I wanted to share my experience with panic attacks because I know there are probably other people going through the same thing and wondering what is happening to them.
My first real panic attack happened a few months ago. I had barely eaten that day, then later took around 600 mg of pre-workout/caffeine and used an energy snus with around 150 mg nicotine, plus a normal 15 mg nicotine snus.
I felt completely fine for about 4 hours. Then suddenly my vision got blurry, my heart started racing and I felt like I couldn’t breathe properly. I genuinely thought something was seriously wrong with me. It lasted around 30 minutes, so I called an ambulance.
They checked me and said everything seemed okay and that it was most likely a panic attack, with the huge amount of caffeine and nicotine making it worse.
The next day my doctor checked me and I had an ECG, which was normal. My blood tests were also normal except for a magnesium deficiency.
A few days later at school, I used a 12 mg nicotine snus. About 30 minutes later, my heart started racing again and I had trouble breathing. Another ambulance came and again they thought it was a panic attack.
After that, I became scared of having another one. I started constantly checking my heartbeat, breathing, vision and basically every little thing my body was doing. If my heart beat faster, I immediately thought, “Is it starting again?”
I even became afraid of exercising because I thought that my naturally higher heart rate and heavier breathing could trigger another panic attack.
I noticed that the symptoms were usually worse when I was alone, bored, somewhere unfamiliar or thinking about panic attacks. When I was talking to friends or focusing on something, they often became much weaker.
I also had another panic-like episode at a friend’s house after someone pranked me by saying there was alcohol in my water. I believed it because I had never had alcohol before. I became nauseous, had some breathing difficulty and felt like I might throw up. After around 30 minutes, it passed.
Instead of avoiding everything, I slowly started going back to normal life. I went back to school, went to an aquapark in another country, traveled to Turkey and later started an internship in a completely new environment with new people.
I still had some “mini panic attacks”, especially when I was alone or somewhere unfamiliar, but I kept doing things anyway.
One of the biggest things I realized was that a fast heartbeat doesn’t automatically mean a panic attack. Your heart can beat faster because you’re nervous, excited, moving around or simply paying attention to it.
I probably had normal body sensations even before my first panic attack, but I never cared about them. After that first attack, I started interpreting every little sensation as danger.
I’m still not completely back to how I was before, and I sometimes get uncomfortable feelings or mini panic attacks. But compared to the beginning, it’s a huge difference.
If you’re going through something similar, don’t let the fear make you avoid school, work, exercise, traveling or spending time with friends. At the same time, don’t automatically assume every symptom is anxiety. If you have severe or unusual symptoms, get checked by a doctor.
I just wanted to share this because when my first panic attack happened, I genuinely thought something was seriously wrong with me. Understanding what was happening and continuing my normal life helped me much more than constantly trying to make sure I would never feel anxious again.
If you’re going through this right now, you’re definitely not the only one.

Hey friends I’m 37F like the title says today was my first time in the ER due to a panic attack … yay /s

They did the full panel of tests and everything came back normal. hoping for the best for the upcoming bill (on my hubbys pretty good insurance so hopefully 🤷🏻‍♀️🙏🏻)

I know this isn’t a rare experience so thought I would post in a place where others probably ‘get it’

Happy Tuesday!

I hope you find this somehow and this is the beginning of your recovery. This is the only post I'm going to make on reddit.

I'm 48 female, married with kids. Sometime last year, I had really bad anxiety and panic attacks. So bad, I thought I was going to die or lose my mind, and it sent me into despair thinking I would never get better. My family suffered, my work suffered. After countless late night ER trips and cardio and thyroid labs showing I was healthy, I saw four psychiatrists who tried to put me on all sorts of medication (mainly antidepressants) and was briefly on Xanax which I eventually stopped after two months (it has been over a year now). Apart from checking on my heart and thyroid I also had myself checked for any vitamin deficiencies. In my case, a less than ideal level of iron and B vitamins. I believe that fixing those have also definitely helped. Literally sometimes for some people it could be just that and it boggles me that these simple things are never checked.

It has been my own experience, that medication was unnecessary, and that none of the psychiatrists that I saw were helpful (one was harmful), and the only real help and relief I got was from a psychologist who actually listened to me and gave me back my agency by respecting my choices. Because panic disorder makes you feel like you have absolutely no control this was so important. Having said this, if you are happy with your doctor then you do you. And please consult your doctor for any medication decisions you plan to make. This is simply my experience.

