To make a long story short, starting about a year ago I started having random little panic attacks during the day and at night while trying to fall asleep. I experienced symptoms similar to what I'd read online, similar to a heart attack where it seems as though my heart is pounding, my chest hurts, and the sudden fear of death. My doctor (who is horrible, rushes you in and out in 20 seconds every time) said these were panic attacks and said instead of prescribing anything that he would show me a breathing exercise to do. Of course this did absoloutely nothing. Eventually I realised from reading online and from person experience, that paying attention to my heartbeat at all times was what caused these attacks, and since about 4 months ago they have ceased, until yesterday.
This is where the story gets complicated. I am not a drug or alcohol abuser and I am not suicidal, though I do suffer from the occasional onslaught of depression from time to time due to stress. So anyways two nights ago I was up nearly all night with my acid reflux, so I decided to take a gravol (which I have now learned is not meant to help acid reflux) only the problem persisted, so I kept taking more until I fell asleep.
I woke up two hours later and walked over to the washroom when I was suddenly hit with a massive wave of panic and a sense that I was about to pass out (lost control of balance) I then started thinking back to try and remember how many gravol's I actually took, and eventually recalled the magic number was 6.
I called poison control, pharmacy's, everyone and everyone, even the hospital, and was sent in a frustrating circle. I ended up walking to the hospital meanwhile being disoriented (thank god I made it there :S) and my blood and urin was checked and I was given an EKG. Nothing came up anywhere so they sent me home.
This is the part where the real trouble started. Last night every time I came close to falling asleep I had that huge jolt in my head that startled me awake and made me afraid to go to sleep in fear of having a seizure or something (every time it happened I saw a brief massive flash of light in my head). I didn't sleep most of the night and now I'm experiencing symptoms similar to those I had many months ago, my left leg/big toe wont stop twitching, nor will my right eye, and I feel very uneasy and on edge.
I have taken into consideration many things but I am guessing the most likely 3 scenarios are these: the gravol overdose which seems to have started the panic in the first place, anxiety brought on by what happened the other day, or the less likely but still plausible scenario of weight lifting. Even though these symptoms of twitching seemed to start the day after my overdose, the day before when I hadn't done anything out of the ordinary, I had experienced extreme chest pain and a sense of panic late at night, along with an odd feeling in my left leg.
Only a day before this^ I had started a weight lifting regime after not lifting for several months and I have read that this can "throw out" your back causing nerve problems, which would explain the twitches.
I just wanted to make sure I offer up any and all scenarios for discussion, I am hoping someone can share a similar experience and how it was treated because this anxiety thing this "heart attack" feeling is really effecting me negatively, it's like living a nightmare always in fear of sudden death, and I haven't gotten much sleep over the past 3 nights considering the events that took place. I'm not sure if they are all related or just co-incidence.
"This is the part where the real trouble started. Last night every time I came close to falling asleep I had that huge jolt in my head that startled me awake and made me afraid to go to sleep in fear of having a seizure or something (every time it happened I saw a brief massive flash of light in my head)."
I thought I was the only person in the world experiencing what you just said. I've spent entire weeks with that problem. Long story short all my problems started 6 months ago and needless to say I've been very sick. I also get the muscle twitching that you mentioned for weeks at a time all over my body (face, legs, chest, arms, etc.) I've seen many doctors with no avail. All my test come back normal. I am seeing a neurologist now that wants to run a lot of different tests on my next appointment (April 30th). My internal medicine doctor thinks it is anxiety but my psychologist and the neurologist think different.
Are you having other symptoms like joint or muscle pains? Neck and/or back pain? weakness? I hope you are feeling better.
The Following User Says Thank You to Mojo37 For This Useful Post: habsfan90 (04-19-2012)
Come to think of it I have had some mild-moderate back pain during all of this but never really considered that as a part of the problem. I'm glad I'm not the only person having these frightening jolts of light when trying to fall asleep, but this is definitely something I would not wish upon anyone so I'm sorry to hear you're experiencing the same thing.
Now I'm not a medical professional so I don't want to try and give any advice that may backfire and make things worse, but I had somewhat of a breakthrough last night. At around 9:30Pm I was at the peak of feeling horrible, I felt as though I was ready to just pass out, hit the floor, and get a few hours of sleep, instead of laying down in bed and trying to fight through this frightening condition.
I had tried many things, meditation, yoga, breathing slowly, none of them worked, so as a last ditch attempt to at least feel better about going to bed I took a hot bath for about 15-20 minutes. Well about 10 minutes after getting out I felt amazing! I wasn't completely 100% better but compared to before I was like a 9 out of 10 instead of a 4. I'm guessing this means either the hot water relaxed my muscles and helped stop the twitching and/or if it were brought on by anxiety that maybe the nice hot relaxing feeling was enough to finally calm my nerves.
