anxiety/panic

Do you ever get this deep horrible feeling thats different and worse from anxiety? Ive collapsed few times cause of it and was unconcious for about 3 mins. It is anxiety but ive noticed my pulse doesnt increase and im always scared of fainting when it happens.

Any of you ever had this?

are there any special situations that arouses that kind of feeling?

No but if im out and get the feeling it turns into total panic and the fear of fainting .Also if im a bit anxious for no reason and i think about stuff like crowded places or being inside a crowded factory i also panic more possibly cause i once passed out in a factory
Basically i have a fear of collapsing in front of people not because of the embarrasement but maily cause the experience is so weird.

Sounds like a pretty serious anxiety disorder. THe basic idea is that your body's 'fight or flight' system is going haywire in these situations because of this disorder.
You really aught see your GP asap.

Ive been once and said i had panic attacks and he gave me some anti anxiety/depressents. I didnt take them though cause i read the leaflet and it mentioned a few side effects such as nausea etc and i thought itd only make it worse plus i had exams at the time. Im stupid i know but even if i did take them theyd only get rid of the symptoms for the while i was taking them, then when i stopped id be back to like i was anxious etc
Its just a hellish frame of mind i keep going in an out of im ok for several months sometimes

in this situation I'd probably see if I could speak to a councillor to work through why I panic in such a manner. Then I wouldn't need the medication. I prefer to take as little medication as possible and am more inclined to get rid of the problem at its core rather than the symptoms. Otherwise it'll keep happening and could affect other areas of my life. Maybe natural remedies like homeopathy would be of use if you don't want to take drugs. Homeopathy has worked for me on many an occasion but I am aware that it doesn't work for everyone and many don't believe in it. I think that a proper homeopath would be more beneficial though rather than finding a remedy on your own as this is quite a serious issue for you and not just a cold for which gelsemium can be of use.

Hmmm, might be worth trying the medication. What exactly is it? I was given beta-blockers which I found did have side effects (nausea etc.) so I didn't keep taking them. They were no where near strong enough for what I was suffering anyway so I only took them once or twice to make sure they were no good to me.

Anxiety is a weird thing because it's so difficult to even know what triggers your reactions.

The most important thing when you feel yourself start to panic is not to start thinking about it. Most people, when they begin to feel anxious, start to over analyse their bodily functions which often leads to fear or death/fainting etc., as you describe. This is because you're interpreting changes in your body (increased heart rate, sweating etc.) as warning signs of some impending doom. Needless to say this is all completely imagined- nothing bad will happen to you. It's all about re-teaching your body not to interpret certain situations as dangerous and to stop your body from over reacting to them. This is best done by finding some way or other that you can calm yourself down in these situations- controlled breathing is very good for this and it's something that you can practice at home so that you can use it effectively in social situations. It basically involves breathing in very deeply and slowly for, say, 5 seconds, and then out for 5 seconds. I also find that closing one nostril and breathing very slowly and deeply through one nostril, then out very slowly through the other. This type of exercise can calm your body down and stop irratic breathing that can lead to feelings of nausea and faintness. Anything like this that you can do to return your bodily sensations to normal is obviously a good start.

Understanding why you panic is the best way you can learn to control it. The key to it is breaking the cycle of negative thoughts that your brain has learnt (as I mentioned above). They usually follow this type of pattern:

1) Increase in heart heart
2) 'My heart rate has increased'
3) Over-analyse bodily sensations
4) 'I'm nervous'
5) 'Something bad will happen'
6) Increase in other bodily sensations that are linked with being anxious

In this way your thought processes go round and round making you panic more and more. It's very important that you learn to recognise yourself doing this and to stop it, both by trying to reduce your feelings of anxiety and by reasoning to yourself that nothing bad (i.e. fainting in public) will actually happen to you.

Another very important thing to mention is that you should'nt start avoiding situations where you know (or think) you will be anxious, this only ever leads to your anxiety spreading and taking over larger areas of your life. This is something that needs stopping asap.

Hmmmm, think that's it, sorry if it's not all completely specific to your situation- I'm trying to cover as much helpful stuff as I know. Any questions just PM me.

cheers for that yea most of it is specific The thing is its hard to convince myself that i wont faint since ive actually fainted before during being really anxious. I think the panic was the main reason for fainting which is weird since i read an article about anxiety and it said 'many people who have anxiety have negative feelings such as thinking their going to faint, this is impossible since during panic blood pressure rises and when you faint BP falls. I think it was written by a doctor but they mentioned that they hadn't known anyone to faint during a panic attack.

This is my main problem i actually do go unconcious lol during anxiety so it makes the panic worse knowing that im capable of it! Ive been to doctors and they said theres nothing to worry about the fainting they cant see anything wrong so it must just be anxiety.
Doesnt make it any easier that im a guy but at least i act calm on the outside
Your reply's been really helpful though at least i understand it a bit more now

Do you breathe irratically when you panic? Maybe it's that that is causing you to faint? If so then try the breathing exercises (research it a bit more online- I wasn't very thorough with my instructions).

Maybe try going somewhere that panics you, but not to the point it would make you faint so you can practice these things. Some one told me once that it's best to learn not to panic by panicking then getting over it because it shows you that you can stop it. You physically can't sustain a very anxious feeling for ever, after a while your body will have to calm down naturally. If you stay in a situation long enough and sit through the panic, you will get over it after a while and then you learn that your anxious feelings will subside by themselves.

Sorry that was badly explained- it's quite difficult without drawing you a graph of how it all works. I don't have any literature about it all with me either so I'm trying to remember all this!

yeah thanks instead of worrying about panic and might try and get it over with and just go with it. It always goes away by itself