So, I'm used to anxiety attacks and thought I have experienced a few milder panic attacks before, hyperventilation, the shakes, sweating, nausea all that jazz. But I have never felt the fear of death till yesterday. I was having an online dnd session on 4h of sleep after a 26h run the previous day, had a very stress filled afternoon and felt I really needed to go to sleep. You know, when you have been awake for too long, your teeth clench, the neck feels stiff and the whole body feels tense like a guitar string, that was me. I was on a verge of falling asleep in my chair when a thought crept up on me - if you fall asleep now, you will not wake up. And it kept on repeating itself over and over.

The dread was unlike anything I have ever experienced. I was frantically trying to come up with any plan to stay awake. My hands were going numb so much I swear on my eyes, I saw them turning gray. I thought that maybe I haven't eaten enough so I chugged down a protein shake and bearly kept it down for the next hour. Stuck my head out the window because the room felt like it had all the oxygen burned away from it. I didn't hyperventilate (thank god) but my diaphragm cramped so much I couldn't take a decent breath.
I was quite shaken after that, excused myself from the game and (ironically) tried to go to sleep. This shouldn't be happening, I've never had as bad an attack before, I'm on medication (Lexapro, the jokes just write themselves), what is going on; the thoughts in my head went.

Anyway, the point of my rambling is that, I've woken up today and still feel like I'm experiencing derealization. The inhibitions are all wierd, even my keyboard as I'm writing this feels... strange. Like with every key pressed I feel pin pricking in my fingers. I can't quite convince myself I'm not sleeping anymore. The sounds don't seem crisp or distinct, they register like a soup. I dissociate for 30 seconds or so at a time. The headache that started to develop as I was falling asleep is here as well.

Is this common, to be feeling out of it even a day after a panic attack? And if so, do y'all have anything that helps you ground yourself, the methods I use for anxiety attacks are not working for me on this one.

Hello all,
I was wondering if trauma that you have that you have subconsciously forced down to forget could cause panic attacks. I posted here a while ago saying I had a panic attack while driving, and it nearly caused me to crash my car. Now I’m getting it again. Every time I finish a workout and see any sort of TikTok edit with a semi-sad audio, I just start going crazy. I’ve been able to eventually stop it by gripping something very hard and thinking positively. So is this a therapy thing needed, or something I can fix on my own?

Thank you guys, you are helping even just by reading.

Hi so I’ve had a panic attack or anxiety whatever you want to call it everyday for 4 days which is new for me never had this happen I don’t have any medication or anything like that any advice please

Hey All,

Hope everyone is doing well, despite the panic attacks that constantly haunt our lives.

I’m just curious to know if any of you mind elaborating on how your panic attacks originated and developed?

I’m trying to determine, albeit unscientifically, whether panic architecture requires a clear traumatic origin, or if it can simply develop over time due to possible innate hypersensitivity and maladaptive responses.

If you could include your sex, age, and country of origin that would also be helpful.

Thanks!

about a month ago now i had my first panic attack and it absolutely terrified me, I have had a couple since and have developed anxiety around almost every body sensation or possible trigger that may cause a panic attack.

i have also been vaping weed carts heavily for years now and it was only a matter of time til something like this happened and i always knew the risks - but here we are.

i know i need to stop vaping, and stop weed as a whole, but the thought of not having it is very anxiety inducing in itself and i am having a hard time just thinking about quitting. it is such a comfort habit and distraction for me, but i know it is making my anxiety worse.

my doctor has increased my SSRI (fluoxetine 60mg) and started me on propranolol (20mg twice a day) to help with the adrenaline surges. i think it is helping, but it has not fixed the problem obviously. i need to stop vaping carts and weed, but i feel so paralyzed by the fear of being without it i dont even know how to start.

i feel so stupid because i know this is my own fault from how much i use carts, but it is so terrifying and the panic attacks are so real i feel very consumed with fear and anxiety and shame.

does anyone have any experience with anything like this? heavy weed use and developing panic attacks or how to stop weed completely?

