Constantly triggered

Box breathing works well for me for relieving anxiety.

Sorry if you wrote about this and I missed it: Can the person who is prescribing your pmeds find a therapist for you?

Thanks for your reply! I’m going to use deep breathing exercises while I’m at work if I have an anxiety attack. My primary care doctor really will only refer me to the terrible therapy practice my healthcare organization provides. I’ve tried two therapists from there already who were awful.

I've had since Wed off from work due to the Fourth of July USA Holiday on Thurs. I only ventured out once from my home this whole time, aside from running necessary errands. on Friday I had had enough of everything, I threw in the towel for the day, and decided to go drinking at a local bar within walking distance to my home. And what happens at the bar? I sat by myself at the bar, and the one person sitting near me struck up a conversation with me. We talked for a couple of hours. After that much time of chatting, he decides to tell me that he is protected by the mafia and that he is in an open marriage and would love to come home with me.

OMG. I am beginning to feel that I am far better off just hiding in my home. At least for now. I am attracting all the wrong kinds of people every time I venture out. Yeah, I know it was a bar, and therefore, it's far more likely I'll meet someone sketchy. But it is becoming really strange that nearly every time I try, it's always the nutty ones who come and talk to me and try to befriend me.

Yes, my wife says that she tends to attract nutty folks and "whack jobs." For example, she got me!

(No offense to anyone here matching these descriptions.)

Hmm, seriously, "I am attracting all the wrong kinds of people every time I venture out." Do you suppose that's an exaggeration? I hope you don't let your fears hold you prisoner in your home.

lol… well that’s me too!! No, it’s not an exaggeration. The first woman who befriended me turned out to be a rage filled drunk who became totally belligerent with me at a concert for no reason and screamed at me in the middle of the crowd; the second woman who befriended me, her ex boyfriend wants to literally kill her, so she’s totally in hiding and thinks everyone is out to get her, then the third woman who befriended me turned out to be a gossipy highly toxic narcissist who wanted me to pander to her every need. Good Lord. Yeah so I’ve had my fill in the last year.

Holy cow. My anxiety symptoms were so bad today at work that I froze at my computer for a large portion of my work day. I’m scared.

Again today, it happened. This time when my brain stopped working I thought I maybe just needed coffee. I got two strong iced coffees. 1-2 hours later, my brain froze again. I couldn’t focus. It took me 2 hours to write one email. I went home. I spoke with a nurse who prescribed a new anti anxiety med 9-10 days ago. She wants me to stick with it and see how I feel in another week. She said it can take 2 or even 3 weeks to truly take effect. She’s referring me to a psych nurse now. I also received a referral today for a trauma therapist. Ok so there’s some progress in the right direction. But total brain freeze, 2 days in a row at work, making it too difficult to focus? I told my best girlfriend that it almost felt like my brain has gone into a state of shock. I can’t remember what I did the day before. I go into a room and forget why and what I was doing. I’m getting chores done and am able to care for my cat. I close the curtains when I’m home. I’m so on edge when I drive in town. Thinking I could see my abusive ex husband at any time, anywhere, or even driving by my home. I feel claustrophobic.. him moving so close to me is having a severely negative impact on my mental health. It’s getting worse since I spotted him three times in the last month. I feel stalked and abused all over again, a full year after our divorce. I’m being retraumatized with him living so close by. I was so happy for a whole year following the divorce.. until he moved right back into my neighborhood. I believe he did this deliberately to ruin my life. He did this right after he learned I had been dating. Now I close my curtains. I feel like a traumatized petrified person hiding in my home. How can I work? How am I going to make it through work tomorrow? This is horrible. Absolutely horrible.. I wouldn’t wish this upon anyone.

I read last night that PTSD can do this to a person's brain and cognitive functioning. I drove home from work yesterday on constant alert for danger. I woke up this morning with the same danger alerts immediately on. My heart is racing. My thoughts are racing.

I pray that this trauma therapist gets in touch with me ASAP.

I'm going to tell my boss I need to work from home again today.

I saw a trauma therapist last night who will work with me. He diagnosed me with PTSD. I asked about EMDR therapy and he's getting trained in EMDR in Sept-Oct. If possible, I may also pursue that type of treatment, but his practice is located at least a couple hours drive away from where I live. We're holding virtual sessions for therapy.

At least now I have a therapist that I can meet with weekly. Thank goodness.

Hi Hope,

First off, I want to say, "Thank You" for how wonderful and positive and supportive you've been to me for years on here. I appreciate your thoughtfulness so much.

Can I take this conversation in a different direction?

Please, if you can, indulge me for a few minutes.


