Hi...
This is my first time visiting this forum. My name is Jen and I'm 20 years old. I began experiencing what my doctor deemed as panic attacks (though I begged to differ) in September of 2004. I was at work waiting on a table and became incredibly hot and my hearing began to fade. I walked outside because I have had anxiety like this before and suspected it would go away as it had in the past. Nope! My boss let me leave work, and to my surprise it got worse and worse. My hands and feet began to tingle I was losing muscle movement in my face. My heart was racing, and I couldn't sit still. This being my first attack, I called my mother and demanded I go to the ER because I thought I was going to die. She called my doctor and my doctor said to come see her instead, so I did. She said I was having a panic attack. I haven't had one that badly (knock on wood) since then, but daily I am struggling to ignore normal body movements and reactions because I can turn a stomach or arm pain into something so much more extreme. I left work today because my eyes were feeling strange and I feared I was going to go blind or crazy or pass out. I can't seem to shake this, and this is so NOT ME. I'm afraid to get into the car with someone else. I rarely drive on the freeway. I tell myself over and over that I can beat this, but it always gets the best of me. I'm so afraid I'll have this problem for the rest of my life, and lately I've been so depressed about it that I actually just want to give up.
The strange thing is, some days I'm actually perfectly fine. I can go about my normal life, but it never leaves my mind. There is always the fear of it happening, of there being some terrible medical condition the doctors just haven't figured out yet.
Pleeeease...any advice would be SO appreciated!!!
