Something I realized about my anxiety attacks

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This topic has 20 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 11 months ago by anita.

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February 27, 2023 at 5:35 am #415882

Mr. Ritz
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I’ve had a few bad anxiety attacks (well, they’re all bad, right?)
It begins with heart palpitations and then moves on to a rapid heartbeat, around 160 bpm and sweating.

Breathing exercises don’t work. Sometimes a Clonazepam or Xanax will help, sometimes not.

I’ve went to the ER twice with these symptoms, once with hospital admittance, and they find nothing wrong.

The other day it occurred to me that several of these attacks aligned with bad news, for friends and relatives, not me personally!

~My neighbor who grew up with my sons and I consider my adopted son, was telling us in great detail about the end of his marriage and divorce.
An attack.

~My Mother in law coming down with a fairly serious illness.
An attack.

~A family friend who’s husband has dementia and attacked her one evening.
Another attack.

There have been others, but I only recently made the connection.

None of these events with friends and family were even on my mind! I didn’t consciously think about them at all after hearing the news, and they didn’t occur until later in the evening, hours after the news was delivered.

What does everyone think? I’m very surprised that this has affected me this deeply.

May 4, 2023 at 4:29 am #418169

Mr. Ritz
Participant

Again last night!
A friend discovered a 90% blockage in his LAD and had 2 stents installed. 5 years ago I had an 80% blockage in the same artery and had a stent installed.
They call this one “The Widowmaker” because it can be fatal if completely blocked.
Anyhow, he’s fine now.

I was sound asleep, but got up to use the bathroom last night and realized my heart was beating fast and uneven, and I was hot and sweaty. I took a Xanax to make sure it wasn’t due to the cough medicine I took before bed, and sure enough, within the next hour, my heart began to slow down and beat normally again.

Sounds like I’m some type of empath that absorbs the problems of other people that I know? Why would I be so affected?
Can anyone shine a light on this?

May 4, 2023 at 6:13 am #418173

Tee
Participant

Hello Mr. Ritz,

I am glad your heart palpitations calmed down after taking medicine, and that you’re fine now. As for why you react with a delayed panic/anxiety attack upon hearing bad news… I don’t really know. It seems you get triggered by bad news related to not only your family members, but also friends experiencing sickness or personal hardships.

Sounds like I’m some type of empath that absorbs the problems of other people that I know? Why would I be so affected?

Hmm empaths do absorb other people’s emotions, but they are also aware of those emotions. For example, upon hearing the bad news, I think you would immediately start feeling bad, worried, anxious etc. However, you say that it’s not the case with you:

None of these events with friends and family were even on my mind! I didn’t consciously think about them at all after hearing the news, and they didn’t occur until later in the evening, hours after the news was delivered.

Since you weren’t consciously thinking/worrying about the other person’s problem, I don’t think you’re an empath. For you, the reaction came hours later, completely unconsciously, sort of “out of the blue”.

However, what could be happening (this is just an idea) is that you might be suppressing your emotional reactions (because you might have a belief that “boys don’t cry”, for example). And so those valid emotional reactions come out to the surface in form of an anxiety attack?

Maybe this is a stretch, so please disregard if it doesn’t apply. But in any case, it seems like something is triggered – something that is beyond your conscious awareness. One possibility why things are beyond our conscious awareness is that they were not allowed to be expressed, typically in our childhood (say we weren’t allowed to cry or show weakness), and so we have suppressed them.

May 4, 2023 at 6:28 am #418174

Mr. Ritz
Participant

“Maybe this is a stretch, so please disregard if it doesn’t apply. But in any case, it seems like something is triggered – something that is beyond your conscious awareness. One possibility why things are beyond our conscious awareness is that they were not allowed to be expressed, typically in our childhood (say we weren’t allowed to cry or show weakness), and so we have suppressed them.”

That sounds pretty accurate. My wife on the other hand will show the emotions right away, where I don’t. I should feel it at the time, but I don’t. I wasn’t sad, I was surprised but glad.

This issue with my friend’s heart trouble is actually good news as they caught it in time. Having the same procedure done myself, I’m sure that he’s feeling better (still waiting on his return call).
Unlike me, he’s healthy, active, does not have high cholesterol or blood pressure and is not overweight.

