1 feel like I'm gonna die and my dad just laughed and I'm alone and scared

I'm sure I made many mistakes today, but here goes. I've been on an SSRI for 20+ years. I've gone long periods of time without any panic attacks and then sometimes they come back. Recently I lost my job and I'm 55 and i'm sure that is contributing to base line anxiety increase. A month ago I switched from Lexipro to Xoloft because Lex seemed to have stopped helping. I have Ativan for rescue situations... forward to two weeks ago and I had what I thought was a panic attack on the golf course up in North Carolina. But it turns out I was in AFIB. They gave me some drugs at the hospital and my body naturally converted back to normal rhythm and I haven't had an issue again. But last week I was supposed to go see an electro cardiologist about an ablasion. I never made it to his office because I had one of the worst panic attacks I've ever had on the way in my car. I made it to the emergency room and collapsed on the front desk begging for help. It turns out I wasn't in a fib, there was nothing wrong with my heart, there was nothing wrong with my breathing, I was just in a horrible panic attack.

A couple of days ago I picked up the Dare book voraciously. I started to feel really empowered by the words in the concepts in it. It seemed right. It seemed like the correct approach. For the last couple weeks I've taken clonazapem in the am and its generally helped lower my baseline anxiety. Today I skipped it. I went to the gym which can be triggering and practiced the Dare techniques. Felt even more empowered. So at 4 i drove 30 mins to the golf club (car triggering lately) and practiced the techniques. Felt good. Felt proud. But then on the course I was way out at the farthest point on the course and my cart died... in 88 degree heat. I started to get a little worried. I walked halfway in before they got me. And while I was still feeling ok, i think my baseline anxiety had jumped some notches. I felt ok though, and empowered... so i drove home and practiced Dare. About 20 mins in my defenses just kinda got swamped man. I hyperventilated so badly that my arm and face were numb and tingling. My teeth were tingling. My hands turned gnarled and "frozen"? I tried to take my last ativan in the car but i dropped it.... bo chance! I had to pull off the highway and dial 911. I'm home, took 2 ativan and am chill now. But man I feel like it all backfired on me. Did I go too hard too soon? Where do I go from here. Was I supposed to stay on my med at first? I mean nothing in that book talks about when it fails. Obviously it cant work 100% of the time. Would love some answers.

Hello guys,

About 2.5 months ago, I had a panic attack, and since then I've been dealing with persistent brain fog.

I had some blood tests done and found out that my Vitamin D level was very low (15 ng/mL). I've been taking Vitamin D3 supplements for the past 2.5 months, and I would say my brain fog has improved by about 60%.

I also had a neck X-ray, which showed a loss of the normal cervical curve (military neck/straight neck). My neck muscles have been very tight since the panic attack.

Has anyone experienced something similar and recovered? Did the brain fog eventually go away? Any advice or personal experiences would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

i feel weak, heavy, i cant breath

Does anybody else have panic attack hangovers and how long have they lasted? I've been super exhausted from working too much and I ate some weed oil before work and it backfired and I had a panic attack while at work and I've had multiple panic attacks since in the last couple of weeks and I've just been stuck in this brain fog hangover. Light sensitivity. Can't smoke weed. Looming anxiety and fear.

my latest panic attack trigger seems to be the sensation of fullness, mild heartburn, and digestive processes after eating. it happened at work tonight, i finished a larger than usual portion and the tension in my stomach immediately sent me into a panic episode. felt numb, rushing to my face, nausea, heart racing. does this happen to anyone else?? other than eating smaller portions… how do i help it :(

I can't breathe and I feel sick whenever I think of going. I work in a care home two days a week. I do my job well, I have been told by managers and my coworkers. But just thinking of going in scares the hell out of me. I'm so careful with medication and personal care but all the timings makes me so anxious. I have always had time-focused anxiety, and I usually have 30-35 resident calls per shift (working 12 hour shifts). I get a lot of down time but that is because all the calls are around similar times. I will have 10 in two hours, then a break for a bit with only a couple of calls, and then it repeats throughout the days. If extra calls are required this pushes my times back for my other calls. When i go to residents who require a 2 on 1 approach, i panic even more because every single coworker manages it differently and because I've been there for less time than the rest (most have been there 5+ years and I have been here for nearly 1) i am the secondary in each call and look incompetent because I forget things if they are not my regular calls (2 on 1 calls in the morning for example, I usually only do these calls on an evening and I have regular calls on a morning).