I am posting this on reddit because it was a random post here too that led me to the DARE Method by Barry McDonagh. I got the audible version which Barry reads himself and I strongly encourage you to get that one. If you have sleep issues too then I also highly recommend The Sleep Solution by Chris Winter (also best on Audible). I needed to listen to this book only once, and I was good, same with DARE. The core of the DARE method is for you to NORMALIZE the panic until it truly just fades into nothing. And as impossible and scary as that sounds right now, this is EXACTLY what happens if you just give it a chance. Please don't take my word for it and do your own research on DARE. All the tips, techniques and empowering information and knowledge must be learned from the book or the audible (and app) as I am not doing it any justice whatsoever in this reddit post.

Healing is not overnight, it took me 3 months to be truly on the way to recovery, but I believe it is currently the surest path to overcoming Panic Disorder and all the horrendous suffering that comes with it. It has been my experience and that of many others, that through this method one can completely recover from Anxiety and Panic. Not only will you have your old self and old life back, but you will be stronger, braver, and life will have so much new meaning. As traumatic and painful as the experience was for me, it is precisely the pure joy of the recovery and the new lease on life that has made it all worth it.

Best of luck to you and I want to say that full recovery is what you deserve and that it is within your reach. Forgive the anxiety and forgive yourself. Remember that you are so loved and that you are never alone. God bless you and keep you always.

I’ve had what I suspect are panic attacks on and off for several years, but I have a very stereotypical view of panic attacks involving hyperventilating/elevated heart rate etc. none of which I actually get.

For me, I get nausea and vomiting and a feeling that I’m going mad. I also get a general sense that there’s something terrible wrong with my health and that I’m about to die/collapse/pass out etc.

But my heart rate remains normal, and so does my breathing.

Does this sound like anyone’s experiences of panic?

hi. i (25f) have always been a pretty tortured person. there have not been so much as 2 consecutive years in my life without some sort of major and devastating event that i, honestly, would just push down so i could carry on trucking… it seems this has finally caught up with me. because of my childhood and experiences i never truly cared if i lived or died, but now my life is pretty great and i do care. so, so much apparently that i have been officially diagnosed with OCD and it has manifested so that i am constantly concerned about my health. my biggest fear is heart attack or stroke. every member of my immediate family has passed away which doesn’t help me convince myself i’m a perfectly normal healthy 25 year old.

the only thing i’ve found that does help is reading through all of your experiences here. during my first ever panic attack i really thought i was having a heart attack, i had chest pain/fullness that sprawled down my left arm and into the back, couldn’t breathe or stand, jaw was hurting, i ended up going to the ER where they said i have an arrhythmia (which i knew) but was otherwise clean. it was so intense and scary that i found this difficult to believe and continued to feel they’d missed something until my second attack where i ate chocolate on something that i ate regularly, but never with chocolate. i have had chocolate thousands of times but for whatever reason my mouth began to burn and i convinced myself it was an allergic reaction. had my partner dial 911 but he hadn’t even had time to hit call before i calmed myself down. the whole ordeal was less than a minute. that’s when i realized it must be panic attacks, googled “mouth burning during panic attack” and found this subreddit.

i was wondering if a) anyone has any experiences similar to mine and b) how you pull yourself out of it with no meds (i am a broke american). if you read all this thank you. i’m grateful for this place where i can see i’m not alone.

Hello everyone,

For my 21st birthday(which was about 2 weeks ago) I decided to have a thc gummy because I always had good experiences with them. At this point it’s been awhile since I had one and so I first had small dose 2 days before and had a good time. Then i decided to take a bigger dose and I don’t remember the actual strength . At first i was having a good time, then something happened and i started to freak out. I started to feel this panic,pain in my chest and bad thoughts like i was going to die and manual breathing kicked in. I was eventually able to calm down and get back to normal state.

When I got back from the birthday trip about 2 days after,I started to have this weird feeling where I could constantly feel my heart beating and felt like I was having to breath manually and felt like i was having a hard time getting a full breath.

Went to urgent care and everything was normal and so was the ekg. Now Im still dealing with this feeling and feel like I’m going crazy and was wondering if I’ll ever feel back to normal or am I stuck like this? Or could this be anxiety?

