Do your anxiety symptoms last for days/weeks?

Hello everyone. I never had anxiety attacks before, even if I had, it must have been mild. But last night for the first time I felt like I was about to die, my head had this tingling feeling that made me feel like my brain was giving up. Then I started walking around and realized I couldn't walk straight cause I was dizzy. Then I had this elevated heart beat and I was so scared and convinced that I was going to die that night. I was able to send an I love you message to a few of my loved ones then after I was realized that I was alive for two hours, I decided to check the net for symptoms and all that came up was anxiety attack.

Then I was able to convince myself that I was not dying. Then another anxiety hit me heard. I got scared that I was getting mad and I might have to drop out of my final year at school. I was finally able to hold the hands of my roommate and fall asleep. I kept on waking up every few hours and up until this moment, my hands still tremble and I have that tingling in my head that won't go away.

I need all the help I can get please if you feel the same way, lets go through this together 

I know this forum started 3 years ago but I came across it and it seems like I can relate to everyone in here I have been suffering from anxiety for over 10 years now just recently it has struck me I feel disconnected from my body I feel like everything is fake I am anxious the whole day jittery I hate to sleep alone I sometime don’t want to go to work but if I don’t then my bills won’t get paid I really wish I could be back to the same person I was just 3 weeks ago my doctor and therapist tell me it’s because I received news about a family member that has put me in a shock and it seem like it started right when I got the news I lost my appetite I have to force myself to eat and i am happy when I am with people I care and love I find myself crying.

Dear Nicola and everyone here suffering from anxiety.

I want to shed some optimism and positivism after having gone through the same living with anxiety, YOU WILL OVERCOME IT! I can assure you! But you must love yourself more from now on and change some things in your life.

As you probably know, there are many types of anxiety: Generalised, post traumatic, Phobias, personality related... Mine was the last, having lived big events in my life early on in my life, made me a perfectionist and worry too much about what others thought of me. This mix made me have a strong demand on myself to get things right without ever giving credit to myself (I was a superstar in my industry early on in life...). 

I want you all to know that I was feeling the same as you all and sometimes I still do. However, thanks to medical (psychologist+doctor) support and myself loving and changing habits towards my life, I now IDENTIFY “IT” and DON’T IDENTIFY WITH it anyomore.

Here are some tips that changed my life:

-Learn Mindulness and Meditation (I was the last person to believe in this, now I cannot see myself living without it. It will teach you to live in the present and not in the future (what if scenarios...) among other things. I recommend Headspace app!

-Go to a psychologist and learn about yourself by getting help. This is a MUST! Psychologists don’t get the attention they should.

-Tell your GP and get him to follow up with your psychologist (who in turn will know if you should take meds too).

-Do sport (cardio)

-Eat healthy

-Socialise and have your best friend close to you.

-read (i never read and it helps me slow down).

-realise your not alone + learn about control in life and acceptance (mindfulness and psychologist for this is the best).

-Stop reading and watching the news

-Don’t search your symptoms on the internet (I know this is hard).

Everyone here, YOU WILL NOT DIE! millions of us have this, it is not an illness! Just so you know everyone goes through strong anxiety at least once in life. In my case I had stong panic attacks and was alone thinking I was going to die. We are lucky to know what we have, trust me, YOU will get 90% better to the point you accept it. However it TAKES TIME. When you accept this, you will then learn what I said about identifying it and not WORRY so much

A big positive message from a now very happy and positive ex-anxiety sufferer!

Oh and remember:

THE SITUATION IS WHAT IT IS, you cannot control it. WHAT YOU CAN CONTROL IS HOW YOU RELATE TO IT.

all the best,

James

I share the sentiment of an earlier comment about some tears when reading this. Its very comforting to hear that so many people share in this experience. Its not a great experience, but it proves we're not alone. I also have sensations and anxiety that don't ever seem to go away. For me, it's like having an object, some kind of ball or mass in my chest that sits there all the time. Currently its all about breathing for me, so my hands are slightly tingly every single day.

It started about 6 months ago just like most of you guys, sometime around april or may of this year. I had this flipflopping sensation in my chest that just stopped me in my tracks and i thought it was due to my heavy vaping, so i would take longer and longer breaks between vaping, however the sensation would still come. Then one day i got home from work and i'm playing video games and this sensation came and I tried to search for something to explain it. Thats when i felt like i couldn't breath and then my mind created the story; the sensation is your heart lacking oxygen because you're not breathing and the lightheadedness is your brain cells dying" and i just lost it, ran to the ER feeling i was moments from deaths embrace. They found nothing wrong with me and sent me home but i was just so sure something was wrong, i couldn't sit still. I was squirming and felt so much despair just laid there assaulted by dry mouth, hammering heart, pain in my chest, sore arm, spinny dizzy feelings and when i did fall asleep i slept for 16 hours, THEN i called out of work and stayed in bed for another 12 hours. I wound up going to the ER about 4 more times over the next couple months afterward (never found anything wrong) and i became a hermit overnight with up to 10 attacks a day (each lasting 1-2 hours) i stopped going outside and developed agoraphobia, i couldn't do 5 minute car rides without hyperventilating and asking to go to the hospital again... My life went from total fearless freedom to a prisoner in my home and body and mind overnight. 

