My Panic Attack Solution

I was wondering if anyone had any good advice relating to this – I am 24, male, 33” waist, fairly healthy active live style I don’t really drink (2-4 units a weeks at most). I have been checked over by two doctors – I always like a second opinion (trust no one!) and I was assured by both that there was nothing wrong and these ‘palpitations’ were merely panic attacks. How they know this from a quick listen on the stethoscope I don’t know! But these episodes are particularly scary – I have had 3 in the last 4 months! I will probably go back to the doctors again! My main issues now though are:

a) What are the best things to do at the onset of an attack?
b) How can I stop worrying about the onset of another panic attack or fear of death on a daily basis?

I would like to explain what happens when an attack comes: I am usually sitting still, watching the television or just lying in bed usually somewhere where my mind isn’t occupied allowing me to think only about myself or body. So I am sitting there quite quietly and comfortably, no exercise, no stress and boom my heart seems to beat or pound just once but furiously! It feels like it’s ‘gulping for blood’ or maybe beating in very quick succession and then my heart starts to beat normally again, at least I then have no more sensation of my heart beating weirdly – I sit there and I already I am trying to convince myself that it was nothing, a one off, you are fine and then 10 seconds later it will pound again. This is what they describe as palpitations I believe and I feel no pain I might add. I now start to feel a sensation of adrenaline pumping through my veins. I then start to panic and already I am starting to convince myself that something is wrong I might be dying and this is a heart attack and I start to mentally prepare myself for the one big bang, chest pain or shooting pain up my arm. I feel like Jason Bourne must feel, at this moment there is nothing on my mind and nothing can enter my mind apart from the situation and getting out. I can’t really listen to people talking to me trying to distract me, I hear them and they will ask questions but it’s like I am impatient my mind tries to block them out or part of me is really struggling to answer them quickly. I feel a great sense of urgency to leave the room and go to a heart monitor I have on an exercise bike to check that my heart is still beating at a normal pace. I need some form of technology or even someone professional to tell me that I am ok. The heart rate monitor is usually the worst thing to do but I can’t help it! My heart rate will be around 90bpm and then I start to panic even more as my heart rate is usually around 72-82bpm and I believe this is high, so it will then rise again to around 100bpm. I just don’t know what to do, my instant goal is to try and get the panic out of my mind, I feel sick and believe that the cause might have been my dinner so I throw up. I try and jump in the shower. I lie down, I stand up and I can’t do anything for any great length of time. There is a feeling of complete urgency to get somewhere!

During this entire episode my mind is constantly racing and I am trying desperately to convince myself that nothing is wrong with me. I feel like my mind is battling against itself and my thoughts would sound something like “You are fine, you are fine, relax, breath, it’s just a silly panic attack, relax…” to “ok your fine, wait it’s doing something again, what’s going on? This isn’t right, you are going to faint soon” back to “The doctor has checked you out you are fine”, “God another palpitation!” It seems to run around in circles. I even fear about the breathing to heavily as I know that if you take a deep breath you will make your heart work faster and when it does beat faster my mind believes that the attack is getting worse.

I believe these attacks and daily fear/anxiety is affecting my personal life somewhat as it is not only the panic attacks themselves which usually last for about 20 mins and then maybe a 2 hours calm down mental re-preparation stage but I seem to be living in daily fear that one will come back – it never affects me during the daylight.
When a panic attack comes it seems that there is absolutely nothing that I can do to divert the attention of my mind from the panic attack. My mind goes into a permanent loop as described above and even when I have successfully managed to calm myself down it doesn’t stop. I realise that I am not going to die and then I start evaluating myself, is my heart beating normally again? Back to 72bpm yes! So I am ok but then any slight twitch seems to set me right back off again. I struggle to sleep sometimes after a panic attack worrying that it will come back or I might die in my sleep but when I wake up I feel completely and utterly fine again and the problem or worry doesn’t come back.

