Is this just anxiety?

i’ve had it my entire life. I’m in my 60s. For me it just got to the point where I had to do my best because the more I got worked up over it the worse it would get.

research shows that anxiety, panic, depression, have a genetic component to it. So it’s not always outside circumstances that cause it sometimes it’s just built into us unfortunately. So that’s why I think that medication has never truly helped me. It does help others sometimes. But I know how frustrating it can be! It’s horrible. nobody truly understands unless they’ve been through it.

One thing I can recommend is listening to meditations for proper breathing with anxiety. They are found on YouTube. There are many great, relaxing meditations on there for anxiety, panic, etc. I just take it one day at a time.

But the other thing I do is speak with a counselor once every couple weeks and I do it virtually so it’s very convenient and easy. She really helps me put things in perspective, so I don’t worry so much.

it’s important to work on calming down the mind because that will help calm down the whole nervous system. That includes how you feel when you walk, weird, head, sensations, etc. I will private message you.

Hello,

I'm a retired medical professional from the U.S. and will respond here in the hopes of providing some insight into your difficulty and how to manage it.

Episodic anxiety of the type you describe would be most consistent with Panic Disorder. This particular disorder is the consequence of diminished quantities of GABA, or gamma-aminobutyric acid, which is a neurotransmitter responsible most commonly for down-regulation of certain neurotransmission to the body's nerve complex. The consequence of a reduction in GABA and subsequent sensations produces unregulated fear that engages the body's natural fight-or-flight response. This response is a rather archaic instinctual process that when confronted with what is sensed as a threat to safety or survival, the fight-or-flight response automatically engages a very complex array of reactions that prepare the body to either physically fend off the threat or otherwise flee from the threat to achieve safety from harm.

Realize that in early man, the prospect of threat to one's safety was far more prevalent and so engagement of the fight-or-flight mechanism was quite natural. In contemporary society, however, true threats to one's safety or actual survival are for the most part quite rare. This is a very important point in the discussion because the threat needn't be real in any true sense for the fight-or-flight response to become engaged. Indeed, the most often experienced engagement of the fight-or-flight response is due entirely to misinterpretation of the physical and neurological symptoms that accompany the response.

What I've described above is experienced by many people who suffer from chronic anxiety and who possess inadequate GABA neurotransmitter that in most instances is simply part of their genetic profile and more typically occurs in a cyclic manner throughout the lives of such persons. Studies have shown that persons who experienced significant separation anxiety as a young child usually suffer Panic Disorder beginning in their teen years onward. These studies, however, show a correlation and not necessarily a causal relationship between the childhood experience and subsequent manifestation of Panic Disorder. It may be just as plausible that Panic Disorder arising from inadequate GABA levels produced the onset of severe separation anxiety.

Regardless, it's important to understand the nature of what drives the experiences you have described in your post and more importantly what can be done to achieve a more normal lifestyle free from the restrictions imposed by Panic Disorder. Before I move into discussion regarding treatment options, I want you to realize that most everyone, even those without Panic Disorder, have very commonly experienced the fight-or-flight response in the absence of recognition and have even described the consequences without regarding them as an imminent threat to their health.

Everyone has experienced being suddenly startled or frightened in thier lives and some have even been unfortunate enough to have narrowly escaped actual imminent harm. In any such instance these people can be overheard stating "That made my heart stop for a second!" or "I nearly passed out!" or "I had a knot in my throat and couldn't breathe!" or "I felt weak in the knees!" or "I couldn't stop shaking!" Literally all of these exclamations made by persons experiencing sudden and unexpected fear are describing symptoms of the fight-or-flight response. What is most critical to realize in these instances is that these people do not become fearful of the responses because they are rationalized by the mind as being proper and expected in context. In other words, it is a normal response and physical reaction or series of reactions.

What happens for persons with chronic anxiety and Panic Disorder is that the reaction to fear arises in the absence of any threat. It is unregulated fear in the absence of a known threat that the mind can establish as both rational and warranted. Since the reaction is physical, however, the most common interpretation is that something terrible is about to happen regarding one's health status and to make matter worse, the cause is one that is most highly irrational because the threat cannot be defined, recognized or within control of the person experiencing it. Thus, greater fear is engaged and the fight-or-flight response becomes even more salient. Consequently, the symptoms being experience broaden in scope and become even more debilitating. The rapid detection of intensity of these sensations and runaway thoughts are subsequently enhanced. The cycle continues until the intensity is so great that a sense of impending doom comes over the person, they become physically weakened as adrenaline is circulating in great quantity that results in pounding heart, sweating, a sensation that something is in the throat and about to constrict the ability to breathe as respiration becomes faster to the extent that carbon dioxide imbalance occurs and produces a sensation that the person feels dizzy and about to become unconscious. The need to seek safety, typically one's home, becomes paramount and the haste to get home to avoid collapsing in public in a weakened state is of the utmost importance. Only when safety of home or other portal of safety is achieved does the process downgrade slowly until the person feels extremely tired, often developing chills (which is actually nothing more than epinephrine shakes) and the need to sleep.

