Do you have an unusual panic/anxiety attack symptom?
Hellow everyone!!! Good morning/afternoon/night!
I've heard that some people are experiencing unsual symptoms when having an anxiety/panic attack. If you are on of them, know that whether you understand it or not, that experience is valid 
.
I want you to share those unusual symptoms here with us <3. Maybe there's someone out there who had the same experience . . . who knows? *shrugs*
How did you overcome it? How does it make you feel?
Thanks for sharing it with us 
I have heart attack like symptoms whenever my anxiety gets bad enough.
@CookieBears
Oh gosh, heart attack symptoms? ?? That sounds really scary D: I can see that you're a strong person
@EmikoKokoro
My anxiety attacks have evolved over time, and sort of happen in slow motion over 3 or 4 days, without acute physical symptoms except that my sleep capacity drops down to close to nothing, and that speaking, formulating thoughts is harder, ADD style. I experience the attack as a temporary suspension from feeling, action, engaging, as in : I wouldnt mind to do those things but my system is busy running through the attacks and managing the wave in its own style. I generally wake up with the onset feeling, and that there is very little I can do to avoid the wave, and know I am going to be a bit fuzzy and have the usual what is the point of it all error messages firing here and there. I have learned to ignore them but they dont disappear. Actually, that is what tells me I am having a slow attack. But the source of my anxiety/trauma is very ancient, baby ancient, and there are probably lots of layers on top of each other of coping mechanisms, some of which I havent worked out yet, some of which I did before before my memory / processing capacity started operating.
Its like being a passenger on a train, and the lights go dim, you feel the train is going down, then underground, and you have to wait it out till the train resurfaces again. It is a very very quiet symptom. I only detected it was a sign recently. I ride the wave better now that I know, so that is why I am sharing it with you here: it maybe helpful to others.
It seems to be anxiety so old and so deep wired that my body developed a way to minimise chaos by... changing the speed. It always goes away after a few days, and feels like having a sort of mind flu during.
@Charlie40 Hey, saw your reply and got interested. If you can, do you mind elaborating on what you mean by "temporary suspension"? Does it feel as though you cushion off "yourself" / your own feelings, so that you cannot feel the anxiety-inducing situation as much? Or am I completely wrong?
I've felt like this every day for over a year when I went to school, and now I'm starting to wonder if I was suffering from undiagnosed anxiety.
@Trickpants
Sure, I'd be happy to talk about it. it may be easier do it on chat mode, what do you think? . I'd be happy to do that, and we can conpare notes on things. Leave me a little pm if you'd like to chat? If not, I'll wait a bit and leave a post here of course, no worries.
@Charlie40 Please PM me as well, if youre comfortable with that. Every single sentence in your original post was exactly what I have been trying to rationalize in my own head and to others. It almost brought me to tears reading it because of how much I relate to it.
@Charlie40
Woahh!!! This is beautifully written!!! Thank you very much for sharing your experience with us . And I can see that some people could relate to it :0.
@EmikoKokoro
It was a pretty cool question for you to ask us in the the first place! :-)
Mind you what I call anxiety may not be considered anxiety by a doctor!
@EmikoKokoro
For me I feel a rush of heat and then my heart speeds up. Ultimately if I can't do some breathing exercises to calm it down I have a total break down, crying and everything.
i just had it or i still feel it, the shortness of breath, like i'm running out of oxygen.
When I have panic attacks, it's more seizure-like... my body shakes and shuts down. My mind races till my body starts shaking, everything goes blank then, I can't speak or breathe or do anything but shake. I eventually stop breathing if it lasts long enough. I know its not seizures because I remember everything. I use to throw up from my anxiety and even get physical rashes from it, almost like hives.
I see or hear a trigger word and I immediately feel fatigued. The best way to describe it is that I feel like my body is slowly melting, but I dont feel hot. Just that Im wearing down. And then my brain feels like its kicked into overdrive, I begin to have a fistful of adrenaline hit me and I cant control my thoughts or emotions.
@EmikoKokoro i feel like im disconnected from reality and that i cant control my thoughts. i get so scared that i might stay like this for ever. right now im going through it and to be honest i dont even know if this is want an anxiety attack is. theses past few days ive been getting them alot and im still unsure of what they could be. i really just hope these are panic attacks and not me going crazy. like i do come back to reality and feel normal but i always come back to being sacred . i breakdown and cry. i dont want to go to a hospital or take pills i dont want to be sick. i just want this to end and i want to go back to normal.
@CupsAndCups
What you wrote reminded me of a time I felt completely besieged and oppressed by my thoughts. One day I did something that worked, to my surprise, to make me feel better. I'll share it you here, in case it helps you:
That day all sorts of thoughts were flying around like a pack of pesky flies, poking, buzzing, driving me mad. At one point, an image of it came a bit, not like flies, but more like Wall Street, you know, the stock exchange when it is busy and crazy with everyone shouting all at the same time and making weird hand gestures.
I got fed up. I thought, right, enough! So I stuck with the mental picture of the crazy stock exchange room. I went in (my thoughts, my place, I'm walking in like the boss. I am the boss of those... they are my thoughts!). I told every one to shut up. No one listened. Ok. I went on a gallery, balcony there (that I made up, my imagination, my rules!) so I could see everyone. I picked up a big red and white megaphone. I switched the "on" button. Then i said: "Attention everyone!" It was so loud that it shut everyone up. Then I said. "Right, this place is closed until I decide to reopen it, please leave the premises in an orderly manner!".
Uproar and protest all around, some of the protesters shouting that "they were very very important, and demanded to be heard". I used the megaphone again and told them "well if you are so important you will still be important next week. Now, out!" And I added (just for my satisfaction): "the exits are situated there, there, and there. (Making gestures like an air steward) Come on, chop chop, everyone out".
Reluctant but resigned grumble from the mob: the room started clearing. And they left. I went to inspect corners, under seat, till i was sure I was alone.
I made up a big nice beach chair and put it in the middle of now empty room, sat there, made up a fruit cocktail with a straw and a little umbrella. I kept my megaphone with me to get rid of any little sneaky thought coming back. And then grinned to myself. And made gargling bubble noises with straw, saying: "Who's the boss? I'm the boss. Darn right". Then I opened my eyes and felt better.
That imaginary "drill" has worked for me everytime since. It just imagination, but it feels good!
@CupsAndCups
P.S: that imagination "trick" only works on thoughts for me, though: emtions and sensations are in a different league! For emotions, sometimes one stand out in the massive flows of bundles of them that come and translate as anxiety, and occasionally, I "resolve one" through imagination, but generally I have to ride the wave I was talking about in the other post. If I catch and "isolate" an emotion, a bit like an accidetnal chemist, then the wave was not for nothing.
I can recognize panic attacks happening when the first tear falls from my eyes. I then recognize my elevated heartbeat and surroundings. I usually try to de-escalate from there, but of course, sometimes it becomes a full panic attack with lots and lots of sobbing. Even if the panic is caused my anger or frustration, I cry until it is too hard to breathe.
@EmikoKokoro
my heart beats very fast, i get pins and needles throughout my body and i find it difficult to see cause my vision goes blurry or black
I don't know if what I am experiencing is anxiety. But I could barely sleep at night and I would keep talking to myself in my mind worrying about what will happen when I wake up. If I fall asleep, I would wake up every hour feeling really nervous. Sometimes, I would wake up having a hard time breathing. And when I wake up in the morning and I need to get up for the day, my chest would feel really heavy and my heart beats so fast. I feel like I'm drowning everytime I sleep... and would resurface out of the water when I wake up. It hurts and I don't want this feeling anymore.
