Panic attack/agoraphobia suffering. Need help :(

Hi. I am 19 years old. I have been suffering from Panic Attacks since October of 2013. At first, it was very mild. I had one on my birthday late at night, I was out of town on a romantic get away with my boyfriend for my birthday for the weekend. Had maybe two more over the following week. I was put on Zoloft but I wasn't noticing a difference. I had an absolute horrible one at a concert my boyfriend and friends went to, my boyfriend and I sat in his car towards the end of the show because I had to just let it run it's course. I had few in between then and Thanksgiving. Black Friday while I was at work I had another bad attack at work. December 29th I had another bad attack out of the blue at my boyfriends apartment, and it was short and quick, he rubbed my back until I stopped shaking and fell quickly asleep. I didn't have many after that, until about four days ago. They were many happening on a daily basis. It has been extremely difficult dealing with, I have had to leave work early on multiple occasions and I've pretty much stayed locked up at home. I went to my doctor about two days ago, he switched my medication to lexapro. In the mean time I also had a very small dosage of xanex to help control immediate panic attacks. I got a refill when I was prescribed my lexapro. My doctor told me it had a high success rate, so I was excited to get my life back. I was sick of missing social events with friends because I was afraid of having attacks. I feel like I don't have any control over my life. I am not a depressed person by any means but these panic attacks are making me depressed. Anyways, I took my lexapro at night before bed just so I could sleep through any funky side affects it might have had. I woke up the next morning and instantly I had a rapid heart beat and felt instantly panic. I was able to talk myself out of it and breathe through it, I went to work as usual and went about my day, came home and just relaxed. Everything was fine, i took my lexapro again before bed. I went to bed sort of feeling a small amount of panic but was able to calm down enough to fall asleep. I woke up again this morning with instant panic except I had this over whelming nauseous feeling. I ended up throwing up a few times this morning. I felt fine afterwords, took a xanex and went to work. I felt fine on my way to work until I got there. I spent the first half hour at work in the bathroom getting sick. Feeling very anxious and the xanex was not working like it normally does. I ended up leaving work shortly after I had gotten there and came home and I have been sleeping from 2-8pm. I haven't eaten all day. Each time I would wake up during the nap I would wake up feeling anxious and nervous for no reason. I'm not having night mares. I do not know what to do anymore.. I am so sick of suffering from this. The past three days have been a sort of hell. I want my life back. I want to get over this panic. I feel like the lexapro has made it worse by waking up instantly with panic because I have never experienced that before. I need help guys. I feel like this is turning into an agoraphobia and I have a wonderful relationship with my boyfriend. My friends and family and my boyfriend miss me. My boyfriend has been very supportive through this process but I know I can't continue this if I want to keep a healthy relationship with him and my friends. What can I do? I don't feel like medicine is working and I need solutions to help calm me down. I feel like I'm falling a part and losing my mind. Please help me. Any advice will help. I just feel completely hopeless and I feel as if there is no light at the end of the tunnel. Please, I need help. I am terrified for my health.


P.s. Sometimes breathing techniques help. I sometimes listen to YouTube videos that help recognize and accept symptoms of panic attacks and sometimes these things help but the techniques and my meds haven't been helping the last few days. :(

Post Edited (Panic sufferer) : 1/13/2014 3:24:07 PM (GMT-7)

That is exactly what I have been experiencing. I decided not to take it tonight to see how I wake up tomorrow morning, but I haven't eaten a single thing all day. My poor stomach is growling uncontrollably because it's hungry. I feel weak from not eating today, but the thought of food makes me absolutely naseuous. I'm glad I'm not the only one who experienced this on lexapro. But by stopping your meds, how have to stopped your attacks? That's my number one thing is I want my attacks to stop so I can go back to living a normal life. Everyone keeps telling me "you are too young to have this, you need to get yourself together" but it is such a struggle when I'm having days like this.

Thank you for that. It has been very difficult dealing with this illness. I want to overcome it and sometimes reading success stories help. It makes me feel like there is a light at the end of the tunnel. But when I fall back into a panic attack I quickly lose that hope. I have never been a nervous person or depressed. I would preform, speak Infront of large groups of people, I would go to many social events, always was happy and go lucky. Found the perfect man for me that I am positive I want to spend my life with, and all of a sudden this came out of no where and I feel like it's chipping away at me. I want to go back to that old me. I know my friends and family and my boyfriend miss me, I want to not only do this number one for myself and my health, but for them too. I just need techniques or advice to help with the day to day stuff?

That is my issue too. I don't have any deep rooted anxiety. Next time I will try Benedryll. Thank you for that tip! My biggest thing is at work, I do not want to lose a job over my panic attacks. But I am the exact same way. I worry about having attacks and when one comes I worry of the symptoms and how long it will last and before I know it I am in a full blown attack. When I'm having an attack I try to talk myself out of it but it's hard to use non suppressing words or thoughts. Because suppressing it doesn't help. I'm at a loss here. Not sure how to act when I have these attacks.

Yes he switched my medication because I could not see a clear difference in my Zoloft. I actually found that many have had bad reactions that are very similar to mine with lexapro. I do not wish to take it anymore, I have a job that I cannot afford to miss anymore days. I did not have increased anxiety on Zoloft like I did with lexapro. I will definitely look through your posts, thank you! And I have considered therapy, I'm currently looking into it. I would just really like to find someone who has had much experience with PAD and anxiety. Even if I can't find that, I would still like to go talk to someone. I have heard it helps a lot and it would be very beneficial I think to get an outsiders opinion and take on things. Thank you for being here for support. It makes the day a little easier!

I will try this at night. Thank you!