There are anxieties that don't respond well to traditional medications. We all know that. We know there are people who "light up" at times. I have every belief that everything you are saying is real and true. OK? But what if the root cause of this one is something different?

Have you ever looked at histamine as a neurochemical? It does a lot of wacky things to us.

The stuff I'm going to tell you about is all based on published research I've read over the years. At one time, I did a degree related to advanced sport performance. I was especially interested in the role that inflammation played, both as an adaptive response (making muscles grow stronger) and as an injury response (swelling).

Histamine is an inflammation response, but it also has a lot of effect on the brain.

It's possible to end up in a loop.... Heightened anxiety triggers a stress response which includes mast cells dumping inflammation chemicals, those inflammation chemicals produce responses in the body such as vasodilation, changes in gut motility, sweating, water retention, and other things. IF your liver can't clear those inflammatory chemicals out of your blood in time, the feedback mechanism to your brain begins to light up AGAIN! Think about the panic that sets in as you get sick or injured. Your brain is freaking out because of feedback from your body. Well, it's kinda the same thing.

Histamine produces heightened sensory responses too. High histamine levels are seen in schizophrenia, multiple sclerosis, in people who have very vivid dreams (not all of us see color, or feel pain, or smell things in our dreams), in fibromyalgia, in dysautonomia, migraines, and other conditions. Mast cells, which release histamine, are often higher in biopsies in people who have these illnesses. Dr Theoharides at Tusfts University has been saying for years that Fibromyalgia is a misdiagnosed mast cell condition, for example.

People who have dealt with trauma are more prone to heightened inflammation responses, and that includes higher levels of histamine.

But something that was interesting to me was that in double blind studies done on nurses, where a dose of histamine was injected, a large percentage of them responded by having panic attacks. Histamine induces anxiety.

An antihistamine isn't the single best option for treatment though. An antihistamine just blocks the histamine receptors. It's like playing musical chairs.... The blocker gets to the chair first. But then the histamine just floats in the blood until it can attach to another tissue.

A person may need some help breaking it down, and lowering the levels in the blood to begin with.

IDEAS! JUST IDEAS BECAUSE I'M NOT A DOCTOR!!

1. Antihistamines that act on a couple of types of tissues - like gut and sinuses - Pepcid and Benadryl

2. Reduce mast cell responses - magnesium supplements, because magnesium blocks mast cell receptors and keeps them from popping off so much. If magnesium upsets your stomach remember it can be absorbed through your skin, so an epsom salt bath 2x a week can be a big help.

3. Supplemental glutathione, vitamin C, and fish oils - ALL of these help break down histamine and reactive oxygen species that histamine produces.

4. DAO supplements - your body produces DAO to break down histamine. If your DAO or Glutathione levels are lower than normal, a person could possibly have higher levels of circulating histamine because their body just can't get rid of it.


Anyway.... JUST IDEAS.

Love yourself. You're awesome and we appreciate you.


RDMercer

@RDMercer,

It's been my pleasure supporting you through your journey, and that's what we're here for.. to support and help each other through the struggles and pain we face.

And WOW! No, you're not a doctor, but you must play one on TV! HEHEHEHEE.

Love this advice, and thanks so much for sharing it with me now. This could not be better timing, in fact. I have inflammation in my groin that has gotten far worse lately due I believe to anxiety and panic attacks. I am taking vitamin supplements and anti-inflammatories, but your advice sounds spot on and I will definitely look into this further. I greatly appreciate you coming onto my thread and helping me like this... it's been so quiet on the forum lately, and I've been wondering where everyone I know went!

Again, thank you. You're an Angel, and I appreciate you! And right back at ya - love yourself always and take good care of YOU!!!!

Another thing about histamine….

Think about the deep muscle fatigue you feel when you have a bad cold or flu.

Histamine disrupts energy production in your muscle cells. We have a few different pathways that we can breakdown sugar and turn it into a form of chemical energy (called ATP) that your muscles can use.

One pathway is slower, but produces a lot of ATP and very little byproducts.

The other is intended to provide a short burst of energy (BEAR! RUN!) but it is inefficient. It doesn’t produce as much energy and also produces more fatigue (waste) products in the muscle, like lactic acid.

High levels of histamine causes your muscles to lock into the low production pathway. You end up feeling deeply exhausted.

The OTHER problem is, because histamine can heighten sensory input (I’m sick, and this blanket is scratchy, and everything is too loud, and that light is too bright) it messes up your sleep.

Fatigue and poor sleep will also induce anxiety. ALL OF US are on edge after a few days of poor sleep.

Like I said, I went down this rabbit hole about 25 years ago looking at skeletal muscle energy pathways. Then I ended up with two family members with autoimmune issues. I used to spends hours each day looking up published research on these topics.