Side note I did stop my 5mg lexapro(with docs okay) 4 days the before experience happened. And not feeling too anxious besides what I’m feeling.

Any help would be appreciated!

I am a person who barely goes outside, but today I went outside with my friends. When we were coming back home, the police pulled us over. Idk why, but I started tingling and my heartbeat got rapid. Because I started shaking, the police thought I was using some kind of drug. Also, my default look is kind of like a drug user, even though I don't use any drugs, not even a cigarette.

The same shaking thing happens in situations like before a fight or things like that. I don't know how I can manage it and stop it.

hi everyone, (31F), anxious for as long as I can remember, mostly around health and death, but it never stayed contained to just that. constant overthinking, awkward in social situations, my brain just found new things to latch onto.

had a really rough spike about a year back, panic attacks, fully convinced my heart was failing and I didn’t have much time left. did the whole rounds, several doctors, tests, “you’re completely fine,” relief for a couple days, then right back to being scared.

there was this one stretch, a few months long, where I was convinced a tsunami was going to hit the island I was on. I swear I could hear these strange sounds coming from the ocean that I was sure meant it was coming.

similar thing happened after an earthquake once too, I kept hearing the roof creak and was positive it would cave in on me while I slept. actually left my place for a few nights before realizing none of it was real, just my brain doing what it does. that’s basically been my whole life in a nutshell.

spent years on meditation, breathing work, exercise, none of it touched the real problem. 7 years of consistent meditation and it barely made a dent in the anxiety itself. breathing exercises helped a little in the moment during panic attacks, but that was it, nothing lasting.

EFT tapping is what actually clicked for me. the concept that fear gets physically stuck in your body and needs real release, not just management, made something make sense for the first time. youtube sessions were too generic to really help, so I dove into every EFT resource I could find and started writing my own scripts targeted at my specific fears, death, illness, and this fear feeling in my chest.

first time doing it properly, I cried more than I expected to. apparently that’s part of how it works, crying and yawning as the energy releases. happened a few more times over the following sessions, and each time the fear got quieter until it basically wasn’t there anymore. even the physical symptoms eventually stopped, the weird chest feeling just doesn’t show up like it used to. and this technique genuinely saved me during panic attacks too.

given my background in tech, I turned what I’d built for myself into an app once I realized how much it had changed things for me, guided EFT sessions split by anxiety type (general, health, panic, work, overthinking, etc), because nothing out there matched what I actually needed. it’s got around 30 sessions right now.

it’s called Alight: EFT Tapping, free for a week if you want to try it. would genuinely love to hear feedback if you do, especially what else you’d want to see covered (relationship anxiety, parental anxiety, and postpartum are next on my list).

to be clear: this isn’t a replacement for medical care if your doctor says you need one, and I’m not claiming it works for everyone, just sharing what helped me personally.

I had a panic attack on Saturday night and couldn’t take it anymore so I decided to text a hotline to take me out of it, which did work. It was awful. I could feel the coldness from fear strike throughout my entire body and my heart beating nonstop as everything became a blur. I’m so thankful for that operator, even if he didn’t make much sense. I got sick for all of last week and my anxiety had came flooding back despite me doing so well. My chest is tight, my legs are aching and wobbly, sometimes I shake in fear of another attack, and I can’t bring myself to really eat. It sucks, but I know someday I’ll go back to normal and this will all be a distressing memory. It’s nice to know I’m not alone in these feelings. I actually can’t stand to be alone during these times. Today I kept texting my mom and dad while in school. I just need someone talking to me I guess, even if it means they’re in a screen. Anyway, just wanted to tell my story.

I dont really have anything to do idea why the hell i am feeling this literally ! Its so heavy ; the days are so heavy and every single minute i am just sad , anxious or want to cryyy . i dont have anything friends . I’m 21/f but still have nooo friends , no social life , i skip college literally everyday and it’s making me feel guilty . i dont feel like i’m in a right city, in a right family . i wanna cryyy so hard . I am so scared i donno of what . Pls help me someoneee pls

We've been partner for 12 years, and they have had panic attacks ever since the day we met, but lately, it's become way more frequently. They are not the person who vocalise their needs while-or after I take place. So I usually just sit with them, being calm.

My question goes out to you suffering from panic attacks; what helps during and after an episode. What do you need from your significant other when you are going through it?

I just wanna be as supportive as I possibly can when she is feeling the worst.

