Are these anxiety or panic attacks? Or something else?
When I was young, I pretty much only cried when I got physically hurt. As an adult, I go years without shedding a single tear. However, there have been several throughout my life where I remember suddenly starting to cry very intensely for long periods and not knowing why. The first time was when I was 4.
Each time I would shake, hyperventilate/struggle to breathe with a choking feeling, my heart would race, and I would feel weird, like very aware of my skin or my skin being rigid or having intense goosebumps. Hard to explain.
Recently looking back I realised that in nearly all of them I had a strong feeling of fear of being abandonment or feeling deep inescapable discomfort but I didn't realise it at the time, just felt very strongly "off". I'm pretty sure I have (quiet) BPD/cPTSD tendencies which might explain the abandonment feelings.
About half of the instances, that I can remember, occurred when I would see that I had gotten my period (the first few years when I first started menstruating and it was very irregular) which I always assumed must be something hormonal. I'm not afraid of blood and wasn't afraid of getting my period but somehow something about it was too much to handle. Apart from this, I've never had much PMS, aside from getting a little mild grumpiness the first day it comes. The other half of these crying instances that I can remember were not period related.
Looking at panic/anxiety attack symptoms, I don't seem to match all of the symptoms but I'm not sure if this is regular crying or not. Are these anxiety or panic attacks? Or something else?
(I know a doctor or therapist is best to discuss this with I'd like to get a general consensus first).
@Human9923
How you've described it, I'd say it was panic attacks. If these are happening often, please do be sure to see a professional as these can become quite debilitating 😔 I'm here if you ever need a chat ☺️
Jem 🌼 (Anxiety & Depression forum supporter)
It does sound like it could be panic attacks. Everyone experiences them differently, so you won't necessarily get all the same symptoms as someone else. I had panic attacks throughout my childhood and didn't realise that's what it was until I was in college and my anxiety started getting out of control, so I started looking into it. Didn't even know I had anxiety problems before then, but looking back now, it's obvious.
@Human9923
Yep, they definotely both anxiety and panic attacks...takes one to knlw one...
As of recently this has started happening more and more and I feel so helpless. Currently we are in quarantine to that's why I'm only with my family but whenever one of them gets angry or starts screaming at me (which happens quite frequently) i go into a different room and start crying. I have dealt with people being angry a lot growing so I don't why suddenly tears well up everytime one of them starts shouting at me. I don't if it's personal to three of them (my brother and my parents) but recently I have been crying a lot more and it makes me so helpless. It doesn't help when my grandma is always passing rude or snide comments about me all the time. I feel so trapped and so lost and I don't know how to deal with this.