Panic attack #5!

No relation to Love Potion #9. I recently had a panic attack (5 total in my life). I suffer from social anxiety, which causes isolation, avoidance of relationships, which in turn leads to loneliness and depression...then every few years, it all goes up in flames and I have a full blown panic attack. I'm becoming aware of the cycle of anxiety and depression and am trying to break it with the help of an ACT therapist. I don't take any meds except for insomnia as I'm a long-time recovering addict and don't want to get dependent on chemicals (or I might start abusing them).

I would have never posted on a site like this before so I feel like this a step in the right direction. I feel a little overwhelmed between therapy, journaling, support groups and of course trying to self-diagnose. Right now I'm just trying to learn how to breathe to decrease anxiety. Also forcing myself to interact with people rather than avoid them...getting a little easier. Every day is 3 steps forward, then 2 back. Thanks everyone for sharing your stories.

It sounds like you're on the way to getting better. The fact that you are doing it med free is admirable.

I have to take a low dose 10 mg SSRI or I roll with panic attacks multiple times a day. I think being bipolar, too, makes it harder to deal with. Although it's very common.
Panic disorder will frequently travel with bipolar disorder. I read scientists are starting to think it's the same chromosome impacted by both. I joke that panic disorder is simply too scared to travel alone and needs a friend.

If you can get the anxiety under control with the techniques you mentioned, just keep at it. It gets frustrating at times, but hang in there.

Hello i also have the same problem as you the social anxiety and panic attacks had 4 of them the last one being the most terrible of all, in my case the panic attacks are triggered when im in a place full of people that i don't know and they start making too much noise hearing about 40 people or so talking at the same time in a closed place for example it triggers a panic attack immediatly, the way i found to control those attacks when i am in places like that is to have close friends at my side, with people i like around the chances of having a attack are less , it also depends on the situation, in my 4th attack i was in a temp job and while i was in a small room taking a break to eat dinner suddenly another person walked in the room to eat aswell and i started to have some symptons and after a minute or two more 3 random people join us and the 4 of them start to talk loud about random things and it was awfull i had to leave that place immediatly and ran off to a place were i could be alone.

About the meds i used to take some anti depresants and one other that i don't remember, i didn't worry about abusing them but they did not have any affects on me my psychiatrist once changed my recipies and still no effects so about 3 months ago i stopped using them they were useless, don't know if i did the right thing or not but i won't take them anymore and will try to recover without their use, still need to tell my psychiatrist that i stopped them she still does not know about it. xD

Good luck on your recovery and thanks for sharing your experiences.

About 15 years ago, I went to a psychiatrist after thinking I was just depressed...I had recently had had a panic attack. He conjectured that these "panic attacks" that only happen every few years were manic episodes. Also I was pretty wired for about a week after starting Prozac--he said that reaction to SSRIs was indicative of bi-polar. I tried several anti-depressants for about a year, but none since. Anyone else with similar experiences?