The best part of it was I barely felt dizzy anymore (which was the worst part) and about two hours later I went to bed, at first I was a little worried about the previous problem happening but after a little while I fell asleep and woke up several hours later thinking "oh great, up all night again" but after a little while of waking up I realised I had gotten a good few hours of sleep (without nightmares which was rare because I take sleeping pills that seem to always cause them).
So I'm not sure if you would like to try this or not but I just wanted to let you know since we seem to have a similar condition this was the only thing so far that's helped me significantly (besides waiting it out, which is very tiresome but sometimes the only option)
Thanks for your reply and I hope everything gets sorted out for you as well, if you'd like by all means please share the results of your test on here after it's conducted I'm curious to see what the results are.
At least you found something that works for you. I try not to pay attention to it. Sleeping pills made them worse for me.
I have all kinds of symptoms going on but everything started with a really bad tachycardia 6 months ago. I was found to be anemic, low potassium and low vitamin D. I also have symptoms like joint, back, neck and muscle pain, stomach problems, night sweats, floaters, chest pain, palpitations, etc.
I will keep you posted on what my doctors find. I've been tested for all kinds of stuff but everything comes back normal. My internal medicine doctor says it is anxiety or a virus but I know it is neither one of them. I think it is something else. I will keep you posted on my lab results.
Mojo, that's horrible I'm sorry to hear about all of the problems you're having. I hope there is good news or at very least that they can find out what the root of the problem really is, it can become very frustrating when you're almost certain you know there's a different problem but kept being told otherwise so I'm hoping the lab results will find something the other tests haven't.
Until I hear from you again I wish you good luck and I hope that you will be in good health. God bless.
The Following User Says Thank You to habsfan90 For This Useful Post: Mojo37 (04-22-2012)
How are you doing habsfan90? Have you had anymore issues when falling asleep? I've been having good and bad days. More bad than good and I am still waiting for a referall to see another doctor. If the next doctor can't find anything wrong I will be going to the local medical university hospital to see if they find the cause of my problems. I hope you are feeling better.
I have had my ups and downs as well lately, the past two nights I have had a lot of trouble sleeping and I've probably gotten less than 10 hours sleep combined these last two nights. For a while it seemed everything was okay and my insomnia had gone into remission but it's come back. I spoke to a new doctor who prescribed better sleeping pills, he said mine cause rebound insomnia which would explain a lot, however these pills are more expensive so for now I'm left out to dry. I'm guessing the recent spike in my insomnia has been from recent added stress, I'm moving soon and I also have a bunch of things I have to tie up before doing so but none of them seem to be going right, for example I was supposed to go for my road test today to get my second class license (in Ontario it is difficult to get a drivers license, there are 4 classes before you obtain a full license) and I was unable to find a vehicle for the test so basically lost the $125 fee for the test for not showing up, and I'll have to pay it again next time.
For now I've decided to take my mothers advice as a former pharmacy assistant, to wait until after the move to take any drastic action about my condition. Once we're settled in I plan on seeing a specialist so I can ween myself off of these pills and sleep normally again, but until then (May 31st) I will just put up with on and off insomnia.
I'm glad to hear back from you, though, and I'm hoping that you'll get the answers you're looking for some time soon, seems like both of us just have to play the waiting game for now.
I have had my ups and downs as well lately, the past two nights I have had a lot of trouble sleeping and I've probably gotten less than 10 hours sleep combined these last two nights. For a while it seemed everything was okay and my insomnia had gone into remission but it's come back. I spoke to a new doctor who prescribed better sleeping pills, he said mine cause rebound insomnia which would explain a lot, however these pills are more expensive so for now I'm left out to dry. I'm guessing the recent spike in my insomnia has been from recent added stress, I'm moving soon and I also have a bunch of things I have to tie up before doing so but none of them seem to be going right, for example I was supposed to go for my road test today to get my second class license (in Ontario it is difficult to get a drivers license, there are 4 classes before you obtain a full license) and I was unable to find a vehicle for the test so basically lost the $125 fee for the test for not showing up, and I'll have to pay it again next time.
For now I've decided to take my mothers advice as a former pharmacy assistant, to wait until after the move to take any drastic action about my condition. Once we're settled in I plan on seeing a specialist so I can ween myself off of these pills and sleep normally again, but until then (May 31st) I will just put up with on and off insomnia.
I'm glad to hear back from you, though, and I'm hoping that you'll get the answers you're looking for some time soon, seems like both of us just have to play the waiting game for now.