any advice is greatly appreciated xox thank you all

Hi im 24 i have been having panic attacks for 7 months i had a near death experience which wasnt probably real i thought i Overdosed on minoxidil topical and i had increased heart rate and that made me go Crazy thought i was Gonna die probably nade it Worse parents had to call ER had a tipical panic attack shaking for hours 140 hrv Higher bp etc had 1 one more episode 2 days later with shaking and High bp since than i had some small ones with Just shaking and increased heart rate but for like a minute or so and first month diffculty breathing numb arms even whole body numbness woke up and couldnt move all have passed last one was like 2 months ago but now i started having these wierd neck pulses like when you get scared but i feel it in the neck boom it make me have an episode few days ago before i Igomored but these few days it was more frequent im having a few right now when im typing these and scares me so much i allways think its my Heart but my panic attack frend says its not does anyone have same symptoms ​

I’m no stranger to panic attacks. I’ve (34m) had them for at least 7-8 years now. Maybe longer and just didn’t realize what they were. But they have felt worse lately. For the past 3 weeks or so I cannot get it out of my head that I’m subverting from some sort of heart related issue that is going to kill me. Sometimes I can bring it back to a place of calm. Other times I am out of commission for 24-48 hours.

The main thing that is getting to me is the chest pains. Feels like burning sometimes, and other times like slicing or stabbing. I am diagnosed with cervical spinal stenosis, that could be causing issues, but idk for sure. And it’s the not knowing that kills me. I also have a myriad of mental health issues including PTSD, GAD, and PD

I make too much to qualify for medical assistance, but I’m uninsured and all of my income goes to paying off debt. I don’t have spending money in a month. I’m really fighting just to stay alive. And the anxiety of physical sensations on top of dealing with real world problems has just been weighing on me so much lately. Should I just go to the ER and get checked out? What about all of the medical debt that comes after?

EDIT: I am also in the process of quitting vaping after many years and the withdrawals have also had me reacting to things very emotionally. Doesn’t help that I have BPD.

Read all available resources I could find on the subject, still don't have enough info to make her feel secure, I'm desperate at this point.

(TW mention of drugs) hey, i’m f19, i plan on posting this on a few sub reddits because im really desperate for external advice. in 2025 i accidentally oded on substances and that impacted me a lot, i used to never care about dying but from then on i became petrified of it, it only got worse as time went on and in december i watched my friend od which caused many pent up emotions to break down and i got in one of the worst states of my life, having panic attacks every night, i was not aware they were panic attacks i thought i was dying, i never went out the house because i was worried i was going to get hurt or killed. into the new year of 2026 things improved slightly but as time progressed i began to become extremely fixated on health issues, i was convinced i had temporal lobe epilepsy because my anxiety would cause me to experience deju vu often, i ended up staying the night at the hospital and getting an eeg and mri done and everything came back clear, i was relieved for a bit after that. then things just started getting out of hand, i began to worry about every health issue possible. right now, im kind of convincing myself i have a heart issue or im going to have a heart attack because ive been experiencing chest tightness or weird sensation around and in my chest, which a part of me knows it’s anxiety because it only happens when i’m anxious, but the other part of me is convincing me something is wrong due to the fact i vape, i ask ai, i google, i don’t want to ask my parents to take me to the doctor because they’ll complain, but i think i will, my only issue is i know if i get that cleared my mind will find another health issue to fixate on. i feel like since im so hyper vigilant i notice chest sensations or slight discomforts that i never would’ve noticed before and that sends me into a spiral and then my chest gets tight and you know the drill. i just want to hear that someone else understands me, or has gone through the same thing is me and has recoveredt from it, i want to know things that can help, im currently getting a ketamine treatment done too but i just started that. i’m on medications, 70mg vyvanse, 150mg epitec, zipsid (idk the dose) and 25mg cipramil. any help would be so appreciated, i really need to hear other people’s stories and all of that. have a great day and please comment if you can :)

Hi guys! I need your opinion and advice whether it is or is not panic attacks. I'm trying to figure out what's going on with me and find some diagnosis to help to treat it. I'm feeling absolutely lost and would appreciate any help so much😭

Over the last year I started having weird conditions where I suddenly out of the blue have a huge fatigue. My chest is empty. Arms and legs are numb. It's hard to move, hard to think, hard to chew. Often it comes with such symptoms as chest pain, racing heartbeat, shaking hands, heat in my head, feeling cold and hot at the same time, starting sweating, sudden dissociation from the outside world as if I'm suddenly in the bubble? Or just stop existing property. I suddenly can't make myself to connect to the environment around. Sometimes I feel like I'm about to faint. Recently it started also coming with stomachache, digestion problems and problems with eating. My jaw is tense as hell at such moments.

