[rosebud]

I had my first panic attack when I was newly diagnosed with PD and once I realized what it was I have been watchful ever since. Someone gave me a book last week about coping with Panic Disorder. I never thought of myself as having Panic Disorder, but I sure can see myself and some of my behaviours as classic and I'm a little bit more aware of how insidious this disease is. Not sure which came first -the chicken or the egg, but the two are intertwined (PD & PD) and I feel like a kid with my shoe laces in a knot.

I know I'm a high anxiety individual, although I don't appear to be on the outside. I also know I can control some of it by managing my thinking.... I haven't finished reading the book yet, but the kicker is that once you've had a panic attack you will have more. My question is: How many of you feel like you have heightened anxiety, panic attacks and ever considered yourself to have panic disorder?

[made it up]

Hi Rosebud,
I've had two panic attacks only and both times I was almost bouncing off the walls with the worst dyskinesia I've ever experienced.
Like others who've had anxiety attacks I literally thought I was going to die, started hyperventilating and became very anxious, awful!
I know without any doubt it is related to our medication.
Also I was becoming an anxious sort of person in retrospect now on the anti parkinson meds.
I'm also sure of that because I dont take the truckload of meds per day since surgery for PD and am a different calmer sort of person, others have noticed it too so I'd say that's got to be the reason.
Regards,
Lee

[reverett123]

It's not just you. You may have missed it, but a few months back there was a poll by a Parkie in Amsterdam. Of 500 respondents, stress response was a problem for about 93% and in fact was the second most common complaint.

There is a very real reason for that and, once again, it goes back to when we were in the womb. During critical "windows" of formation of our nervous system we are vulnerable to toxins. In particular, we are at risk of exposure to two primary factors - the bacterial toxins I have discussed elsewhere and our mother's own stress hormones.

Both those screw up our fight or flight centers (the HPA axis) and ultimately that leads to our bizarre relationship to stress and anxiety.

Bottom line is that stress is to be avoided. Not only can it turn us into quivering jellyfish it also accelerates our PD. Peace out.

[BEMM]

Part of the stress we're under involves avoiding the effect of stress. We know we can't afford to give in to a total PD collapse, which would set us back - or, in our case, push us forward up the P.D. H. & Y. scale. All that pent up stress is bound to explode now and then, and result in either an unexpected and seemingly random panic attack, or the fit of hysterics that the stress has been building up to.

I had panic attacks long before I knew I had PD, years before I took any PD medicines. I thought the first few were heart attacks, they were very frightening and actually very painful. I know now that I had PD already then.

Long before dx. I knew I could not afford to give in to stress, I knew giving in would make me a quivering wreck, so I became adept at staying calm - at a cost. I am known as a very calm person to all but my husband who knows the extent of anxiety, and, in my case hysteria, I really go through. He is himself anything but calm, but he can afford to get into a tizzy, and he understands that my anxiety is not of my own making.

I'm genuinely even tempered and optimistic which goes far to make me seem one of the calmest PDers you've ever met.
What is the name of the book, Rosebud??

All the best,
birte

[burckle]

Rosebud:

I get panic attackes or what I presume to be panic attacks. I've had them for many years, long before I was diagnosed with PD. As you have done I counter them by thinking. I felt that the attacks were the result of a signal generated by the brain and decided that I could over ride it by having the brain generate a counter and stronger signal. I would start thinking about sex. The panic attack would disappear within a few minutes.

Feel free to use this information the next time you suffer such an attack.

All the best

Lloyd

You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it (Robin Williams)

[BEMM]

Lloyd, your remedy is a lot more interesting than mine - drinking water slowly works for me - pretty dull compared to yours.

birte

[rosebud]

Sex would just make me remember the ceiling needs to be painted and that would stress me out further!!!

I never had a panic attack until after PD diagnosis. I remember it came out of nowhere and I thought I was having a heart attack. My mouth went bone dry and I rushed into my boss's office and said "I think you better take me to the hospital...something is going on and I don't know what it is!" It lasted for nearly 2 hours as far as I can recall. I had been diagnosed but was not on sinemet yet. I had just taken amantadine for the first -and last time that day. Some Dr. came in and talked me down off the wall. I went home and slept.

