Panic attack or what??

[twodogs]

I hav'nt had anything like this in a L-O-N-G time but I had just cut and washed my hair in preparation for an appointment tommorow and proceeded to sit down to eat a bowl of chili. I took a bite and it's almost as if I could'nt swallow it. Finally, it went down. The next few bites were even worse and it it felt like I had to put in an extra effort to swallow and it's almost like my throat/tongue were not working right or something and I had a lump-in-thoat/constricted sensation.

As this got worse, I had the most HORRIBLE feeling of sheer terror come over me that I can ever imagine and the adrenalin shot up through me like a rocket. I'm not sure if my heart was pounding/racing or anything but I know I was scared beyond belief and the only thing I could think about was death, disease, rushing to the ER, etc. It also felt like my lungs were too weak to take a breath and I had a weird sensation in my head.

I have been taking Tylenol 3 w/codeine for a few days now and prior to that, I had been on either Lorazepam or Xanax. I missed my dose of Xanax yesterday so I'm wondering if this was a  withdrawl effect -or- if it had something to do with the T-3. I had a pharmacist tell me once that Lorcet can definately cause anxiety but when I called another pharmacist a few minutes ago and asked about this, he said "there's no way". Lorcet and T-3 both contain codeine (I believe).

Anyway, I just took a Xanax (0.25mg) about 1/2 hour ago and although I'm somewhat better, I'm still freaked out and terrified that I'm going to die. I don't even feel like "me" right now. I just feel totally freaky in the head. This hit me TOTALLY out of the blue.

[Kelly_B]

If you go to www.webmd.com and look up the message center there, under anxiety, people talk about the very same problem that you have.

Kelly

[twodogs]

Thanks Kelly_B. Yes, I've been there and several other places on the net and it seems like I'm not the only one with this "condition". What I don't understand is why it just hit me suddenly for no reason at all. I mean it was'nt like I had been sitting there thinking about a hive of killer bees chasing me or anything. Could there be something I had been subconsiously doing or thinking about that could have brought this on?. Again, any insight would be appreciated as I try to fully understand this.

[dld41001]

The therapist I see told me that it is something in the past that we couldn't deal with so we push it back and push it back until it affects our everyday life.  When we least expect it it shows up and causes the anxiety.  Until the problem is dealt with, we will continue to be anxious.

They say that it happens after some stressful event (death, divorce, etc) and usually in the early 20's

[mbabynz]

hey twodogs the same thing happens to me it just hits me out of the blue for no reason and it is so scary absolutely terrifying so i know how you feel i am on meds and haven't had a attack in 6 weeks i don't to this day fully understand why it hits me like it use to but boy you feel like you just want to run.i hope you can figure it out because when you have them your so scared incase you have another best of luck keep me posted as i have been through it ill try and help as much as i can oh another thing a drop in blood pressure can cause that sensation exspecially with codeine something you might want to look into I'm not scaring you or anything i just thought thats what happened to me when they gave me a shot of morphine its the same feeling anyway let me know how you get on
take care
mbabynz