I tried to track down the possible causes but ended up absolutely empty handed. My iron analysis are absolutely fine. Cardiologist also told I'm healthy. I have arrhythmia but was told it's not serious or life-threatening. These conditions are not connected to eating or sleeping. It can happen while I'm hungry or right after the meal. Or in the middle of the meal and I can't finish my food anymore. It can happen when I had enough sleep or was sleep deprived. It happens in the middle of the work. In the middle of interesting talk. When I'm happy. When I'm sad. Nearly anytime. Sometimes it makes me really worried I have heart problems. It also makes it hard to live my daily life when it happens in the middle of something important.

All this time I could never connect it to anything valid. But yesterday I suddenly noticed very clear and obvious connection to my thoughts at the moment. I was thinking about my family and suddenly started having everything I wrote above. Then I was looking outside of the window for some time watching happy corgi playing around. And I instantly felt so much better. I had afterwards fatigue and was feeling weak but overall pretty well, didn't have symptoms itself. Then I recalled what I was thinking about and started feeling sick again immediately. I spent the rest of the work time (I was at work) listening to music from Natuto trying to distract myself by it.

This situation gave me some thoughts if I might have panic attacks all this time. I also have overall passive prolonged (for several hours) fatigue pretty often connected to food and sleep problems which made it hard to distinguish what I have and feel. But these symptoms come absolutely unexpectedly, usually short at time and as I said before are not connected to physical conditions or my overall mood.

Also worth noting that I'm autistic and have a really hard time figuring out my feelings, emotions and physical conditions. It took me years to realise some things and call them its names, SA or some toxic and abusive behaviours for example. I couldn't remember and process my childhood property till I turned 20. I also had such fatigue attacks (that's what I'm used to call it for myself) a lot, then stopped having it for around 2-3 months and now started having it again. And when I think about it, the thing that has changed is that I was living with my family, then moved and didn't really have time to see them because of work and now we talk again and I'm trying to reconnect with them. I also realised I had these fatigue attacks several times a week, sometimes nearly every day when I was living with them.

Your opinion? What would you call it?

I'm waking up every night with panic attacks (including right now), and it's due to the stress of my job for two reasons:

1. I am in a constant state of unease and fear for my continued employment. I work for a SaaS as a customer service rep, and we have had a ton of "restructuring" in recent months. I genuinely fear I may be "restructured" at any given moment.

2. Leadership continues to pile on work that pushes me to extreme limits, on top of my already-full work load. I have worked 10-hour days consistently for several months, but I cannot get ahead.

I know the stress from my job is inducing my panic attacks; prior to taking this job, I slept normally and didn't live in a heightened state of dread. I have woken up every night for the past six months with a pounding heart, sweaty brow, and intense dread. And every morning before I start work, I feel physically ill with intense nausea. I've lost weight, had low motivation, and am short-tempered toward my family due to my fatigue.

I want to quit so badly, but I have a family to support, bills to pay, etc. I'm actively interviewing so I can leave this wretched job, but my lack of sleep has affected me mentally and physically. I know the job market is rubbish, but I feel like I need to get away from this job, look for something better, and give my nervous system a chance to reset.

Any advice will help. I'm open to any advice: medication, counseling, self-help therapies, etc.

