Panic attacks strike hard. - Inner Ear Disorders Message Board

studyin · 02-01-2006, 07:24 PM

Hi All,

Well, I just cannot believe how viscious this decomp event has been (if that's what this is). Today I hit another new low. I drove 600 km over the weekend and seem to be paying the price in spades now. Yesterday morning all seemed quite fine again - even 75 or 80% - but this morning woke with an extreme panic attack going off. It's left me way down the rabbit hole again feeling very freaky and very surreal. At best I'd give myself about 25% right now. The most bizarrre thing with all of this is that mentally I am very sound - it's a purely physiological thing going on, and continues to be fired off by driving, computer screens, jogging. Changing environments from sitting to walking and vice versa is brutal. My CNS is just wrecked from the ear-eye conflict it seems. I just don't know what the h*ll to do with this anymore other than to bump up the SSRI to the full 3/4 dose which has rescued me in the past on three occasions now.

To me it appears that the panic/anxiety state has been kicked off again. Just unreal considering - in all honesty - there is very little cognitive thought contributing to it - even with my thesis due in two months as that is on target. So, to the noobs out there with this junk, if any doctor tells you "you're just anxious" I can say categorically that they have no idea.

Cheers...Scott

Lynda1234 · 02-01-2006, 07:53 PM

Perhaps your panic attack was set off by the lowering of your medicine. I'm on zoloft, but I understand it's not uncommon to get withdrawal symptoms no matter how slowly you may try to get off the medicine.

I can go for periods in which I'm "okay" and then for no reason I'll get my symptoms. It's true - the body is doing it's own thing even though your mind is thinking clearly. Panic and anxiety go hand in hand with inner ear problems. During the times I can't cope with it, I take a valium. The whole thing is awful and unfair. My episodes are fewer and farther apart and for that I'm grateful. Maybe that's the way it fades out.

No matter how bad you feel, keep it mind that it will get better...simply because it always does.

Lynda

studyin · 02-01-2006, 08:25 PM

Hi Lynda - appreciate your reply on this and that you experience the same effect as me - ie, feeling sound mentally while the body goes berserk. I just took some valium actually and will be upping the SSRI back up again tonight. Just need to remember this thing can be normalised quite quickly by these meds and hope it works again for me. There's always that fear that I will be stuck in this place for eternity while it's all on.

Cheers...Scott

Subs30 · 02-01-2006, 08:56 PM

Scott

Yep---that sounds smart.....

....."fear that I will be stuck in this place for eternity while it's all on."....

Sure...but not likely!!

Think I'd "cool it"....until after the..."thesis".

...doubt its that---as u say

...but...just to many things going on...i.e., "physiological thing going on, and continues to be fired off by driving, computer screens, jogging. Changing environments from sitting to walking and vice versa is brutal"

....to get a good "fix" on a solution

..."this morning woke with an extreme panic attack going off"....

But... u were ok...before u went to sleep(75-80% level)??

...."SSRI back up again tonight. Just need to remember this thing can be normalised quite quickly by these meds"......

Interesting....got to be a "clue" there!!.....perhaps....time to sort it out later...after.....u baseline it...again....

studyin · 02-01-2006, 10:29 PM

Hi Subs,

Thanks for the input.

>>>But... u were ok...before u went to sleep (75-80% level)??

Well, not really. I was lying on the couch using my powerbook (to give my neck a break) and off went the heart palps and panic feelings in this relatively new position. Hadn't had that happen for a long, long time but it used to happen on the couch - head angle different...I don't know. So I went to bed in a somewhat wound up state. It obviously gained momentum through the night while I was dead asleep.

My thoughts on this are that I previously developed a fullblown panic disorder from the labs onslaught in 2003 which carved a new neural "highway" of the flight or flight response straight into my nervous system. Unfortunately for me, when the ice is thin (ie. adding caffeine and other stimulus into the pot) all it takes is for some slight decompensation to occur via a different PC screen etc and it is set off again - those neural pathways start firing again. And while the panic disorder is back in action, the decomp persists and I feel worse and worse - spiralling further down the hole. I suspect it may take me many years to undo this permanently and to not rely on meds to keep things from going nuts should I trigger decompensation again. Guess it's just bad luck on my part that it hassles my nervous system so easily like this as I don't see others on the board spiralling into these nose dives every 6-9 months complete with panic symptoms on par with the initial injury.

Scott