Icy feeling on chest

[Nutmegbella 91]

I woke up at 3 this morning with a massive attack. I thought for sure I’m dying. This is it. I woke up to an icy prickly feeling on my chest. My chest was pounding hard and with each breath I took my heart would accelerate even more. And then the dizziness and the shortness of breath feeling started. I got up and my heart raced!! Like you wouldn’t believe. I stood up, started saying “nononononono”, “this is different Im having a heart attack” ,  “heartattack” (I said this maybe 9 times in a row really fast) and then my heart felt awful I thought it was going to stop and I was going to drop dead, I screamed. My husband told me to open the window let the cold air hit me. I did. I called a friend who suffers almost the same type of anxiety, she just heard the first symptom I told her, the ice prickly feeling, and she said the rest of the symptoms in the order they happened. She said yup it happens and she had me do deep breathing. I calmed down immediately after she hit the mark about what I felt. She went on to talk about things to distract me and it worked! I am doing better right now. But holy crap with these panic attacks.  I was sleeping on the floor before all this happened. Could a pinched nerve have caused my chest thing? Most likely, but knowing that. Why would I still freak out about it? Why can’t it just accept it? 

[jonathan123 2368]

Why would I still freak out about it? Why can’t it just accept it? 

Because reason could not enter the picture soon enough. During a panic attack, which is what you had, any sort of reason or common sense goes out the window. YOU become panic embodied. There is only panic, nothing else. Someone may be able to calm you down, but your immediate reaction is to panic because you are panicking. All the symptoms you describe are exaggerated anxiety.

Now what happens when you feel like that? You become afraid of what MIGHT happen and the apprehension brings on more fear. This tighten the circle of fear/adrenaline/fear until you are in a full blown panic attack. Now what I am about to say may seem strange but STOP trying to be free from 'IT'. STOP trying to control 'IT'. Let 'IT' come and do it's worse. OK? No? Any form of fear has its limits. There is a limit to the amount of adrenaline that can be secreted in one go, so panic will always die down. It will be exacerbated by more fear, but eventually it must stop. You will feel drained and exhausted, but the panic will cease.

The secret is not to fight it or struggle with it. Go with it. Bend with the wind. Go with the flow. Give up trying to do anything about it. NOT give in, that's different and self defeating. After a time, and it takes time, you may still panic, but you will know what to do and IT WILL NO LONGER MATTER!

Nothing is easy in anxiety. It can be hard work finding a way out of the maze, but it can be done if done with acceptance in your heart.  Acceptance and love. You have to learn to love yourself, warts and all.  You are not a failure or different from anyone else. We all have the ability to recover if we go about it in the right way and willingly. Take heart Nutmeg, you are in good company and we all are gunning for you.

 

• Thanks
• Haha
• Confused
• Sad

[Nutmegbella 91]

Thank you sooo much @jonathan123. It crossed my mind in the midst of the panic, to ride it out, thanks to one of your previous posts, but the wave of fear was great and i know it’s not going to be easy. But slowly trying to just let it do it’s thing will hopefully get me to a point in my life we’re i Can just let it be. Cause you’re right once in the panic there’s no reasoning. It’s really draining, trying to fight it. I am trying. And i am glad I do have you guys to help me out. You guys have no idea how much of a great help y’all have been. Thank you!

[jonathan123 2368]

It crossed my mind in the midst of the panic, to ride it out,

You know actually that's a very good analogy. If a cowboy wants to break a stubborn horse he will get on it and 'ride it out'. If he gets thrown he must get back on again and stay on until the horse learns it has been beaten. Anxiety is like a bucking bronco. It will have it's way if you let it, but it has to be tamed and shawn who is master.

Who is master in your mental household Nutmeg. YOU or 'IT'.? Who has the most strength? Who, (and this is important), has the most intelligence? If you can objectify anxiety, see it as something outside yourself that is not apart of you but something that has been laid on you by life, then you cease to identify with it. The big danger in anxiety is that we come to identify with it. WE become anxiety. It takes over if we allow it.  Who is WE? YOU are NOT your anxiety. It is not never was and never will be part of you. But it's a pretty powerful force and it takes courage and resolution not to identify with it.

Anxiety is common and universal. It can be used for good or ill depending on your attitude to it. You can, surprisingly enough, have positive anxiety where your fear leads to action which leads to good on your own or another's behalf. It's the negative variety we have to deal with here. So get back on the wild horse and tame him. YOU are boss, not him. OK??

[joy14 11]

Glad you got through that, because I know how the attacks can be. Jonathan that was a great help to me when you said there is only a certain amount of adrenaline that can be secreted. I have been extremely anxious and stressed lately over a few things in my life and the panic attacks have been coming a little and the other day I had that burst of adrenaline and I kept thinking, what if it doesn't get back to normal etc. My mind was racing, I was pacing the floor and felt so anxious! It is such a scary feeling, but after about 5-10 min it all just went away and my heart rate went back to normal. The feeling is just so scary and uncomfortable and my mind just races with thoughts and fears of wondering is there something wrong etc, although I have been checked out numerous times and know for a fact that I have anxiety/panic disorder. It is draining, but it does go away for sure.

[Holls 1505]

At the highet of my anxiety I would wake up feeling just like that. I asked my Dr and she said we can have panic attacks in our sleep. I did for weeks every day. I had one a week ago Bec I was nervous about a stomach bug I had and I didn't want to wake up with it well I woke up to a panic attack instead Bec i went to bed worried. I usually wake up and lay on the cool tile in my bathroom and breath deep breaths.  

Start a journal and you will see patterns.. write down what works to calm you.. when I don't have them for long periods then i do, it's nice to read them in my diary and know I've been through this before several times and what I did to help them. 

[MsLLL 413]

6 hours ago, jonathan123 said:

It crossed my mind in the midst of the panic, to ride it out,

You know actually that's a very good analogy. If a cowboy wants to break a stubborn horse he will get on it and 'ride it out'. If he gets thrown he must get back on again and stay on until the horse learns it has been beaten. Anxiety is like a bucking bronco. It will have it's way if you let it, but it has to be tamed and shawn who is master.

Who is master in your mental household Nutmeg. YOU or 'IT'.? Who has the most strength? Who, (and this is important), has the most intelligence? If you can objectify anxiety, see it as something outside yourself that is not apart of you but something that has been laid on you by life, then you cease to identify with it. The big danger in anxiety is that we come to identify with it. WE become anxiety. It takes over if we allow it.  Who is WE? YOU are NOT your anxiety. It is not never was and never will be part of you. But it's a pretty powerful force and it takes courage and resolution not to identify with it.

Anxiety is common and universal. It can be used for good or ill depending on your attitude to it. You can, surprisingly enough, have positive anxiety where your fear leads to action which leads to good on your own or another's behalf. It's the negative variety we have to deal with here. So get back on the wild horse and tame him. YOU are boss, not him. OK??

What a great post Jon!