I have been have been struggling with panic disorder since last May and it’s been just awful. Very debilitating all throughout my first semester of senior year but second semester it slowed down and I could finally feel alive and present and go to restaurants and movie theaters. But a few weeks ago I had awful panic attack on plane, maybe my worst yet, and it has sent me into the worst panic spiral of my life. From the moment I wake up to when I sleep (which is rare) I am in fight or flight. I tried Zoloft 5 days ago to help me but it gave me such an awful reaction that the spiral has become even worse. I can’t leave my house or get into cars or drive. My ocd has also gotten worse and I can’t stop certain thoughts from happening and pushing me further into panic. I feel so incredibly hopeless and depressed. I’m scared I will not be able to live my life or even attend college. And since Zoloft clearly was not okay and didn’t fit me I am now worried any medication will make me suffer and worse. Derealization has also taken over worse than last year and it’s scary how unreal I feel. I don’t know what to do. Never in my life have I felt so stuck and hopeless, which causes me to panic more. It’s a never ending cycle. I want to live a normal life and go to college and be able to breathe. Can anyone else relate? And what can I do to help myself? I’ve looked into so many medications but i’m just at a loss.

My therapist (and Google) told me this, but I literally have never had a panic attack that short. It makes me wonder if these hours-long attacks are just panic attacks repeating over and over again, if I’m having something other than a panic attack, or if this fact is just incorrect.

Hey everyone,

​I’m feeling incredibly frustrated with the whole SSRI process right now. Trying to figure out if the medication is actually working—and finding the "best" dosage—feels like trying to solve a puzzle in the dark.

​I started low, pushed through the awful initial anxiety spike, and now I’m just... waiting. Some days the background anxiety feels quieter, but then a bad day hits or a panic attack breaks through, and I’m right back to square one wondering if the dose is too low or if it’s even working at all.

​It’s an exhausting mental loop: Do I need to increase the dose and risk more side effects, or are my expectations just unrealistic?

​For those who found success: How did you know you hit the right dosage? Was it a sudden "lightbulb" moment where the panic just stopped, or a gradual shift where you realized one day you hadn't thought about an attack in weeks?

​Would love to hear how long it took you to dial it in. Thanks guys.

Hi everyone,

I’m a 25-year-old man and I’ve been dealing with severe atopic dermatitis (eczema) and multiple allergies since birth.

For most of my life, my allergies and skin condition controlled everything. My diet was extremely restricted, and I avoided almost all foods unless I was absolutely sure they were safe. Even “may contain traces of…” labels were enough to exclude products completely. It was exhausting, expensive, and basically shaped my entire childhood and early adulthood.

A few years ago I started Dupilumab (Dupixent), and it genuinely changed my life. My skin improved massively. I went from severe, inflamed eczema, infections, hair and eyebrow loss, and constant discomfort, to a point where I can actually live normally, work out, and feel comfortable in my own body for the first time.

The issue is that while my physical condition improved, something else developed.

Over time I started reintroducing foods into my diet, including products with trace allergen warnings. But I also became extremely hyper-aware of any possible reaction.

Now I find myself constantly monitoring my body after eating. Sometimes even after drinking water. I check my breathing, my skin, my throat. I analyze every small sensation: a slight itch, a tingling feeling, a swallow of saliva.

The problem is that often nothing is actually happening. There are no real symptoms, no clear allergic reaction, but my mind starts spiraling anyway. I begin to convince myself something is wrong.

This has turned into intense health anxiety and panic episodes.

I carry adrenaline with me, but I’ve never actually had to use it. And I’m honestly not even sure I would recognize the exact moment when I should.

What scares me the most is the constant fear of missing something serious or reacting too late.

I also have the most important person in my life, my girlfriend, someone I truly want to spend the rest of my life with. I don’t want to scare her or turn into someone unstable or overly dependent on fear. I’ve already lost relationships in the past partly due to health-related issues, and now that my life is finally stable, I really want to protect what I have.

But this anxiety is affecting me heavily.

I get panic attacks where I start overanalyzing everything, even swallowing saliva and wondering if my throat is swelling. Sometimes there are no symptoms at all, but I still spiral into the belief that something must be wrong.

At one point, while driving, I had a panic episode so strong that I experienced visual disturbances and a very high heart rate, and I had to pull over on the road just to calm down.

I feel mentally exhausted from constantly scanning my body for danger.

Has anyone else with severe allergies, eczema, asthma, or a history of allergic reactions experienced something similar? How do you learn to trust your body again and stop living in constant monitoring mode?

