - and get a life in the first place.
I was working, had a family life.
Now since I'm off the med I can't do anything anymore.
Docs say those meds are addictive but is it better to stay at home everyday
doing nothing? I'm off the meds for almost 2 years and never had withdraw symptoms and such. Especially Psychiatrist don't like prescribing those meds. It's like asking for Heroin like you stated. Tired of arguing with them.
People might fall for harder drugs because their md won't even prescribe the meds the patient wants.
thank you so much docotors!
anyway just thought I share some of my thoughts.
hang in there and good luck!

I know EXACTLY what you mean!!! I would rateher be on Klonopin that where I am at right now which is pretty much curled up in a ball unable to make friends, unable to keep friends, unable to deal with any stressful thing that comes up, especially meetings.

And this does drive people to do harder drugs.
Im living proof of that.

Got my Klonopin!!!! Not a day too soon!!!
my lifesaver.

You are way messed up with all the stuff you are taking/getting off of/avoiding, etc. I think if you don't work with your doctors you may crash and then the whole job/life style thing will be moot. I would put up with the anxiety any day, all day rather than mess with the drugs and get as tangled as you appear to be.

BY THE WAY....

The klonopin IS prescribed to me for panic disorder and akathisia.

Well I am glad they finally got around to prescribing you something to help. Sounds terrible to have to deal with frequent panic attacks with no relief. I get panic attacks to but I tend to self medicate since thus far its been my only option since I haven't had a psychiatrist or even just regular doctor. I admit I can't freaking stand feeling like that either...having relief and being more functional in my opinion is better then not being able to function at all because you have no relief. I feel it is rather cruel if one suggests it's best to just suffer the anxiety attacks because anti-anxiety drugs can be addictive.

Anyways I hope you're feeling somewhat better.

thank you hellion!
It is cruel to suggest that someone should just "deal with it".
anyone who says that is talking out their rear end and has never felt the agony you and i have felt.
panic is truely miserable.

I am feeling a million times better with klonopin!

My doctor i saw was also upset that my PDOC and other providers refused the med.
He called it unethical practice to withhold appropriate medication and allow a patient to suffer.

I agree 100%

Not to mention the physical damage being in a constant state of anxiety can cause. But yeah that is unethical, I mean some people cannot bring their anxiety to a manageable level just by determination. But I am glad that has helped.

Your doctors are right, they're addictive, but xanax has saved my life. I went from 4 a day down to 2. If your doctor won't give you anything, go to another doctor. Sometimes we have to break down and take something. I have severe anxiety everyday; between my xanax and abilify they really help.
You will be okay, it just feels like you're having a heart attack, but you're probably not.
Levon7

Have you tried buspar? Chains