The heightened pain you talked about…. Histamine causes skin sensitivity (think hives) but you have to recognize that things inside us that “line” our internal parts are all still skin. The lining of your mouth and gut is skin, more or less. So is the lining of your bladder. And your sex organs.

High histamine levels have been seen in irritable bowel, irritable bladder, and vulvodynia.


RDMercer

@RDMercer,

I have been losing sleep too. In fact, last night I hardly slept! This all makes sense to me. I will take your advice and will get some Magnesium. I can't stand fish oil due to the smell and taste - way too fishy! LOL. I will look into the other supplements too, thanks again!

Quercetin is an excellent mast cell stabilizer.

There are so many things that can tip the balance in this system….

What if your mast cells are more reactive or sensitive than normal?

What if your body has a poorly-metered reaction to something, meaning you dump MORE histamine than you should?

What if you’re on the low end of producing glutathione? We test for low thyroid and low insulin. But glutathione isn’t tested.

The other way histamine is cleared from your body is by a compound called diamine oxidase. What if your DAO levels are low? There’s no test for DAO.

What if you have low magnesium and vitamin D levels?? Both those cause a huge host of symptoms, all related to mast cells.

Mast cells are specialized white blood cells. What if your white blood cell count is slightly elevated all the time but still within the range of “normal”?

There are SO MANY things that could cause all this and fly under the radar.

Dr Theoharides again has produced repeatable research showing that Quercetin (derived from apple skins) does a great job of stabilizing mast cells. That’s been duplicated again and again.

There are also OTC drugs available that are mast cell stabilizers. Naso Crom is a chromolyn nasal spray. It stops mast cells from popping off instead of treating the histamine response after it’s released. A lot of chronic migraine sufferers get relief from this nasal spray because of histamines connection to migraines and light sensitivity.

Anyway.

RDMercer

@RDMercer, I am actually long overdue for the annual blood tests that I should be doing to check on all those levels you mention. I also will start taking a multi-vitamin for middle-aged women that has vitamin D and magnesium.

I am menopausal, and I am sure that this phase is also contributing.

My sleep began to be grossly interfered with, beginning just several months ago. I was waking up consistently at 3-4 AM, unable to fall back asleep and wide awake. I now only need 6 hours of sleep instead of 8 per night. My energy level is just fine during the day on 6 hours, but my internal clock has clearly shifted quite a lot, and I am attributing that to menopausal symptoms.

I am hearing from similar aged girlfriends that there is very little current medical research on menopause symptoms and treatment options, and that doctors rely on research conducted in the 60'6-70's! That's appalling. So present doctors rely on outdated information and have very little to say about any new or unheard of symptoms women display due to menopause. And every woman's experience can be different because the physiological makeup is unique to every person.

Point being, I am in menopause and that plays a significant role, perhaps not regarding the inflammation and pain I have in my groin, but definitely my sleep and my hormones are going haywire.

So I will research women's multi-vitamins and may also begin icing or applying a heating pad to the area that hurts on my groin. It's gotten so much worse now, and I've been dealing with it for the last 2 years.

My wife's pain doctor once prescribed cromolyn sodium oral solution. But she didn't like the taste of it, or it upset her stomach, so I never found out if it helped. (She did mix it into a beverage.)

Cromolyn is available in capsules too by prescription

It’s an amazing drug when you read about it; very few interactions with other medications, safe in high doses, few side effects and those tend to subside quickly.

It’s been around for so long there are no patents on it, so it’s not marketed by drug companies.

There’s another natural compound called palmitoylethanalamide that is widely used in parts of Europe (Holland, Italy, Spain) as a treatment for chronic pain and inflammation. It, again, is naturally present in your body and it’s possible to be deficient in it. The researcher who discovered its role won a Nobel prize.

Palmitoylethanolamide controls mast cell die-off. All our tissues turn over. Cells die and regrow. Palmitoylethanolamide controls the rate of that in mast cells. Over a period of 2-3 months, once taking it, it will reset the cycle. In Holland it’s sold as PEApure and there’s another manufacturer in California.

It’s a really safe option to try for chronic pain conditions. It’s been tested in tens of thousands of long term test subjects in Europe and is prescribed for pain management in some countries.

Looks like it caught on with other manufacturers

Palmitoylethanolamide (PEA) Powder - Natural Relief

PEA400 Palmitoylethanolamide Vegetarian Capsules
– Healthtree

Buy Palmitoylethanolamide Capsules (PEA) | Palmitoylethanolamide Benefits

Thank you for the information about palmitoylethanalamide, @RDMercer!