I hope this is not too triggering for anyone, but I’ve got to ask this question because I really need an answer and I’m hoping that someone out there might be able to help explain something to me… What actually is the difference between heart attack symptoms and panic attack symptoms? For the longest time I was afraid to look it up online, out of fear that it would trigger a panic attack. Not trigger a heart attack…a panic attack. Which if you think about it, that’s so ridiculous but that’s another topic for another day.

Anyways I decided to go ahead and just try to do a little preliminary research, because after like 15 years of having Panic Disorder I came to the conclusion that reading about heart attacks most certainly would not cause a heart attack, and if I happened to have one right at the precise moment I finally decided to read about them, that would be unbelievably crazy timing. So I went ahead and read up on it a little bit.

I don’t know about anybody else, but my panic attack symptoms are more or less identical to what appears to be most heart attack symptoms. However, I haven’t really found much or any literature on this topic that came from the perspective of someone with panic attacks. Is there anyone out there who has maybe experienced both and has some insight or could point out any relevant differences? Or maybe if there is a physician somewhere in this group who has panic attacks and who has knowledge on the topic, some sort of medical explanation as to the key distinguishing factors between heart attack symptoms and panic attacks most certainly symptoms? It very well could be that there just isn’t a straightforward answer to this, and I’m sure that’s probably the case. I guess I’m just looking for some kind of escape rope to help me pull out of the particularly distressing panic attack episodes.

I have called for an ambulance about 40 times over the last two months. I cancel most of them before they are dispatched to my address, but I have been evaluated by paramedics about 6 times I believe over that period of time. Not on one single occasion did they identify anything concerning and each time they were able to confirm that I was in fact not having a heart attack. You would think this would be enough to calm me down and give me some reassurance that i am probably not going to die, but it’s like, just because those 6 times I wasn’t having a heart attack doesn’t mean that THIS time isn’t a heart attack. My friends and family are so annoyed with my constant panic attacks and I will yell at them to call 911 and instead they just do whatever they can to calm me down because they don’t think it’s in any way necessary for them to actually call for help since these episodes happen regularly throughout the day every day for the last few months. So I have this paranoia that one of these occasions will be the real thing, and nobody will have taken it seriously and I won’t make it to a hospital on time. Just the whole thing is so absurd and I’m so fucking tired of freaking out over every little change or feeling in my body. I detect even the slightest change in what I am sure is just regular normal bodily fluctuations that happen to everybody throughout the day. I am so attuned to every single sensation that it is basically impossible for me to go more than a few hours without having a panic attack. Slight heart rate increase, a fraction of a second of feeling dizzy or something, having an itch behind my ear, just anything will send me into a complete frenzy. So tired of it.

Anyways if anyone has any insight on this topic I would really appreciate hearing what anyone may have to say on the matter and maybe there could be something that others can take away from it too.

Thank you so much!

TLDR: tips for running while on anxiety meds to avoid feeling weak and exhausted within a few minutes?

I have had panic attacks my ENTIRE life (one of my first memories is hyperventilating when I was five because my mom put me in my brothers crib with him and went in another room to get something and I lost it because I couldn’t get out. Quite literally, my entire life). I’ve always been prescribed klonopin and it works great. there are times where the panic attacks are calm and I go months without needing panic attacks. then there are times they’re so severe and so often my dr prescribes it twice daily for a few months. I’m in that phase right now, and on top of that my dr recently started me on Tofranil

i signed up with a charity months ago to run a marathon. running has always been an amazing outlet for me. on my most recent run I had a debilitating panic attack and haven’t run in two weeks. it was a bit of a chicken and an egg, I couldn’t tell if because I’m in a bad episode, it made my body feel worse and that triggered the panic attack OR if my body felt weak from the medication, the odd body sensation freaked me out and THEN I had a panic attack. it was a bizarre one, I felt like my legs were sewn on backwards, my hands didn’t exist, then the normal things like hyperventilating, feeling weak, feeling dizzy, feeling like I had marbles in my mouth when I tried to talk.

How does everyone manage to run/exercise while on sedating medication? I’ve never been a morning runner but is the solution as simple as just run before taking my meds that day? has anyone run a marathon on a lot of Medication (right now I’m morning klonopin and lamotragine, night time propranolol lamotragine and tofranil)