Where's the brown paper bag? (My Experience of Anxiety and Panic Attacks)

Member Name: January

Product:	My Experience of Anxiety and Panic Attacks
Date:	23/01/03 (115 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Helps to relieve the attacks

Disadvantages: Can be scarey

A few years ago I woke up in the middle of the night with chest pains and I couldn't breath, I was hyper-ventilating and felt dizzy and scared.

My first thoughts was that I was having a heart attack.
I could feel my heart beat in the back of my throat and it had speeded up to about twice the normal pace, the pain was unbearable and I couldn't move or shout for my hubby to help.

I laid down and tried to breath slowly, through my nose and out of my mouth, all the time trying to calm myself down. This went on for about 10 minutes and slowly my heart rate went down and I could breath more easily. I have never been as scared in my life.

I'm not one to go running to the doctors unless I feel it is really serious and prefer to take herbal remedies, but not knowing what had caused this to happen freaked me and off I went to the surgery.

I waited the usual 15 mins in the waiting room and went in to see the doctor.
He always seems to peer at me over his glasses which is very un-nerving, but they are a funny breed anyway.
I told him what had happened and he listened to my heart and lungs, then said I had to blow into this gadget that measured my lung capacity.
After all this he then perscribed me an inhailer, like the one's you have if you have asthma.

I was told to use this if I got out of breath or the attacks came on. this did seem to help, but the thought of constantly walking around with an inhailer for the rest of my life was a bit daunting.

A while ago I had another really bad attack in the middle of the night, I reached for my inhailer and after 3 mins the attack went away. The pain was intense and my heart rate beat uneven, I could feel myself gasping for breath but didn't seem to be able to breath properly. After about 10 minute's it went away.
The only thing was my inhailer was now empty.
I made an appointment to see the doctor, he was fully booked up, so I saw a l
ady doctor who fitted me into her appointments.

I went in told her I needed another inhailer and she asked me if I had been diagnosed asthmatic.
I told her no and discribed my attacks and told her that the inhailer helped them to go away.

I was surprised when she then told me that I was suffering from panic attacks.
These usually come on in the middle of the night and the symptoms were the same as mine.
I have had a few bad things happen in my past and don't react well to stress, even though I don't show it at the time it will trigger off a panic attack at a later date.
The doctor has said that the best thing for a panic attack is to blow into a brown paper bag and breath into it untill the attack has gone.

Surprisingly it works, the doctor said that the inhailer can speed up the heart and will make the condition worse.
I'm glad I went to see her because I hate to take prescribed medicine, you never know if its the right thing for you. I think it's always good to get a second opinion.
I can cope with breathing in and out of a paper bag.
So if you've ever suffered from a panic attack, don't go rushing off to the docter's untill you try the paper bag, it may work.
Don't panic.
If it doesn't work then go to the doctors without fail.

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