someone please explain..?

Question

i have anxiety attacks so bad i feel like my throat is closing up. i also have been diagnosed with bipolar. it is so bad i cant drive and i am scared to be home alone. i take lithium and effexor and i sttill dont feel right. i feel like i dont think the way that i used to. i am scared, i dont like feeling out of it or not thinking right. what do i do...please help....

Answer 1

Relief from Symptoms
Without doubt, there are quite a few things which help me. Some help to lessen the effects of my attacks, and some have a very positive or preventative effect.

The following things help to avoid or reduce my symptoms when I am having an attack :


avoiding coffee and other drinks containing caffeine - I think that these drinks raise my heart rate and make me feel more anxious
avoiding alcohol - I find that drinking alcohol makes me feel more anxious as I feel my heart rate going up.
When having an attack, getting cool air blown in to your face from a fan, or your car air conditioning helps to relieve feelings of breathlessness
When your heart is pounding, and you are breathing heavily, cup your hands over your nose and mouth, and breathe. Apparently, breathing in your own air increases the carbon dioxide levels in your blood and stops your heart pounding.

I find the following to be very good to making me feel positive or help prevent attacks :


getting a good nights sleep - easier said than done if you're anxious
vigorous physical exercise - I find that I feel much calmer and relaxed after exercise, and that I sleep more soundly. If you are physically exhausted, its hard to not get a good nights sleep !
meditation - regular meditation helps to keep your mind clear of anxiety-creating thoughts.

Answer 2

I am so sorry that you are having these problems. I used to work as a R.N. on psych units in hospitals for 22 years. Now I am severely depressed due to severe physical problems. I am on Effexor and Serzone for depression and Buspar for anxiety. Before I was on the Buspar, I was so anxious that I felt like my chest would burst and had difficulty breathing. I say these things so that you know that I have an idea of how you feel.

It took a long time and a number of trials of different medications before my psychiatrist found the ones that work the best for me. I can imagine why you are so scared. Bipolar Disorder is a difficult illness to have but many people have it and some do quite well in life. There is a Manic Depression Association (The old name for Bipolar Disorder) that may be helpful for you to find out about as they are a support group for people who have the illness. I suspect your Psychiatrist's office can give you info about them.

You should ask you psychiatrist about trying you on Buspar for the anxiety you have. It has been very helpful for me, is not addictive or habit forming.

I don't know if you believe in God or not, but if you do, He has been a great help to me. He has answered many of my specific prayers and gives me hope that I will eventially be back to normal.
Even if I don't get all the way back to where I used to be, I know that my life has meaning.

I clicked on your 360 page and asked if you want to be a "friend". That way we could send each other messages if you want to. I haven't got my messenger working yet. Maybe this will be the motivation for me to get it working. God Bless and heal you.

Answer 3

HI! I also have bipolar and anxiety diorder. I take klonopin for anxiety but the things I do to stop an attack may seem silly but they work. Have you noticed that when you have an attack your faces scrunches up? I massage between my eyes with my fingers. It is hard to have an attack when your face is relaxed. I also do something repetitive that that requires me to think...like singing a song or reciting a poem or my ABC's if I have to. This takes my mind off the attack. Sometimes I will put my finger over one nostril(dont laugh) and force myself to breath slowly through the other one. This makes it practically impossible to hyperventilate. Hyperventilating makes attacks worse hence the nose trick. My anxiety is caused lots of times by a fear of losing control or not having someone there to control me if I do.Boy, that seems like an oxymoron Been having attacks for years and haven't "lost control" yet. Hopefully tha will make you feel better to know that. People with anxiety usually have great control because they spend so much time trying to achieve it. Scream....sometimes when I am alone and have an attack I scream and this seems to let get out any repressed feelings of anger I have at the time...I find I have more attacks if I let people walk all over me because the anger just comes out later in an attack. So don't be afraid to speak your mind and tell people when they are making you mad or upsetting you. I could go on for days so I had better stop now LOL. I hope that I have helped even if in a small way. Always remember this...an attack may scare the crap out of you but it can't kill you and you can control it...you just have to find what works best for you. I will say a prayer for you that you will have a peaceful day.(By the way, it is not good to obsess over attacks so try to find something that interests you....crocheting helped me a lot when I was younger and not watching the news helped too.) You might want to try the one thing that brings on an attack. Like driving. I used to be terrified to drive...now I look at it like this. If I have an attack I pull over to the side of the road and wait for it to subside instead of fighting it. Sometimes, if I just go ahead and let myself have a full blown attack and make myself physically relax through it I will feel better for quite some time. Some kind of release I guess. Best wishes and lots of hugs to you : )

