Am I mad? Need Help!! Sorry v long

scared · Newbie User Joined: Aug 14, 2006 Posts: 1

Hey, Im new here! Ive just read some of the posts and realised that actually there are people out there which have panic attacks like me. Ive never had actual panic attacks only up until a year ago. I did start to feel rather odd sometimes but found away of calming myself down cept now i cant. I now have had around 10 major panic attacks (parents were thinking of taking me to hospital-they didnt know how to deal with it). However every night i feel on the verge of having them. I feel unreal and like everything around me is unreal. Im scared of life and of dying not now but later on. I dont have any real physical symptom cept shivering and out of breath, however i do scream at my parents for help. When i get over my panic attacks i feel soo majorly stupid that ive had one and that i have been screaming at my parents for help.
Ive started to get scared at night and dont want to go to sleep becoz I know that i might have one. (I normally wake up in the middle of the night feeling totally normal but in a split second im screaming and having a panic attack)
When i was 3 i had open heart surgery after that for a few monthes i used to wake up and scream to death so say my parents.......Do you think im having repeats of this?
Does anyome else have panic attacks and worry about life and why we are here and that we are going to die one day?
Does anyone know what i can to help myself? Am i losing it and going mad?

Warlock · Intermediate User Joined: Jun 15, 2006 Posts: 104

I've had a few mild panic attacks (I wasn't screaming but I did think I was going to die). They aren't a real problem for me.

I don't worry about why I'm here or the fact that some day I will die. I find the thought of death comforting and why I'm here is an interesting philosophical question (do I even have a purpose other than to reproduce and die anyway?).

Can you get medication or something from a doctor? You sound like you could use it.

Tjalsma · Newbie User Joined: Sep 20, 2006 Posts: 6

I also had open heart surgery, when I was 4 years old.

This was a horrible trigger to anxiety. At first I thought my heart was failing and I went to see specialist after specialist until I found out what it was.

You should go talk to someone to see if they can get to the bottom of your anxiety. I did and I have an easier time dealing with it now than I did before.

cherene · Newbie User Joined: Jan 03, 2007 Posts: 4

i had open heart surgery when i was 10, and it adds a lot of anxiety to the attacks while they're happening. I start feeling like something is actually wrong with my heart and that what i'm having is not a panic attack but a failing heart. this could just be paranoia and fear, but the symptoms are physical and it makes the attack worse.

on the subject of life and death, I don't have fear of dying.
And about living, the world is such an amazing place, you don't know what life will bring you next.