I've watched it progress though from believing somethign was wrong with my heart first. I had the palpitations, the chest pain, the occasional arm twinge. But then at some point i started worrying about my brain thinking i had a tumor or something causing my heart to act weird and thats when the heart stuff stopped because i was busy thinking about something else. I noticed that my attention was controlling the symptoms to a degree, but this isn't enough to defeat panic disorder. Over time it went from heart to head to neck to organs and for the past couple months, my BIG fear that i can't defeat is that i started thinking that maybe my brain forgot how to breathe. To anyone it would be super silly and crazy but I started paying so much attention to my breathing that i disrupted the rhythm entirely. I was breathing fast and slow and shallow and deep and i had my hands go numb all the time and this was so bad for so long, only recently being able to somehow keep my mind away from it. Only when I'm not thinking about it do i breathe naturally and restore a calm sensation to my body.

But I truly believe I can overcome this. I'm going to a therapist and getting a treatment called EMDR and I refuse to take meds (personal choice) and i know that theres a way to heal from something like this. Its gotta be to accept it for what it is and live besides it just like we live besides other things like being short or having a certain hair color - to make it irrelevant in our attention. OR to somehow learn to identify when the mind is creating untrue stories, like when a sudden muscle spasm in your belly happens and your mind screams out "maybe i have appendicitis" and then correcting yourself immediately. Or maybe its about conquering the fear of death at the core, to live in the moment, to stop living in the future and past, but to be here. Maybe to agree mentally with your body not to freak out unless you have a REALLY solid reason to freak out. Whatever the solution is, i'm convinced that I can find it and I know that everyone here can too. Maybe it won't feel like a solution, or maybe we don't all believe it, but if having panic disorder has taught me anything its that when i start to drift into the mindset that theres no hope and i'm REALLY sick and i'm REALLY going to die - thats when i feel the worst. So the opposite of that mindset has to be the answer.

This is the first time in over a month I feel a little better, it all started 9/5 I remember that date cause its seared into my memory, I just finished a pizza, which I love, when I started feeling a burning in my chest, looking it up the first thing I saw was heart attack then my heart began beating faster and faster hammering, i was terrified but its been over a month since its happened however I still feel the odd chest pain, arm pain, back pain, neck pain even jaw pain because I've been looking up symptoms and might be freaking myself out and creating these things, I feel like crap and sometimes I feel this horrible feeling creeping up from my neck to my face like some force is pressing against me and its just so hard to focus or do anything, I still haven't had any tests cause I fear the results but the thing that helps a little is the pain lasts about a minute then goes away and it's hardly ever combined in body parts, also I deal with shortness of breath, but when I'm not thinking about it or worrying about it, work helps distract me, I feel normal and fine but then it will randomly spring to mind and I get that horrible fearful feeling again it's driving me wild feeling my heart beating the way it does during these times and the shaking, I fall asleep for a short nap and wake up feeling my legs shaking but they don't even appear to be shaking as badly as they feel they do, I'm still hoping it's all anxiety and panic as it runs in the family,I'm only 20 but haven't had the best diet, a LOT of pizza, but I've been eating better, lots of heart healthy foods, still, insurence and money suck so that's part of the fear of going to the doctor, and I don't know how to ask my dad to help me set up an appointment even though I know he's help just to make sure I'm ok, it just freaks me out and its hard to even wanna stay in bed because that's where the attacks happen most of the time, there are some days maybe 2-3, 4 if I'm lucky, where I feel like me again but then it's gone and it just sucks so much, the nausea doesn't help either but at least relaxing in the warm shower does, this all helps though reading about people who feel the same symptoms I do and have worried it was a heart attack, thanks, wish me luck whenever I do work up the courage to get that appointment

Hi Nicola,

Yes, you likely have generalized anxiety if you feel it most/all of the time - talking as a fortunate full recoverer (16 month process) after 5 years of explosive anxiety and panic attacks (all the way to vomiting and losing the ability to stand) following a decade of childhood anxiety. I will start by saying that I can guarantee if you get upset at yourself and your body over this, you will make your anxiety worse. If you are interested (and have time for a long read) I described my story and the process I followed to recover as a blog on my site. 

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Hi yes i suffer with anxiety its in going but I've been asked to go see a wellbeing clinic which ive yet still to go but had to have the paramedics out the other night my Heart beating so hard out of my chest hot sweats sick i seriously thought i was having a heart attack but they did tests ECG and bloods etc everything was fine it was down to me working myself up over the anxiety thinking id for some more serious so im feeling much better having them check me out but maybe this helps a little hope u sort it im much better after knowing what they said

I get the same thing.! I have also had now severe breathing problems and it won't go away.!! Feel to embarrassed to leave me house it's been weeks now.!

I have been having a similiar experience. A few months back i got a minor injury but I couldnt workout for a couple of weeks. There were some other stressful things going on and workouts have been crucial for deal w my anxiety so it was a bad couple of weeks. Felt like i was dying. Sharp tingling, electric shocks, sensitive skin, numbness, aches in my back, tightness in chest and the oblique that was injured would seize up and i felt likeI couldnt breathe. I have beengoing to my doctor, doing tons of scans and tests. Even been seeing neurologist because the tingling and numbness is INTENSE. Its literally everywhere. But every time I do a test its clear. So I just dont know, is this all anxiety? Why doesnt it go away when im relaxed? If its relatedto shallow breathing, why doesnt deep breathing help? Why do my symptoms get worse when i work out? Is it because I think they will get worse? 

Its complete madness. I am really trying to not even ask the questions anymore. Ive just never known my anxiety to be this heavily physical.  I really feel for everyone going through this. I know exactly how much it steals from you. I hope you can find something that helps, even if its just a little. 

Im weird about meds so I wont take things, but i have some cbd oil gummies that sometimes help a little. Getting back to exercising has helped but is also triggering at times... Im just trying to take it a day at a time.

If there is anyone that has my same symptoms id love to talk about it, try to reassure one another. :-)