Overwhelming feeling of anxiety

I have had these extreme feelings for the past 4 days that I am going to hyperventilate or quit breathing. I have started to feel shaky from time to time, sweaty feeling, somewhat unreal feelings. When I first wake up in the morning I am fine and then as the minutes tick by the feelings start to come. I take zoloft (for years) and I have xanax prescribed as needed. I have taken the xanax and it takes some of the edge off, but its still there. Does anyone else experience this? I feel so alone feeling this way!

I, too, have had those intense feelings of anxiety where you have physical manifestations. The Xanax just put me to sleep. I got a thorough physical to rule out heart probs. (I had chest pains when anxious) & other possible illnesses. Then I made myself take small steps in order to do the things I was fearing--going out in public, taking a class, reaching out to someone in my support group for help, etc. As I became successful at doing these things the anxiety was still there before I attempted anything, but would dissipate as I got involved in whatever the activity was. I just rode through the chest pains & other stuff (feeling out of my body, nausea, foggy thinking, etc.), telling myself they were only my response to anxiety & not dangerous. Hope this helps in some way.--Suzy

Thank you Suzie. Some of the symptoms have let up but I still go into this thing about breathing. Years ago when I had high anxiety I had the chest pains and thought I was having a heart attack. But that has resolved in my head knowing the heart palps and such were created from the anxiety. Now I have this feeling of hyperventaliting or feelings of having an asthma attack where I can't breath along with shortness of breath. I am calling my pdoc tomorrow which he told me to do if I have more problems and I think its time to get a therapist again. I guess I just feel weak and I should have stronger self imagine. My friend always says "you think your wonderwoman? you are going thru a lot" But internally these thoughts are there.....