Ive dealt with anxiety and occasional panic attacks before, but they were manageable. Then in March, I had the worst panic attack I’ve ever had while driving. Since then, every attack feels harder to recover from, and now I’m afraid to drive alone.
It’s gotten to the point where even thinking about getting in a car makes me panic. I’ve also had panic attacks at home alone, so now I’m afraid to be alone in the house too. I’ve been sleeping during the day while my parents are at work because I’m scared of having another attack.
I’ve been on mirtazapine 30mg for 5 months and Effexor, 37.5mg for 2 months and 75mg for the past month. I haven’t felt worse on them, but I also haven’t felt much better.
After talking to my mom I messaged my doctor about how bad things have gotten an inquired about maybe adding a mood stabilizer or something else, my doctor responded with “I will refer you to psychiatry”. So that like topped it off for me. A friend suggested I get evaluated for bipolar because my grandmother was diagnosed later in life, but my mom is not bipolar. I’m naturally very bubbly, talkative, and outgoing, but I also have ADHD, so I’m not sure what’s what. My friend also suggested that I take omega-3 with DHA/EPA.
I’ve read that antidepressants can worsen bipolar symptoms, but I haven’t noticed that happening—I just haven’t improved.

How are you finding them?

I have recently been given propranolol 10mg 3 times a day to help stop random unpredictable panic attacks, I know they won’t stop them but help blunt them, I have had 2 in the last week resulting in me going to hospital, my symptoms were a weird head feeling then my bpm slowly raises and starts pounding and going up to 130+ for 40-50 minutes. All hospital tests came back negative for anything serious and the hospital er doctor who treated me believes it is panic/anxiety that caused it, I haven’t had this happen before. I also believe this could be something called inappropriate sinus tachycardia however for now I’m going to assume it is panic. So far the blockers are working but as I said I can’t tell when I’ll have an attack. For those who have been on them for a situation like me how are you doing? Do you find them help?

I have been struggling with what I believe was panic attacks since May.

I had a major episode in May where I couldn't speak more then 3 words needing air I then felt dizzy cold sweats shaking legs feeling of passing out and was numb.

Now ,3 months later 2 weeks ago I was having multiple mini panics a day almost everyday I was given diazapam to help.

Then suddenly I developed a fever and severe chest pains. I was having the same panic like feelings.

I then found out I had a lung abscess and pneumonia

Could this of been building up for 3 months ? As this is when it all started as now I'm off it I have noticed I don't have these attacks.

I'm so confused

It started out of nowhere last week where all of the sudden I felt out of it body was tingly and vision was out of focus and I was smelling something that wasn’t there. Almost like chemicals or burning rubber and then after 40 seconds poof went away. Was the first time I ever had that went to the doctor and everything came back normal.

Then today as I’m getting ready for work it happened again where I felt numb and tingly and got that weird smell again. It was while I was brushing my teeth. I have contacted my doctor because they are going to do a ct to rule out anything else and chock it up to anxiety but my question in all of this is has anybody else experience this out of the blue?

Am I just getting anew panic attack symptom? But not sure why all of the sudden it’s happening.

I've been dealing with anxiety for quite a while. Recently came across Rootd while looking for some resources, but I'm wondering if it's actually something people stick with long term.

If you've been using it for a while, has it continued to help you, or did you eventually stop using it?

Hie, im just sharing my experiences to let you know that if you are in my case you will be okay( sorry for my english Im trying my best)

ISince im young im really really chill, no stress at all, i didnt had panic attacks in my life but i did a bad trip with an horrible panic attack and i became very very anxious to the point i though i had a psychosis, i was always feeling weird and i thought i will only find peace when i will pass out, it was really bad to the point i couldnt eat because i was thinking that someone would put lsd in my food just to make me crazy, but it was all anxiety, i was in panic 24/24 but then i learned that the secret is to rewrite your brain response to stress. If your anxious because of work or others things idk but if you just feel anxious for no reasons its because your brain is on a panic mode. To rewrite it, try your best to dont focus on the anxiety. What i did is just to let the panic come and act like it was normal, your brain will learn to chill step by step. And if your really in panic take a benzo or another med if you scared of addiction ( talk to your doc). To resume, let the anxiety be and dont fight it, and keep one or two benzos on you just in case so you know you can stay safe in case of emergency. It will be okay, your brain can change.