Okay, this will be a pretty detailed post.
It all started four years ago when my parents were getting wood floors put into their home. The concrete needed a to be sealed so the people installing the wood floors put on a sealant. Pretty self explanatory so far right? Well, I got home that day after the sealant had been applied. I was fine at first but started to feel very dizzy. I went outside, sat down, and tried to regroup. I told my mom that I wasn't feeling well so we made a trip to the Air Force base here to buy groceries and just get out of the house for a while. On the way there, I nearly passed out four to five times. I could not focus and felt like I was outside my body looking in. On the way home, I decided to go to the doctor. They ran some blood work and gave me a shot of benadryl. I returned home, fell asleep, and life returned to normal for a month or so.
A month later I was driving to my gf's house late one night when I felt the same feeling come over me. Confusion, disorientation, and the inability to concentrate. I hit rock bottom right around this point and ended up going to multiple doctors. I got chest xrays, bloodwork, sonograms (I might be wrong on this term, is this what they use to check babies? Anyhow, it was to check my heart), thyroid checked out etc... Everything came back A-ok. I was given Xanax and told to see a psychiatrist. The xanax seemed to help but I was beginning to become more and more aware of my own breathing. It felt as though air was trapped in my chest. This caused shallow breathing. This continued on for two years and I was basically house bound because the psychiatrist took me off Xanax and put me on lexapro. After two years of hell I was put back on Xanax and tried to return to a somewhat normal life.
Presently, I am still struggling each day but no where near as bad as before. It's a chore just to get up in the morning. I no longer suffer from the "aware of my own breathing symptom" which was a horrible, horrible, feeling. Now I am bothered by physical symptoms. The most common are disorientation, feeling light headed, inability to concentrate, and feeling as if I am off balance at times. I am now finishing my college degree but going to class each day is a monumental task.
I want to make it very clear that I have never had the definition of a panic attack. No heart banging in my chest, feeling of death, etc.. My physical symptoms are what cause my symptoms of panic. Simply put, if I feel dizzy at a particular place I begin to tense up. I have no fear, just a tense feeling. While I do feel that I have some panic symptoms / agoraphobia I do believe that they were caused during my first two years where my mind was trying to understand the symptoms I was experiencing.
Last, I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis when I was 18. I have no idea if this is linked with what is going on with me now. I have not been taking medication for my colitis because it seems to have gone into remission.
Well, thats a pretty detailed look into whats going on with me.
Post Edited (ithinkimgoingnuts) : 6/2/2007 2:43:20 AM (GMT-6)