Birte: the book is called "coping with Panic -a drug free approach to dealing with anxiety attacks" by George A. Clum

Everett: I tried the DM...not good for me at all, but yes you were more handsome! (may have aided an anxiety attack) -I just re read this and I'm falling off my chair laughing....I meant the DM may have caused the attack, -not: finding you handsome

I strongly suspect as MIU said, that it is linked to and certainly facilitated by our meds.

More on this later... I'm still laughing!!!!

[wendy s]

I've never had a panic attack, but I started becoming more and more anxious about a year and a half after diagnosis. At the time, I blamed it on the permax and the nausea and weight loss it caused. I was better after using 3 or 4 capsules of Omega 3 fatty acids for awhile, and now think I'm even calmer after taking a tablespoonful of flaxseed oil in a blender drink every day. It's still the worst symptom for me. If I could get rid of all the anxiety, I wouldn't care about the other symptoms.

[steffi 001]

...no...not about painting the ceiling although there`s a thought!!!
I grew up tagged with the label "perfectioniist"..."a born worrier"...therefore a first class candidate for stress related disorders,although until about 5 years ago,I had never suffered a panic attack.Sure enough,as you so clearly stated,it came from nowhere,was absolutely unexpected and there was sod all I could do about it.I remember it well. Not least because my otherwise,"can tackle any situation that needs a quick thinking escape route" of a husband...was as helpless as I was.
Despite all his survival training,fireman,coxwain,upturned helicopter underwater training...he was absolutely non plussed when faced with finding a solution to get me from the centre of a crowded restaurant in Ibiza,back to the safety of our car.
I couldn`t move.and what`s more my mouth wouldn`t move either in order to explain what was happening to me.My heart just raced,my mouth went dry,I lost the feeling in my legs and all I could think of was still being glued to that table at 4.00am when everyone else had gone home.I knew I had to make it outr of there somehow but short of being stretchered out,I hadn`t a hope in hell.The blood was rushing in my ears and I too thought I was going to die.
Eventually,with my husband telling me to put one foot in front of the other,we made it back to the car...a ten minute walk which took the best part of two hours as I clung to walls,cars,windows,strangers!!!!!
I was lathered with sweat by the time we made it back and I was filled with a fear of venturing out amongst crowds for a good period after.
I am pleased to say that I suffered only a couple more similar episodes and have had nothing remotely like it since.Good job cos last week I was swinging through trees,60 feet in the air and for someone whose bravest feat at a fairground are those horses which go up and down,I consider GO APE a test of all tests to see if a panic attack would return!!!
Mind you...the last time I rode on one of those horses I left it bald as a coot,so tightly was I hanging on to its mane and tail...I took the whole lot with me when I got off!!! A fairground horse with alopeacia. lol !!!
No...panic attacks are SO NOT FUNNY.Now sex??? Well THAT`S hilarious.
Wishing you all the best Rosebud.
Steff

[reverett123]

That's the only time that anyone has discussed me being handsome and sex in the same post. I would say something about your subconscious but sometimes a cigar is just a cigar

Originally Posted by rosebud

Sex would just make me remember the ceiling needs to be painted and that would stress me out further!!!

I never had a panic attack until after PD diagnosis. I remember it came out of nowhere and I thought I was having a heart attack. My mouth went bone dry and I rushed into my boss's office and said "I think you better take me to the hospital...something is going on and I don't know what it is!" It lasted for nearly 2 hours as far as I can recall. I had been diagnosed but was not on sinemet yet. I had just taken amantadine for the first -and last time that day. Some Dr. came in and talked me down off the wall. I went home and slept.

Birte: the book is called "coping with Panic -a drug free approach to dealing with anxiety attacks" by George A. Clum

Everett: I tried the DM...not good for me at all, but yes you were more handsome! (may have aided an anxiety attack) -I just re read this and I'm falling off my chair laughing....I meant the DM may have caused the attack, -not: finding you handsome

I strongly suspect as MIU said, that it is linked to and certainly facilitated by our meds.

More on this later... I'm still laughing!!!!