Answer 4

You need to contact your Dr. Let him/her know what is going on. You might have built up a resistance to you meds. But you need to get a check up. Do not wait. When you feel an anxiety attack coming on,, go to a room or a space you can be "calm in" (with little noise) take deep slow breaths, and relax your body from head to toe.. Sometimes if you can focus on 1 thing it will help,, like reading, art, thing like that. But please go to your Doc,, I hope this helps.. Best of Luck...

Answer 5

Anxiety is often described as having cognitive, somatic, emotional, and behavioral components. The cognitive component entails expectation of a diffuse and uncertain danger. Somatically the body prepares the organism to deal with threat (known as an emergency reaction); blood pressure and heart rate are increased, sweating is increased, bloodflow to the major muscle groups is increased, and immune and digestive system functions are inhibited. Externally, somatic signs of anxiety may include pale skin, sweating, trembling, and pupillary dilation. Emotionally, anxiety causes a sense of dread or panic and physically causes nausea, and chills. Behaviorally, both voluntary and involuntary behaviors may arise directed at escaping or avoiding the source of anxiety. These behaviors are frequent and often maladaptive, being most extreme in anxiety disorders. However, anxiety is not always pathological or maladaptive: it is a common emotion along with fear, anger, sadness, and happiness, and it has a very important function in relation to survival.

Neural circuitry involving the amygdala and hippocampus is thought to underlie anxiety. When confronted with unpleasant and potentially harmful stimuli such as foul odors or tastes, PET-scans show increased bloodflow in the amygdala. In these studies, the participants also reported moderate anxiety. This might indicate that anxiety is a protective mechanism designed to prevent the organism from engaging in potentially harmful behaviors such as feeding on rotten food.

A chronically recurring case of anxiety that has a serious effect on a person's life may be clinically diagnosed as an anxiety disorder. The most common are generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, phobias, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Mainstream treatment for anxiety consists of the prescription of anxiolytic agents and/or referral to a cognitive-behavioral therapist. There are indications that a combination of the two can be more effective than either one alone.

The acute symptoms of anxiety are most often controlled with anxiolytic agents such as benzodiazepines. Diazepam (valium) was one of the first such drugs. Today there are a wide range of anti-anxiety agents that are based on benzodiazepines, although only two have been approved for panic attacks, Klonopin and Xanax. All benzodiazepines are physically addictive, and extended use should be carefully monitored by a physician, preferably a psychiatrist. It is very important that once placed on a regimen of regular benzodiazepine use, the user should not abruptly discontinue the medication.

Some of the SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) have been used with varying degrees of success to treat patients with chronic anxiety, the best results seen with those who exhibit symptoms of clinical depression and non-specific anxiety or general anxiety disorder concurrently. Beta blockers are also sometimes used to treat the somatic symptoms associated with anxiety, especially the shakiness of "stage fright."

You have to try another drugs or increase the dose of current drugs. Talk to your doctor immediately.

Answer 6

Anxiety can be extremely overwhelming. I have taken meds in the past. I've found it helps more if you kind of talk to yourself and calm yourself down.....count to 100 if you have to. I also believe green tea works wonders for anxiety. I drink it everyday. It's caffeine free and you can think more clearly. It seems to have worked for me over the years. I never did like the scripts.