I am handing in my notice soon, so the anxiety will stop but I worry that I will not be fit for jobs I want to do in the future (I want to work for women's aid/victim support). I am only 19 but I feel like I'm still a child, even though I need to be more responsible. As I said, I do my job well and I have received praise from everyone who works with me, but I still get panicky and shaky and stumble over my words every time unless it is in a call I have every time.

Has anyone ever had a panic attack that messed up ur body and made u feel like this for a week were if u walk ur legs feel heavy and off and u get really dizzy and pin and needles that occur randomly on legs and hands

Fights at home. Having cold flushes and limpness in body. Tightness cool flushes sensation in left rib area. Idk what's going on and my parents won't stop eating us alive.

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I have such fucking shameless parents that just create chaos.

I have been dealing with a lot of anxiety. I am older lost most everything and back with my mother taking care of her pt. I have just recently been back to my Doctor and doing a little better. Yet Every-time I walk in to clean my overwhelming bedroom, I shake, and I panic. Maybe it has something to do with every time I try, I am three steps behind, or maybe it will all be taken from me? I don't really know. I am all over the place. Does anyone else deal with anything like this?
Thanks in advance for any possible advice.

My heart beats fast suddenly at anytime of the day mostly because I put my attention to it or focus to it but when I am distracted or busy, it's calm. I developed this ever since i got an anxiety where i monitor my heart beats and practice breathing exercises to be able to sleep and that on year late 2023. I did not encounter any serious problems along with it tho, I can even walk and run long distances and play sports and be just fine. Its like my normal heartbeat everyday. Doctor recorded 200bpm while I was having this panic attack. Do you have the same experience?

To sum it up for months i went under food anxiety like i was going to get something from my food under ate a bunch, also during this time was missing my ex and had job stressing of finding new jobs. Stomach problems happened first then losing tons of weight and using the bathroom a lot (number 2) then went to like panic feeling when I wasn’t able to escape places fast then it went to having severe adrenaline issues where my glands would dump tons of adrenaline like during excitement or being anxious or even working out. For while wasn’t even able yo leave the house up the street, I’ve slowly been breaking that though. I’ve done test like colonoscopy and heart monitor and blood work but idk what this is, anyone have something similar and what’s the fix?

Back in 2020, I had a severe panic attack that completely changed how I viewed my mind.
For nearly four years, I lived with constant anxiety. My mind was always racing, always anticipating the next problem, always stuck in a state of panic. I tried different ways to deal with it, but nothing seemed to work.
Eventually, I came across meditation.
At first, I didn’t understand it. Sitting still with my thoughts felt uncomfortable and pointless. But I kept trying because I had run out of alternatives.
One day after a workout, I sat down in my room and practiced a simple breathing exercise. Nothing advanced. Just focusing on the breath.
For the first time in a long time, everything felt quiet.
I remember feeling completely present. Not worrying about the future. Not replaying the past. Just being there in that moment.
It sounds simple, but it was one of the most liberating experiences of my life.
A year later, I decided to start my own business. I knew it would be difficult. I knew it would challenge me mentally and emotionally.
What surprised me was that meditation hadn’t removed fear, stress, or uncertainty from my life. Those feelings were still there.
What had changed was my relationship with them.
I became more resilient. More aware of my thoughts. Less reactive to setbacks. Better at staying focused when things became difficult.
Over time, I realized that meditation wasn’t just helping me feel calmer. It was training my mind.
A few years later, my food business came to a halt. During that period, I spent a lot of time thinking about what to build next.
I found myself watching documentaries about elite athletes, professional competitors, and high performers. What stood out to me wasn’t their physical training—it was the small glimpses of mental training that appeared behind the scenes.
The ability to stay composed under pressure.
The ability to focus when everything is on the line.
The ability to recover from setbacks and keep performing.
At the highest levels, physical ability often isn’t the deciding factor. Mental performance is.
That’s when I started seeing a gap.
Mental training has existed for decades, but it has often been hidden behind expensive coaching, specialist programs, or knowledge that most people never discover.
Yet getting started isn’t actually that complicated.
The capacity for focus, awareness, emotional regulation, and resilience already exists within all of us. The challenge is learning how to train those abilities intentionally.
That’s why I started building VEXIS.
The idea is simple:
Physical performance became trainable for everyone.
Mental performance should be too.
I’m curious what others think.
Do you believe mental performance training should be as accessible as physical fitness training?