I have been to see two doctors as I described above one GP and one in an A&E department (ER), both doctors took m
my blood pressure and listened to my heart – the A&E department (ER) even gave me an ECG heart monitor and said that my heart was completely fine – which of course they would! I was surprised both times by there almost instant diagnosis and speed to say you are fine! I was worried that they may have missed something but later I was just more annoyed that they didn’t suggest anything to fix the problem. I think I will keep going back until they give me some form of medication or advice about how to stop these stupid panic attacks.

I have read numerous articles not blogs or people’s opinions and they are usually quite helpful in explaining things and quite often this is the only thing that I can do to put my mind at ease from the panic attack itself and then from there I can start concentrating on something else. I am sure that the problem steams from some form of psychological issue and I believe that these two items below help me to understand my personal problem.
1) My Girlfriend showed me a picture of a work college that died aged 24 from a drugs related overdose (cocaine). A city worker! The guy in the picture that she showed me I believe looked a lot like me! So from that moment on this has had me worried. I am told that this shouldn’t concern me as I have never tried cocaine (I do not intend to try either) died in his sleep.

2) My Grandmother (86) died last August from a heart attack in her sleep but she had a bad heart for twenty years.

They both died in their sleep from heart attacks so perhaps this can help to explain why my fear is heightened at night. You can also see that my situation is not like the above two people and any rational person can also see that too, I can see that but my mind still won’t accept that it can’t happen to me. I think my anxiety steams from a general fear of death.
These worries and fears have been constantly on my mind for the last 5 months. This does seem to affect me in the following ways – I try not to exercise for fear that this will set off a panic attack. I try not to drink alcohol, I try not to eat too much, I try to avoid conflicts or stressful situations, although I am not your quiet/timid person.

I have also been told by my mother that she had palpitations 10 years ago and it past off after 6/9 months and furthermore these panic attacks always seem to happen at my family home which is really strange as this is the place I feel the safest, maybe that’s why they happen! If you do have any advice whatsoever or ways I can clear my mind during a panic attack that would be most helpful. I tried to be as descriptive as possible to put other people’s minds at rest while reading this.
I did read something “go to the toilet (where it is quiet) and cover your nose and mouth with your hands or paper bag and breathe in and out, this regulates the over-oxygenation process you’ve created and helps calm this down.”

dude been there ,know exactly how your feeling so liston to me your body is not the problem its your brain man .theres a powerful 4 letter word stuck in your head called "fear" it can make you very compulsive at dwelling on anything that makes you afraid .im sure deep inside you ,you know what your afraid of and dude dont worry about your heart ,there about 1000 times stronger than you think .write down and take a good look at what your doing with your life right now think of somthing your passionate about weather its a sport music love hobby or work pick one start aiming for it and put yourself into it 100% what im saying is doing things that give you pleasure or fullfilment create the release of indorfins in the brain thats the feel good chemical .now that chemical is produced from another chemical called seratonin this one is responsible for giving you all sence of logic mental well being happyness .if you through yourself into doing somthing you love your not inside yourown head were fear lives .when your lying by yourself and you have a fear of anything negative just barges its way into your head but if you make it your new gospel in life to use that time to think obout somthing different your going t do the next day you auto relax .when the good chemicals get a chance to flow you will find pease of mind . i used to be haunted by panic attacks they stoped dead for me when my son was born ,way to bussy to be thinkin about things that dont matter .about 4years ago the last one i ever had i did somthing my doctor told me to do guess what that was "do nothing" i mean nothing focus your eyes on somthing and just let it happin knowing it cant hurt worst possable case is ye pass out for like 30 seconds the bodys way of venting and resetting ,and je know what i let all the sensations come over me without tring t do anything about it .the panic attack left me quicker than if i were to stop it and i was left feeling chilled out they cant hurt you a few tips get at least 8 hours sleep drink about 8 glasses of water a day avoid coffey go to a healt shop and buy high strength omega 3 great for ballance in your brain and also get a good multivitiman because vitiman b plays a big role in the brain producing seritonin .unfortunatley for people like me or you alcohol is a major no no any drug specially hash will put ye in a nut house