What I've described above is the process associated with a typical panic attack. It is caused by nothing more than normal physical sensations arising from a reaction to fear but because these sensations are unrecognized and seem to be spiraling out of control, the mind establishes irrational conclusions outside the realm of normality and the sensations are transformed into symptoms of a cataclysmic health event.

Agoraphobia, or the fear of open places, very often arises in persons with Panic Disorder because they become afraid to stray far from the safety of home and gradually reduce their social circles to becoming isolated in many cases. What also occurs to intensify matters is that the body's senses become extremely heightened to any signs that may have been present during the initial panic event in even the slightest similar fashion will initiate the pathway to another panic attack more quickly as a means of earliest detection possible such that safety is more readily achieved. This is why people with Panic Disorder start to wonder why the events start happening seemingly out of nowhere. Realize that with heightened senses, lighting or other visual cues in certain places, sounds of a certain type, smells of a particular kind, even tastes that any one of which or some combination that were present in some way during the original panic event can set the fight-or-flight response in motion in a manner that seemingly arises out of nowhere. This unexpected type of response causes even greater lack of confidence in one's ability to function normally and more importantly feel in control of their lives.

This is why panic attacks and their frequency become worse. From a clinical standpoint, virtually all of the physical symptoms are entirely normal but due to the manner in which they've manifested and grown to proportions of such an unpredictable nature and crippling impact, the person experiencing them becomes more convinced than ever that their lives and ability to feel in control is entirely beyond their reach. Indeed, life for these persons typically undergo transformation to the extent that they actually speak of their former life versus their present life as a consequence of such dramatic negative change to overwhelming restrictions, changes in diet and other decisions that are all thought to somehow potentially represent causal factors since they have been unable to pinpoint the true origins.

The way back to the life these people all reflect upon is far closer than they imagine possible. It lies within the ability to understand what is actually taking place and the renewed capacity to be unafraid in letting down their guard because the fears that have ultimately imprisoned them are entirely irrational and misunderstood. It lies in the ability to form a very realistic understanding that absolutely nothing physical is going to harm them whatsoever because the cause lies outside the realm of any symptoms related to physical illness, disease or most importantly the ability to threaten their life existence in any manner. It lies in the ability to work closely with a physician who specializes in Panic Disorder and chronic anxiety and can provide help through medication and support in a manner to allow all such persons who suffer from the disorder to attain their former lives. It lies in the ability to reject irrational explanations of their difficulties and realize that a rational approach in its entirety is the only pathway to normality once again.

So take your time in digesting the circumstances regarding Panic Disorder as I've provided with the understanding that the life you once experienced that was free of such difficulties is as closes as taking the first step. I can assure you that you're going to be just fine and that the impact from Panic Disorder has not caused any actual harm to your health nor shortened your life by even as much as one moment in time.

Best regards

Thank you so much, that was very helpful, I think my main worry is that my issues are not the usual symptoms of panic i.e sweating, unable to breathe etc. If feels more like I am suppressing panic and literally "freeze" so walking becomes a nightmare. It is as though I cannot move forward or backwards. It is the weirdest feeling ever and I have experienced all different anxiety symptoms!. Thank you for taking the time to provide such a detailed and informative response.

its sounds very much like panic. a sense of impending doom, a sense something really bad is going to happen if you move faster or at all. i use to only be able to describe it like i thought i was going mad, right there and then something awful was about to happen because my body wasnt working. the only way i got past this was to stay outside, sit, cling onto a wall whatever but i had to stay until it passed. it literally only took me a week and it just magically stopped when i realised if i waited (could be 5mins longest was over 1hr sat on a park bench) in a supermarket or a queue was the worst but i would pick up an object and stare at it until it passed. right now your safety behaviour is staying home or getting home. your mind thinks thats the solution to the problem but it will keep happening . telling yourself this isnt something wrong this is just my anxiety and it will pass is the only way to retrain your brain to not perceive danger and freeze. good luck you can do it!

Thanks, it has been going on for a while now and i guess the key is to keep going out, even just for 5 minutes. It feels like my brain has forgot how to feel (even reasonably) normal outdoors!