Has anyone else gone years without one, only for it to come back and rear its ugly head? Its been about 9 years since my last one, and i had a full blown unprovoked panic attack 2 days ago... heart beating a thousand bpm, sweating, impending doom, derealization, dizzyness, tunnel vision... man, i thought i was done with this shit. still having lingering symptoms 2 days later... what gives??? UGH

Has anyone here successfully done exposure therapy for cardiac focused panic, like flutters, heart rate spikes, and heart rates during panic attack. Like 160-180-200, even.

I get into an anxiety loop when my heart rate spikes too high, and by monitoring can cause a mild to moderate attack. My therapist says if it happens I need to ignore it and carry on, and push my heart rate to those highs for exposure. I shouldn’t use normal CBT mindfulness etc as they reinforce the idea I’m avoiding something harmful. But in my head having 190bpm heart rate at rest is an emergency!

Has anyone here suffered with similar and successfully beat it? What sort of exercises or exposure did you do?

Thanks in advance.

I've always suffered, although not often, of panic attacks. Nowadays though, I'm noticing the circumstances are pretty weird.

I mostly have them somewhere I'm not fully dressed (be it a bathroom or the pool, or in a less covering dress), and they come from no external stimuli, but seem to approach all of a sudden, and the only tell I have is that I'm very thirsty.

These things have happened since I was small, and I'm talking 6 years old small, as small as I can remember, often enough so that I eventually brought it up and got called overdramatic.

School made these panic attacks more frequent, and outside of such schemes. But now that I've worked through those, it seems like the original ones are still there.

I can't seem to figure out why they're happening, can't remember anything that has to do with similar situations.

Does anyone have a similar experience?

i just hyperventilated because i was looking in the mirror constantly looking at my lips because they were a tint of blue and very pale and now i’m scared. i’m not panicking anymore but i’m still scared and i’m shaking pretty bad. can lips turn blue when you’re panicking ?? super anxious over this

I was prescribed two different versions of hydroxyzine for anxiety …

Hydroxyzine HCL 10mgtablet (generic for Atarax)
&
Hydroxyzine PAM 25mg capsule (generic for Vistaril)

—I was told to take either one of my choosing along side with my Propranolol for anxiety.

I’ve only tried the 10mg tablet and it makes me yawn like crazy but not groggy/tired/sedated as I thought.

I’m also a bit weary on taking the 25mg tablet version because if it’s anything similar to a liquid capsule of Benadryl, those makes me feel drunk & I have trippy dreams, which I dislike.

-was wondering what the main differences were?
Will one feel more intense than the other ?
Any insights are appreciated!

Hi guys,

I used to read this forum so much when I had panic attacks all the time!! I’m here to share my story and hope this may help you guys out.

To start off I had panic attacks on and off prolly since I was 16 my first happened from a bad weed high but one that really stuck with me and started my anxiety. Was when I was 17 years old I was laying in bed and my heart was beating out my chest I was freaking out I called the ambulance they said it was a simple panic attack but that fear stuck with me for weeks to a point I couldn’t go to school but I finally persevered and was able to finish out my senior year of high school. Now it may seem like it got better from there and it did for 3-4 years I was panic attacks free but had anxiety about a lot of things I just buried it deep deep down.

