Having trouble dealing with Crohn's....Panic attacks coming back!

Good morning.  I'm usually over at the Crohn's forum.  I have successfully dealt with Panic disorder.  I was at one time Agoraphobic.  For the past couple of years, I've been doing very well.  I've maintained a full-time job, and continue to push myself.  I occasionally have an anxiety attack, but can get it under control pretty quickly.  Well, the past couple of days, it feels as if my world is crashing down.  My Crohn's disease is getting worse, and my medicines are losing their effectiveness.  Because of this, I've been missing a lot of work.  I'm so afraid of the "what if's"......  "What if I get too sick to work? How will I pay my bills?" etc....  I get so scared feeling so ill.

The past week, my panic attacks are rearing it's ugly head.  I feel light headed, shaky, can't concentrate, heart pounding, short of breath, etc.  I'm getting so scared.  I'm trying to cope with a chronic illness, and trying to deal with anxiety on top of it is terrifying me.  I'm starting to babble, so I'm sorry.  I guess I just needed to vent.  I just don't want to be Agoraphobic again.  I have snow-balled my thoughts to being dysfunctional within a 24 hour span!  Thanks to all of you for listening.  Julie

Lyn, thank you so much for the warm welcome.  You are SO RIGHT about the "what if's!"  I find that is one of my biggest problems.  I wake up in the morning with fear.... "What's today going to be like?  Will I be able to stop going to the bathroom to make it to work? What if I can't work? What if I lose my job? How will I pay my bills? Will my panic attacks be bad?"  These thoughts happen within minutes of waking up!  I get myself all worked up before I even know what the day will be like.  Again, thank you for your time.  Sometimes just knowing you're "not alone" is comfort itself.  Julie

Dear Julie,

Welcome to our family. Many of our members have medical issues that trigger their anxiety.

I am so sorry you are going through this...coming here and talking about this as well as sharing it with others is the best thing to do.

I have a husband with Crohn's and I can tell you he is easily thrown into anxiety but he deals with it with anger or shutting down. He fears that it is just a matter of when he will need surgery again.  I try to talk to him but he won't talk about it.

Lyn is so right, the wonderful people with Crohns need to stay on their routines or the anxiety flairs. You may indeed do well on a medication to help you hold the anxiety down.

Please stay with us and keep posting sweetie................you are family here with us and we care about you.

It will be great to have you on this forum as well hun and with all your bkgd in agoraphobia it certainly will come in handy

We do have many ppl that are suffering with this .........


I do hope your a/p gets better for you as you become more use to the ppl here and post more often ...

Glad to have you here with us

Stay with us

LYN

Hi Julie.  My name is Nick.  Welcome to our little family.  I have to be honest with you, I am not really sure what Crohns is, but I do know that a person can lose a lot of weight and it's probably painfull.  If your panic attacks are coming back because of work, etc., I would take a leave of absence due to illness and go onto unemployment under the sickness benefits.  We have it here in Canada.  Panic attacks, anxiety, and depression are VERY real illnesses and if not taken care of can lead to worse things happening.  If you are in the States, talk to your employer if you feel comfortable and be honest.  I don't know what services they have in the States, but there must be something for income while you are getting better.

Nick

This seems to be a common thing with Crohn's patients, these panic disorder problems and whatnot. I have Crohn's too and I have paranoid personality disorder. Those two things could really hit me hard during college and I can't afford to miss a single day. Crohn's is a nasty disease and I'm in remission but you never know for how long, y'know? Now we're just struggling with the PPD as I like to call it.

Hey julie!

I have the "what ifs" all the time. I actually was just "what if'n" a few minutes ago. I've mentioned this in another thread, but something that has calmed my mind a little bit was reading (and continuing to read) a book called "Embracing the Fear". I'm sure there are countless great books out there, but this was the first one that actually seemed to helped. It has helped turn my morning panics from a 10 to a 7, which is better than a ten any day!!! Anyways, i really hope that you get the panic under control. My mom takes xanax for panic and it helps her alot. What she does (of course this is in no way medical advice, just what she does) is takes .5 (pops it under her tongue) when panic sets in. In 20 minutes if panic is at the same state, she will pop another. Usually .5MG - 3MG will control her panic. The big thing is the after care. Once panic flares up, it has the tendency to keep coming back (ugh, its so evil that way). So what she does i takes a pretty steady dose (under her doctors super vision) for a certain amount of time even when there is no more panic. She then tapers down and the total process is about 3 weeks. This has been hugely successful for her. She has panic, nips it, and continues treatment to keep it away.

Anyways, i'm sure its all stuff you have heard before, but thought i would share that with you. I hope your panic goes away soon!

Dan