Sudden Onset Anxiety/Panic Attacks-Due to Work/Help!:(

[pittguy578]

Not sure what the difference is exactly. I do suffer from depression-currently on WB for about two years. Never had these kind of reactions to stress though

I work for an insurance company as a claims rep. The job is very stressful in the first place, even before these storms in the NE of the US hit. They are rating every little detail on a file-there is no room for error.
With the storms that have occured in the NE of the US, the workload has become unmanageable. It is literally twice as much work, and they have not relaxed the work standards-every little detail has to be correct or the "file" fails. They have pulled people  from our department to help out in other  departments despite the fact we are SWAMPED and it is creating stress on the remaining people/

At the beginning it was not as bad. I worked a ton of overtime. I pushed my way through it with a positive attitude and was fine up until the last week. Then all of a sudden I started feeling EXTREMELY frazzled. I got to the point where I could not breathre or thing. My heart was racing at work, when I left  work, after I got home, I was ready to "body" slam the fax machine at work-that close to my breaking point. Now every little stress in my life is creating a "panic" situation..cannot think clearly..heart beating fast..I am not sure what to do. I have never had these kind of feelings before. I have lost weight over the last few weeks..haven't slept well. As I said above, these panic symptoms just started last week.

I took a day off today..nothing major going on..I could not find the remote control to the TV..and THAT causes a panic attack. Every little stressful thing is setting me off.

I am not sure what to do. I called my doc..they were out of the office today.

Any recommendations to help me "get" back on track or offer temporary relief?
I do not want to go on medication if I can prevent this.

[Warbirdwf]

Hey-

Obviously, you're dealing with too much stress right now. As a result, you bucket is full and it's overflowing causing some anxiety. Do you drink caffeine? If so, reduce it or stop it. When I'm highly stressed, any caffeine will make me really anxious and can cause panic attacks. Same goes with eatting too much sugar.
You might go talk to your doctor or even a psycologist to see if they have further suggestions to reduce your stress.

I wouldn't rush to take any meds for it, especially benzo's.

I hope you feel better soon!

[CVR]

Hi

At least you know what your trigger for your anxiety/panic is. That is the first step in recovery. You should really go and see your Dr or shrink! ASAP before this gets out of hand and you develop a anxiety/panic disorder. I do not want to scare you, but it is important to nip this thing in the butt, before it gets worse. If I knew back then when I first had panic attacks to sort this out asap, things would have been better for me now.

Keep us posted

Keep well

[Daisy131]

i agree with the above posts- quit caffeine/stimulants ASAP first.

you know your trigger- that is often the hardest part of recovery with panic attacks. you can't fix it if you don't know what causes it.

do you work out? do you have a commute that maybe you can listen to some relaxation cd's?

[karsa]

I faced a very similiar situation to the one you are currently experiencing.  At first the panic would sort of come and then I would try to breathe in deep to try to calm myself, but then that would have a negative effect because I would then get light-headed or dizzy and then the panic would further develop.  One way in which I coped with this calming down part is by breathing using my stomach instead of my chest for air.

Here's what I mean:  youtube.com/v/eRIV2R3jzaQ

After I started using the stomach expansion & contraction technique instead of relying on expanding my chest, my dizziness went away.  I don't feel so obsessed about my breathing because this way of breathing feels natural to me.  Its how babies breath, i heard.

After the breathing felt natural, I felt I can handle the panic any time even if it creeped up on me.  This way, you'll forget about it eventually.  I think its actually the anxiety that made my natural breathing not possible.  I guess when there's nothing to worry about, your mind is preoccupied by other things so your body just takes over the autonomic function of breathing for you.  Just my opinion.

[northwoods]

I deal with the same sort of thing.  The last couple of days my brain has been very sensitive to any little thing and I'm getting mild panic attacks.  A couple of things that can help:

1) Eat right - no caffeine, no junk food, no stimulants
2) Exercise - even just talking a walk when you're feeling stressed will help
3) See a therapist / shrink to get some "tools" to deal with these feelings