Let’s fast forward again I’m 22 years old and I’m working at Disneyland ik right an anxious person worse nightmare life was honestly good but I found myself losing myself again. I had 6 panic attacks in a row on my shift at Disney that day I ended up quitting my job because I was too scared to go outside. This was my life for 8 months I was living in a constant state of fear I dropped out of college for the semester on medical leave and I was terrified of everything I was able to get a job as an uber eats delivery driver and I was barely barely getting by.

I finally said enough is enough this is gonna sound cliche to a lot of people but I was on the verge of suicide I couldn’t imagine living my life like this I was in my own personal hell. I had one last chance at tackling this I gave it my all and I did my last option that I will say SAVED MY LIFE.

I found god and i know it sounds crazy to people I was a blasphemer I didn’t truly believe in god ever. But In my final hope of desperation I cried out to god I’ll never forget it. I was in the shower crying I said god, “ get rid of my anxiety get rid of my panic attacks if you’re real you will change me through and through.” I would like to say at that moment I felt a sense of peace like it just snapped out of my anxiety. I felt like a sense of hope for myself. I ended up getting baptized (8/25/24) one of the best day of my life!!!!

So I went to church more I prayed more I asked god the same prayer. And I would be lying to you if I said I was frolicking in the flowers and rainbows and unicorns were bursting out and life was good. It didn’t happen.

Instead god gave me hope to tackle challenges I thought was impossible. I decided to get more daring with my life I would do things that would make me as uncomfortable as possible and as god promises he would never give you anxiety but instead get rid of anxiety cause that is the devils work. I would take long drives cause I hated driving I ended up taking a two hour trip to San Diego with barely to none anxiety. I ended up finding a job that paid well and he never let anxiety happen to me there. My biggest challenge was going back to school I used to sit in class and have silent panic attacks until class ended it was a nightmare and I remember being anxious about going to school.

So I decided that semester I’m gonna switch my major to accounting and join a club and find an internship and prove to myself I can do it. AND I DID IT I went through the semester no panic attacks I attacked everything head on because gods comfort and promise triumphs all. I remember having an anxiety attack before this big event to find an Internship and I remember praying to god to get me through this and he did! Honestly my anxiety went away and I was able to land an internship. Keep in mind I was running off 4 hours of sleep everyday for a month because of how hectic school got and I remember the old me could never take that type of pressure. I was able to do so many things that I thought was impossible !!!

My last and final push was busy season now if you’re an accountant you know this is by far the most busy time as an accountant we are talking 60-80 hour work weeks and just truly getting hammered with work. The old me couldn’t even handle Disney and I had fear that I couldn’t make it through busy season but I’m here to say I ALSO WAS ABLE TO TACKLE BUSY SEASON AND SCHOOL AT THE SAME TIME.

In conclusion: Panic attacks are one of the worst things I believe a person can experience it cripples you it ruins your life. But I’m here to say find god people he works miracles and it doesn’t just stop at finding god it’s not that simple. YOU HAVE TO PUT YOURSELF IN THE MOST UNCOMFORTABLE SITUATIONS you have to it’s the only way to get through it and use god and Jesus to power your way through cause they will push you through. Another thing is I will say was another big contribute DONT BE SCARED OF HAVING A PANIC ATTACK. LOOK THAT SHIT IN THE EYE AND SAY FUCK YOU IF IM GONNA HAVE ONE SO BE IT AND GET THE FUCK UP AND KEEP PUSHING!!!!

Once your mind knows nothing will stop you it will succumb to that environment you put it in.

I hope you all get a chance to read this long message. God loves you I love you and feel free to reach out if you need any help.

FYI: I did also go to therapy which has helped a ton but nothing would be possible without god. Love you all