Maybe that’s the scary part? It could happen to anyone anytime regardless of taking precautions?

May 4, 2023 at 9:02 am #418178

Peter
Participant

I don’t think its a stretch. What your describing sounds a lot like repression which for sure trigger anxiety attacks. Not surprising a some part of you knows whey a larger part of you does not want to know – blocking flow – experienced heart palpitations and all the stuff assoicated with that.

My untrained guess is that the unconscious issue that you would prefer not to make conscious is something to do with the notion of death. If so facing your fear and concept of death, making that conscious should help reduce the number and or intensity of future anxiety attacks.

May 4, 2023 at 9:27 am #418179

Tee
Participant

Hi Mr. Ritz,

That sounds pretty accurate.

Okay… so you’re aware that in your childhood you were not allowed to show emotions?

My wife on the other hand will show the emotions right away, where I don’t. I should feel it at the time, but I don’t. I wasn’t sad, I was surprised but glad.

I guess you did feel sadness (or fear, or anger) as a child, but have learned not to feel it, because that was safer?

Unlike me, he’s healthy, active, does not have high cholesterol or blood pressure and is not overweight.

Maybe that’s the scary part? It could happen to anyone anytime regardless of taking precautions?

Well, it can happen to anyone, however I believe there are still reasons. They don’t always have to be physical, such as high cholesterol, but there can be psychological reasons too, such as stress. And I believe that suppressing emotions can actually contribute to stress and cardiovascular problems… Anyway, I don’t think it’s that random. But that’s just my opinion, I tend to believe in the mind-body connection and a holistic view of disease…

May 4, 2023 at 10:47 am #418180

Mr. Ritz
Participant

[quote quote=418178]My untrained guess is that the unconscious issue that you would prefer not to make conscious is something to do with the notion of death. If so facing your fear and concept of death, making that conscious should help reduce the number and or intensity of future anxiety attacks.[/quote]

That may be close to the truth. I thought I’d made my peace with death, but maybe not 🙁 Our group of friends as well as us are all past 60, so it’s probably on my mind more than before.
Getting a new Psychiatrist so I’ll bring that up to her.

[quote quote=418179]Well, it can happen to anyone, however I believe there are still reasons. They don’t always have to be physical, such as high cholesterol, but there can be psychological reasons too, such as stress. And I believe that suppressing emotions can actually contribute to stress and cardiovascular problems… Anyway, I don’t think it’s that random. But that’s just my opinion, I tend to believe in the mind-body connection and a holistic view of disease…[/quote]

That also should be true. This friend is one of the most relaxed mellow guys I know, but his wife is pretty intense. He may suppress some anger, but I’ve never seen him let it out.

May 4, 2023 at 11:22 pm #418195

Tee
Participant

Hi Mr. Ritz,

That also should be true. This friend is one of the most relaxed mellow guys I know, but his wife is pretty intense. He may suppress some anger, but I’ve never seen him let it out.

Yes, it could be: if the guy is mellow and never stands up to his intense (probably angry, criticizing?) wife, it is likely that he has a lot of suppressed anger, which he isn’t allow to show. Maybe not even to himself. But the anger is building up and can cause high blood pressure, for example. Although you say he doesn’t have high blood pressure either, so that’s kind of curious.

In any case, I think it helps if we try to deal with those emotional blockages and let our emotions “flow” (best in therapy), because it might help prevent some of the physical symptoms too.

May 5, 2023 at 4:00 am #418198

Mr. Ritz
Participant

So I’m wondering how to deal with this to avoid another incident?
If I’m not feeling any strong emotions when I hear the news, what am I supposed to do to avoid the anxiety later?

May 5, 2023 at 8:41 am #418199

Tee
Participant

Hi Mr. Ritz,

So I’m wondering how to deal with this to avoid another incident?
If I’m not feeling any strong emotions when I hear the news, what am I supposed to do to avoid the anxiety later?

Well, you said that this suggestion of mine sounds pretty accurate:

But in any case, it seems like something is triggered – something that is beyond your conscious awareness. One possibility why things are beyond our conscious awareness is that they were not allowed to be expressed, typically in our childhood (say we weren’t allowed to cry or show weakness), and so we have suppressed them.

