Question:

Jacob, I’m about to go on some anti depressants. I’ve been experiencing crippling anxiety and it’s so severe that it’s causing depression. Just recently (about a week ago) I had a bad panic attack upon waking, and since then, the anxiety has got increasingly worse to the point of losing sleep, sleeping three hours a night, waking to extreme anxiety.

The only thing that would make me feel normal and sleep was Ativan. I started working nights a couple months ago, and that triggered my first panic attack. I don’t want to become reliant on Ativan, and when it wears off, I get intense anxiety once again. Any suggestion on what I can do? It’s early, Been only a week, but I’m experiencing stage 2 and some stage 3 symptoms listed on your post.

Answer:

Hi there,

This is so classic and being a guy as well, your situation is EXACTLY what mine was like – no Ativan and I would go back to freak out mode.

I had to start long term meds (Paxil) and take the Ativan for two weeks until the Paxil was in my system.

If you can somehow get yourself to just say STOP, in an effort to stop your mind activity which terrified of the panic attack, that may help.

What people who have never had panic attacks don’t understand is that we REALLY fear is another panic attack and not much else. Sure, it was a combination of life situations that led to the first panic attack, but after that it’s basically the fear of another one that keeps the cycle going.

Once we break that cycle we can start to recover. In my case I had to start Paxil to control it.

From the blog I am realizing that most of us who have dealt with panic, started having episodes in our early 20s. Then maybe nothing for years, and in our 40s they come back. Something like that anyway.

Jacob

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