having really scary symptoms (ended up being a long read)

Hi my name is Josh
I just joined this forum after having been searching the internet tonight.

I'm 21, a college student, and my doctor has been telling me I'm suffering from Panic/Anxiety attacks

My first experiences with these attacks/episodes happened back in June, I live in California, and my mother left to go live in Arkansas about a year prior, and I had gone to visit for the first time since she moved. I was there for about two weeks, but the last few days I was there, I started getting the panic attack symptoms: shakes, rapid heartbeat, confusion, fear of demise, feeling cold but sweating, and all of these off and on. I ended up just trying to get through the last few days and come home to California, which I did. I had hoped they would go away after being home, but they didn't. I woke up a night or two later with the symptoms really bad and ended up going to the E.R. (Note I haven't had any health insurance since my mom left) They did a lot of work, chest x-rays, blood work scanning for chemicals present after heart damage, EKGs, etc, and found nothing wrong with me. I went home, and the next night, I had the symptoms worse than the night before, and ended up going right back, thinking it might have been something they hadn't checked yet, but they said I was fine, and sent me home. I saw a regular doctor who gave me a RX for Lorazepam 0.5mg whenever symptoms arose and told me the same thing that all the other doctors said: Panic attacks.

I stopped having any symptoms until about three weeks ago. What worries me about these is that these episodes don't last only a few minutes like many other accounts I've read about, they last for hours and hours, keeping me up until 3 or 4 am when symptoms arise around 10pm. I get nausea, rapid heartbeat, and occasional shakes, up until about a week ago, my symptoms started changing. One night I had a heartbeat of over 140 beats per minute and I couldn't think straight. I called 911, but ended up cancelling the ambulance because I was calmed down significantly by the time I got my name, address, and situation relayed to the dispatch. Since then, I haven't really had the rapid heartbeat symptoms. I've had the nausea, but I get random pains in random spots in my body like my throat or my arms, I get really strong "cluster" headaches that range from my temple, to behind my ear to the top of my head, and I get a lot of chest pains, ranging from sharp pains in the middle of my chest, to dull, throbbing "blanket" type pains over my left side of my chest. I also have weird feelings that move around my arms and legs, almost like a light feeling, or a cold feeling, I can't describe it. I also can't stop moving something. I feel that I have to keep moving my arm or leg or something nonstop. I also haven't been able to sleep right. I wake up every night several times, seemingly after a dream or REM cycle or something. I wake up and have a dream fresh in my mind, and I can't sleep again for like 30 mins, and then I wake up an hour or two later after a dream.

I don't know about these new symptoms, they're quite unlike my old ones. I've heard that stress can cause chest pains too, but unlike my old symptoms, I won't necessarily feel any other panic attack symptoms when I get these new ones. I've had an EKG done last week which they said was normal, I've had some lab work done that I don't know what they really were (Urinalysis, TSH reflex to T4F, Cortisol, Complete Metabolic Panel, CBC with differential/Platelet) and all they said to me about them was that my blood sugar was a little high. I've never had problems with having my blood drawn before, but while they took those three vials of blood for those labs I spent about 10 minutes on the brink of passing out, I could barely see, I was woozy, I felt the strangest, strongest whooshing sensation in my hands and arms, but I was still able to talk to the nurses and listen to my surroundings. I've heard that was normal, but thought it was weird because the E.R. people had drawn a similar amount of blood a few months prior with no ill effects.

Back to the point though, these new symptoms have me worried. I get pains in my arms and throat, and the chest pains, and lightheadedness, it fits heart attack symptoms almost to the "T". If they did an EKG a week ago, is it still a reliable source of information telling me that I'm O.K.?

I really don't want to go to the E.R. again because I can't afford it. $3000 is too steep to pay all over again as a college student living all of the way out here, but I don't want to be in any real danger of heart attack or anything.

Any help?

Also, my Dr gave me some Paxil (antidepressants) to take, but I had a really bad reaction a few hours after the first pill. I felt like it was frying my brain or something, I felt all wrong for the next day or two, agitated, then sad, and like I couldn't think right. I haven't taken a second one since. I don't know what to make of that either.

Post Edited (Inuk) : 11/27/2012 9:48:00 AM (GMT-7)

I am new here also.  However, alot of what you are describing is what I go thru.  My attacks can be from a few moments to a week at a time.  They make me so tired that I cannot get out of bed.  My chest hurts on a almost constant daily basis and I have the tingling in arms.  What you are describing is most likely anxiety. I am no doctor so make sure you seek medical advise.  Sometimes it will feel like it goes in waves.  I can calm down for a second think its over and then whammo right back at it again.  I put a fan directly on me, put ice in wash cloths on my head and chest, and go lay down in my bed where there is quiet.  I find that this helps me calm and eventually I can drift off to sleep (eventually).  I have just came to the realization that I am healthy and it is just me.  That this is truely anxiety and that I will be okay.  Reading other posts on here help me to also calm down because I know that I am not the only one. 

I hope your symptoms ease up and you can find some comfort knowing someone else is going thru what you are.

Thanks for the replies, I'm really glad I found this website and I'm able to speak my mind and get it all written out. It helps to know that there are others here experiencing similar things as me

Hi. You are not alone. I myself an a junior in college and experiencing very very similar things as yourself. Mine started this past June and it comes and goes. Some weeks are better than others. I can go for large chunks of time and be fine and then all of a sudden they are back. There is most likely something triggering them, and that's why therapy is so important. Anxiety disorders can be overcome with enough treatment and appropriate medications. I have known it to be done before, though, clearly I myself am still working on that. My counseling is paid for my by fees that every student has to pay. I would highly suggest checking into a counseling service on your campus.

When these attacks start coming on, and chances are you know when they're coming on, immediately try to find something to get your attention off of it. For me, it's music, this forum, reading something interesting online, just something that will refocus your mind off of the problem. Do a lot of research about anxiety disorders, because knowledge is golden when it comes to overcoming something like this. Know that it's normal to think that all of these symptoms are caused by more serious underlying problems. That goes with the territory of anxiety disorders. I have generalized anxiety disorder, so I am constantly worrying if something terrible could be wrong with me. It's not true. It's just the anxiety making me believe lies.

Look up deep breathing techniques and continue them even when you're feeling fine. It will help keep them away. Even look into doing/learning some yoga and/or meditation.

Keep posting. I for one, know exactly how hard it is to get through college with this disorder--among several other things.

Hold in there. You WILL make it,
MA10

I've begun a regimen of meditation, muscle exercises, and I'm looking into the links in the top post of this forum. I'm feeling optimistic

I like your quote in your signature, scaredy cat, the one by Corrie Ten Boom

it makes a lot of sense