So if you have problems expressing emotions (let’s say fear), and it comes out indirectly, in form of an anxiety attack, then I guess you’d need to get in touch with that fear. It most probably stems from your childhood, so I think you’d need to work on some of your childhood memories (those that were hurtful) and process what happened to you.

You mentioned you’ll start seeing a new psychiatrist. Is she also offering counseling/psychotherapy? Because I guess that’s what you’d need if you want to address childhood issues.

May 7, 2023 at 4:35 pm #418367

Mr. Ritz
Participant

[quote quote=418199]You mentioned you’ll start seeing a new psychiatrist. Is she also offering counseling/psychotherapy? Because I guess that’s what you’d need if you want to address childhood issues.[/quote]

I am unsure but it said visits were 60-90 minutes. Any other Psy I have dealt with was 15-20 min.

May 7, 2023 at 10:52 pm #418368

Tee
Participant

Hi Mr. Ritz,

I am unsure but it said visits were 60-90 minutes. Any other Psy I have dealt with was 15-20 min.

60-90 min is the usual appointment duration for psychotherapy. So that’s good, you’ll have an opportunity to talk about issues in more detail.

Wishing you luck! Let me know how it went, if you’d like to.

November 13, 2023 at 1:18 pm #424986

Mr. Ritz
Participant

HI,

I’m back. My Psychologist is great I see here every month or so as we are adjusting my medication. 30-60 min visit, what ever we need.

I also have a Psychologist for counseling that I see once a week who I also like quite a bit, but we do tend to get off track a lot and just BS, I suppose because I don’t have anyone else in my life that I can talk to like that, it’s bound to happen.

The Psychiatrist has worked me down off Trintellix, which probably wasn’t working anymore and we have ramped up to 20mg a day of Viibryd. I’m also still on 20 mg of buspar taken 2X a day, which she is is planning to work me off of the next time I see her.
I started to feel pretty good once I got down to the 10mg dose of Trintellix (down from 40mg) as we ramped up the Viibryd, but then I went back to where I was, but at a slightly lower level.

Now that I’m off Trintellix and just on the Viibryd & Buspar I still am not great. I need a Klonopin about every 2 days, and taking that makes me feel like I failed, even though it makes me feel better. I’m trying not to get a tolerance to it where it won’t work anymore, so I avoid taking unless I just can’t stand the anxiety anymore.
Woke up today with a fast heartbeat and a knot in my stomach….not reason, just another panicky day.

I still want to find the root cause of my anxiety if possible.

There is an upcoming heart ablation procedure which is supposed to correct my Atrial Flutter and I’m excited but nervous about that. I’s happened 3 times total so far, twice this year. I got a bad virus (May) and I got Covid (September). Landed in the hospital for a night both times. Covid this time wasn’t any worse than a bad cold thanks to having my shots, but it still messed up my heart rhythm.
BUT
Apart from that, this anxiety has been going on for years. I am so so very tired of it interrupting my life. I’ve got drugs, tried to meditate, do breathing exercises, going for walks (which does help a bit) read a lot of articles, \

I’m just about desperate enough to find one of those people who lead you on a guided psychedelic mushroom trip. Any one try that? I hear it’s life changing.
Thanks for listening to mw whine 🙂

November 13, 2023 at 4:32 pm #424997

anita
Participant

Dear Mr. Ritz:

Welcome back, good to read from you again!

“I still want to find the root cause of my anxiety if possible“- what about what we discussed May 2016- Dec 2022 in your previous six threads, in regard to the cause root of your anxiety?

anita

November 13, 2023 at 5:22 pm #425001

Mr. Ritz
Participant

[quote quote=424997]Dear Mr. Ritz: Welcome back, good to read from you again! “I still want to find the root cause of my anxiety if possible“- what about what we discussed May 2016- Dec 2022 in your previous six threads, in regard to the cause root of your anxiety? anita[/quote]

Hi Anita,

I’ll read through the old threads.

I will say that the anticipation about the heart surgery is at the front of the issues. The local hospital lost the Dr. That does this procedure, so we have to drive an hour and a half to another hospital.

It’s supposed to be very successful, but can give you some arrhythmia as it heals, but he has medicine I’m going to be on for a few months to hopefully prevent that.

My psychiatrist said she thinks I have a chemical imbalance while the psychologist says I need to figure out my triggers and all the drugs in the world won’t cure it. I guess that’s no surprise.
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