Is this a panic attack?

Is this a panic attack?I have woke up with my heart racing fast, but I have no recollection of any dream when I awoke. I just gently console my self and my heart rate goes back to normal. But my being believes I have just had a nightmare again.I have had panic attacks when I am awake and I recognize that I am having one and I talk to myself in consoling words and it just passes.I can't help but wonder if my subconscious is trying to tell my conscious something important. But that I am too afraid to let my mind know what it is. when I awake.Any ideas you all?

Smilie :

yes it is a panic attack, I had my first one when I was in a deep sleep, scared the heck outta me because it never happened before. I woke up with a racing pounding heart,my left arm was buzzing..I went to the E.R because I thought I was having a heart attack. I had to learn all about anxiety and panic attacks and they are caused by us we have a chemical imbalance and for some reason our brain gives the wrong message to our body and tells it we are in trouble so our adrenal starts going up because of a wrong signal...cognitive therapy that you are doing is the right thing. eventually we have to retrain our brain that this is not an emergency but yet our symptoms are real....we have to accept it as anxiety and it's not going to hurt you even tho the symptoms are pretty scary....my life did a 360 turn when this happened I changed my lifestlye and walk,walk, walk this raises all the good endorphins in your body and you are forced to focus on positive things. When I get the feeling like I'm losing control I talk to myself and say "ok,I know what this is it will pass and it won't hurt you and they slowly pass it has taken me months and they don't scare me anymore so they are getting farther and farther apart. I just know because I have been to "H" and back and there is alight at the end of the tunnel. Good luck and your doing the right thing.

Thanks, I didn't realize that that was cognitive therapy.I have been having panic attacks while I have been awake. I forgot to tell my T that I had a bad panic attack in the car on the hwy last week. Can you tell me more about cognitive therapy?You say that the body release endorphines when we walk and this balances the chemical em balance out.. I had forgotten the fact that the panic attack effects the adrenal glad.Thanks again for all the important facts.I have been having panic attacks for about 2 years. And yes I have noticed that they are shorter and farther apart unless I am having a lot of PSTD.
Smilie

hi Cognitve therapy is just that 'consoling youself' telling your self that this is what it is. We are always wanting an answer to why we are feeling this way and usually we think the worse..like something dreadful is wrong..like I'm losing control..we literally scare ourselves in thinking 'this is it'! I am going to die or lose my mind. Our adrenal is a good thing but when it happens for no reason it can be quite scary, it is a chemical that our brain releases when we are in a situation like e.g. someones breaking into our house ...you get scared it's the same feeling. The chemical Serotonin is a make you feel good hormone and sometimes as people we lose that balance in our brain hence ' chemical imbalance' some of us are more prone to anxiety because of how we look at life situations, I have a very imagintive creative mind always have been that way, plus I am very sensitive so I tend to take alot of things to heart. So I am getting older (42) I am premenopausing and my body was changing so my chemicals(we all have em) were flucuating and boom it triggered my panic attack. Most people will have a panic or anxiety at least once in there life and never experience another one but if you have more then one it's usually an imbalance...it's usually a wake-up call and we have to change our lifestyle which includes ...what we eat....how much we excercise....how we think, moderation in everything we do is the key...to much of one thing is not good..not enough is not good either. We have to find a balance. Cognitive therapy works because it makes us think of the positive and not the negative. We always should not run away or ignore our thoughts there just thoughts ...when your feeling or thinking of something that we figuer we shouldn't think about we tell our brain and push that thought away because it's a unpleasent thought and hope it will go away we are afraid of it....aknowledge the thought for a 1/2 a minute no longer and then push it away otherwise it will keep creaping back into our thoughts, keep doing this and before you know it, it disappears. This is called facing your fears, it is powerful tool....an example is some people are afraid to fly because the plane will crash...a thought...but face your fear and repeat your thoughts out loud say to yourself 'the plane is going to crash it is not as upsetting as we think, I am not saying to pay ateention to the negative just aknowledge it that it is there and then let it go..it is only a thought..you will be amazed by educating yourself on our mental health that it is all just another step in life and it does not have to be scary. There is medication out there and it can be scary to think about that but for some people they just need that cushion to sit on while they are healing it can be very crippling to live that way and you don't have to. Find a good Dr I just have a regular dr who dabbles abit in Natuopathic ways and meds are not always the answer but they can help as long as your willing to help yourself...you are your own best doctor...take care and god bless!

Thanks for the valuable information.
Smilie