Post by mystyk on Jul 19, 2012 3:30:04 GMT -6
6:44 AM 7/18/2012
Hi, my name is Misty and I've been having severe anxiety for 20 years. When I was ten years old, I began to have attacks in school every day for nearly two months, severe enough that I would get sent home at least 3 out of 5 days days a week. Due to the amount of school I missed, I was transferred from public to private school where I was the tenth student in my 5th grade class and didn't have anxiety anything like I experienced in public school. However, the general and social anxiety never completely left though the attacks were less frequent for several years.
I began having what my husband and I now believe are hysterical seizures when I was 19. With the first one, I was hospitalized for nearly a week and given an EEG and many other tests which were all negative for epilepsy. Despite normal chemical levels, I was prescribed synthetics of the chemicals that get screwy with epilepsy such as Dilantin, Tegretol, and a few others. Every medication they prescribed me was to treat epilepsy - which I did and do not have - and said medications always caused me to have seizures. I can't help but wonder if being on so many epilepsy medications eventually caused an imbalance, despite probably being a small one, which made me actually develop a minor seizure disorder or at least made me more susceptible to seizures. After trying the medications and having seizures when I took them, I stopped taking them (Please talk with your health care provider before discontinuing your medication).
My symptoms (when the anxiety and panic start in) are a band around my chest that makes it difficult to breathe; feeling my heart pounding so fast throughout my entire body and feeling like I can hear my heartbeat; mini-blackouts where I'll forget breathing, what I was talking about, watching on TV or online, and a lot of other forgetfulness; every sound is either amplified or hard to hear; I will shake so bad I can't make a fist and tend to trip on everything - including flat floors; my mind feels like it's hosting a horse race with every horse being a different thought that feels like I can never catch up with them; and, of course, the seizures.
In April of 2006, I felt very panicky and went to a local walk-in clinic because I was so terrified of having another seizure, and after describing my symptoms, was prescribed Valium. It was a miracle. After taking the first dose, I felt "normal" again; something I hadn't felt in 14 years.
In 2008 I saw a psychologist who told me about hysterical seizures, which is basically when someone gets so anxious, panicked, and nervous that their brain basically reboots in the form of a seizure resembling an epileptic fit.
June 15, 2012 was the first seizure I had had in approximately 3 years. I had been on Valium for nearly 6 1/2 years and my body was simply used to it. After discussing all this with my health care provider, everything including all the mental health professionals and specialists I've seen, he added another anti-anxiety to my regimen and revamped my other medications.
I just started the new regime July 16th, but I have not felt this...free since I was a kid. My husband hadn't even seen me like this since the first few months we were together 10 years ago.
This is a good portion of my experience with anxiety and panic disorder. My diagnosis is General Anxiety Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder, claustrophobia, and agoraphobia. I once spent 8 months in the same small one-room apartment because I would have such severe panic attacks when I even thought I would see or talk to anyone - including my mother - I would literally try to hide under the bed. That was as recent as February. Even on Valium and Paxil, I had days I wouldn't leave my bedroom after we moved back to our hometown from the fear of being around people and not feeling safe with the idea of it, and being in the bathroom would start claustrophobia-related panic. Needless to say, I felt (and still feel) like I was in hell.
One of the things that always stayed in my mind was, "I am not alone". So much of us suffer from anxiety and panic that I can take comfort in that fact. I also cannot help but wonder: how many people have seizures that don't get better with epilepsy medications because they don't have epilepsy, they have severe anxiety.
Please share your stories, your experiences, fears, questions, advice, and anything else you would like to share. I only have a small handful of people I can talk to that understand what it's like to exist in fear rather than live with occasional nervousness, and I know there are a lot of us around!
Thank you for reading my story, and if it helped in any way...well, that makes me feel good; like I'm being there for someone the way my husband and friends were/are here for me.
Hi, my name is Misty and I've been having severe anxiety for 20 years. When I was ten years old, I began to have attacks in school every day for nearly two months, severe enough that I would get sent home at least 3 out of 5 days days a week. Due to the amount of school I missed, I was transferred from public to private school where I was the tenth student in my 5th grade class and didn't have anxiety anything like I experienced in public school. However, the general and social anxiety never completely left though the attacks were less frequent for several years.
I began having what my husband and I now believe are hysterical seizures when I was 19. With the first one, I was hospitalized for nearly a week and given an EEG and many other tests which were all negative for epilepsy. Despite normal chemical levels, I was prescribed synthetics of the chemicals that get screwy with epilepsy such as Dilantin, Tegretol, and a few others. Every medication they prescribed me was to treat epilepsy - which I did and do not have - and said medications always caused me to have seizures. I can't help but wonder if being on so many epilepsy medications eventually caused an imbalance, despite probably being a small one, which made me actually develop a minor seizure disorder or at least made me more susceptible to seizures. After trying the medications and having seizures when I took them, I stopped taking them (Please talk with your health care provider before discontinuing your medication).
My symptoms (when the anxiety and panic start in) are a band around my chest that makes it difficult to breathe; feeling my heart pounding so fast throughout my entire body and feeling like I can hear my heartbeat; mini-blackouts where I'll forget breathing, what I was talking about, watching on TV or online, and a lot of other forgetfulness; every sound is either amplified or hard to hear; I will shake so bad I can't make a fist and tend to trip on everything - including flat floors; my mind feels like it's hosting a horse race with every horse being a different thought that feels like I can never catch up with them; and, of course, the seizures.
In April of 2006, I felt very panicky and went to a local walk-in clinic because I was so terrified of having another seizure, and after describing my symptoms, was prescribed Valium. It was a miracle. After taking the first dose, I felt "normal" again; something I hadn't felt in 14 years.
In 2008 I saw a psychologist who told me about hysterical seizures, which is basically when someone gets so anxious, panicked, and nervous that their brain basically reboots in the form of a seizure resembling an epileptic fit.
June 15, 2012 was the first seizure I had had in approximately 3 years. I had been on Valium for nearly 6 1/2 years and my body was simply used to it. After discussing all this with my health care provider, everything including all the mental health professionals and specialists I've seen, he added another anti-anxiety to my regimen and revamped my other medications.
I just started the new regime July 16th, but I have not felt this...free since I was a kid. My husband hadn't even seen me like this since the first few months we were together 10 years ago.
This is a good portion of my experience with anxiety and panic disorder. My diagnosis is General Anxiety Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder, claustrophobia, and agoraphobia. I once spent 8 months in the same small one-room apartment because I would have such severe panic attacks when I even thought I would see or talk to anyone - including my mother - I would literally try to hide under the bed. That was as recent as February. Even on Valium and Paxil, I had days I wouldn't leave my bedroom after we moved back to our hometown from the fear of being around people and not feeling safe with the idea of it, and being in the bathroom would start claustrophobia-related panic. Needless to say, I felt (and still feel) like I was in hell.
One of the things that always stayed in my mind was, "I am not alone". So much of us suffer from anxiety and panic that I can take comfort in that fact. I also cannot help but wonder: how many people have seizures that don't get better with epilepsy medications because they don't have epilepsy, they have severe anxiety.
Please share your stories, your experiences, fears, questions, advice, and anything else you would like to share. I only have a small handful of people I can talk to that understand what it's like to exist in fear rather than live with occasional nervousness, and I know there are a lot of us around!
Thank you for reading my story, and if it helped in any way...well, that makes me feel good; like I'm being there for someone the way my husband and friends were/are here for me.
