Please read. Could you please tell me if this has happened to you!
Has anyone had a panic attack so bad that it made your hands and feet spasm to the point where you actually look crippled? My hands will turn in and my feet will point downward. They can be pried apart but will go back in the same position after being released. I just started having these attacks about 8 weeks ago. I really need to know that this has happened to someone else, this scares me so much.
Re: Please read. Could you please tell me if this has happened to you!
Thanks for commenting. I was hoping that someone would have experienced the same thing, it sure would have made me feel better. I still have a hard time believing these are panic attacks. I don't think I can live the rest of my life like this. Does anyone ever wish one of their loved ones would experience just one so that they would understand how you feel? No one can really understand until you go through it.
Re: Please read. Could you please tell me if this has happened to you!
Okay, my Dr was telling me why sometimes when I have a panic attack I feeli like I am going to pass out. It's due to breathing too fast and blowing off too much carbon dioxide.
She said that it could even be so bad that, get this, your hands can turn inwards and get stuck like that and will stay there until your carbon dioxide level is restored. I kid you not. Your probably breathing so fast that you are releasing too much carbon dioxide.
Try beathing in a paper bag, I myself breath in for 3 seconds, hold it for 2-3 seconds, then release for 3 seconds. Then repeat.
She demonstrated what it looks like, and it's exactly how your describing.
Re: Please read. Could you please tell me if this has happened to you!
I agree with Mr. Panicky. I haven't had this symptom but I've heard and read about it. I would check with a doc, though, because all of us should do that in the beginning stages of anxiety disorders, just to make sure everything is physically ok.
Re: Please read. Could you please tell me if this has happened to you!
Circussquirrel is right, the reson to see a Dr is to make sure that everything is ok. Not to find a problem. 9 out of 10 people (my estimation) will come back with normal results.
I think that when you have a panic attack you sometimes teach yourself how to panic and when you become so disturbed by it that you obsess over all of the possibilities of what could cause it and then you become paranoid about having another one.
How old are you? What is your body mass index? Do you take any medication?
Re: Please read. Could you please tell me if this has happened to you!
I would bet it probably is exactly like mr panicky's doctor told him.I agree though you still should consult with a doctor and have yourself checked out.I can tell you panic/anxiety can cause soooooo many scarey symptom's.I am one who HAS fainted several time's over the years due to anxiety/stress.Let me tell ya each time it was an absolutely horrible experiance because afterward's I would feel very sickly for a while.I think I probably hyperventilate ,which by the way, you can be hyperventilating and not even realize it because you do not feel that you are! This could be what is happening to you with your symptom's too.I can understand your worry with not finding anyone else yet on the board with the same symptom.I worried about that myself with the fainting and thought ..OH it HAS to be something else.The thing is that is not at all nessicarily true some symptom's are just rarer then other's.So I would just talk to my doctor. Take care of yourself
Re: Please read. Could you please tell me if this has happened to you!
Yeah seizure's are an idea too.If you have'nt had a good EEG yet then maybe ask for one.I had this done I was in the hospital for several hours some people are there for a few days.Mine came out normal.You want to have the full testing though because there is alot more to the extended testing then just the typical EEG.Nothing is painful about it,other then when the nurse took the electrodes off my scalp it pulled my hair a bit.Mainly it was very boring.
Please read. Could you please tell me if this has happened to you! 
