severe panic attacks, meds not working

I just recently started getting severe panic attacks to the point where I have to go directly home and take a xanax to relax. The doctor has just now put me on clonazepam but that is making everything worse. I'm starting to feel crazy for lack of better words. I don't feel normal and I hate that I can't function on a normal daily basis. My question to whom ever would be, is there anything else out there besides drugs that can help me overcome this. I have an appt next week to have acupuncture done, hoping that will help. Has anyone else tried that?

Cephia,

I am surprised that the Xanax makes things worse, that is an interesting point. When you say that you can't function, do you mean that it is your panic and anxiety that is causing this problem?

Do you also suffer from depression and periods of high moods?

You are not alone, there are many of us who are barely functioning, but trying to get better. This is a great forum to hear many ideas. My mother-in-law (who has had severe panic attacks since her husband's death), swears on acupuncture working. I personally haven't tried it, and I wonder if anyone else has.

Hang in there Cephia, there is a silver lining in the clouds. It just takes perseverance and self-awareness to get the help and support you need.

Medication for anxiety is not the answer, BECAUSE anxiety is a habit, a programming we made ourselves to do, that causes us worry over something, such as a situation or a thought, and by that it is something that happens in our thought and what we focus on with those thoughts.

Now I have heard of pretty good doctors and therapies, but our thoughts we control OURSELVES. Medication will only NUMB and DEAFEN your brain's neural receptors and pathways, like putting a metal plate between the 2 sides of your brain. Some medication does not numb or deafen, but stimulate production of certain hormones or brain chemicals (serotinine, tryptophane, dopamine, etc), but again this only causes sympthomatic masking, the root of the problem is still there.

The medication makes you be a totally different you, where you might not feel the effects of anxiety so much, but your anxious habit is still there, though it's masked by the medication.
That means that if you take away the medication, things are as they were, if not worse (re-bound anxiety coming off medication).

Secondly there is the placebo effect and/or the dependancy effect. Meaning you might feel more SURE to approach certain anxiety provoking situations while on medication, because this gives you the mental support that you are armed and shielded against your problem. The medication might not work at all, but still give u some effect to that extent. That creates a dependancy.

What in fact you should look into, is this fear of experiencing anxiety again, this fear of fear. Fear is a replacement emotion, that we experience because we are suppressing or are afraid of the real emotion that we don't dare to feel. Fear allows us to feal at least SOMETHING, but that is because we try to run and hide from what causes us fear in the first place. This is called fear of fear, and there's nothing on the other end, you'll just come out as you came in, it's only this turmoil and storm of thoughts that caused u to get into it in the first place. Stop whipping yourself up and then deal with the core of your anxiety, which is still a fear, but face it head on, maybe just tell yourself: Ok I don't want this fear, I want the feeling that I'm actually trying to hide from, the REAL emotion, not the replacement fear. This will make u experience what a situation is REALLY like, instead of your fearful perception of it.

This is what I think and find. Hope this helps.

Greetings, Peter.

I agree with Peter on some points, but I think he is overlooking a lot of the recent medical discoveries on the causes of anxiety and panic. It is true that a lot of times it is a fear of the fear, but it has been found that certain biochemical imbalances in the brain can cause anxiety and panic.

A lot of the medications today given to treat anxiety actually realign the chemical balance in your brain. An example is the SSRI's (antidepressants), that adjust the serotin concentrations in your brain chemistry. These are not tranquilizers, are not addictive, and have been found very helpful in certain individuals.

Through my own struggles with panic and anxiety, I have found that when I was younger, I was able to control the attacks with mind techniques. That worked for many, many years. In my late 30's, I started having attacks that were more prolonged and resistant to my former treatment. As a woman's hormones change in her later years (yes, even in perimenopause), it significantly effects the chemical compositon of the brain. When I started out on a low dosage of Paxil (a common SSRI), the anxiety and panic disappeared. My doctor explained that as we age, so does our brain's chemistry, which can cause all sorts of problems.

Hence, my suggestion to get a good physical check up, and a consultation with a psychiatrist if the symptoms are debilitating.

If you have been checked out by the doctor and you have been told it's anxiety if you need a second opinion get it but then stop looking.

Anxiety and Panic cause a chemical imbalance. Deal with the Panic and anxiety and the imbalance will correct itself..
If I asked you to write down when you think you'll likely have a panic attack. You could be very specific about it.
Then I asked now write down the times that it is Not likely to happen.
Everybody could come up with answers to both questions.
How do the chemicals find out where you are??
You tell them with your self talk that's how. and then as Charles says it becomes a habit and you automatically panic. Talk to yourself differently, behave differently and this sends a different message to the chemicals as well and the anxiety evebtually disappears.

Very interesting thread. Peter, your post was quite thourough. It seems you have a clear understanding of anxiety. Anxiety is essentially a fear of having fear. As you stated peter, fear is used to replace feeling an emotion or sensation which you truly do not want to feel. The only problem I find with eliminating this fear though, is its intrusiveness. One can understand how to eliminate it, but actually accessing the source of the fear is very HARD. It seems as if the mind continues on its business, no matter what you do. You can tell your mind you want to feel the real fear. Unfortunately, the replacement fear may calm for a second, but before you know it, the mind will be back at it making more fear. It just wont shut up. It just seems so hard to access the very root, the core, and control it. It seems uncontrollable, and UNtouchable. Any suggestions????

I agree naveed, if I knew why 'the feeling' came or where it came from i could deal with it. It just seems to strike at any time . Not the actual panic attack that I get when I am out this I can recogonise and understand why. But the horrible shakey feeling and palpitation that comes from nowhere even if i am at home and feeling ok and not in a threatening situation. I have been off of medication ( trazodone) for 5 weeks now and do feel better for coming off.........at least i know that the symptoms are me not the side effects of the meds I had many side effects and that made me feel worse. I have a good counsellor who i will be seeing this week unfortunately she has been unwell and I have not seen her for a while, but talking it through with someone who understands helps me, as does this forum just reading that someone feels the way I do or has thoes strange feelings that you can't quite put your finger on. But I do agree that the fear of the fear is the root of it, and is also the hardest thing to overcome, the thought of having a panic attack once you have had one is enough to bring one on !!!??

SARAH POOLE

:? I was wondering why did you stop Trazodone. I have been on it for three years, and I also take a mood stabilizer called Tregretol and I take Nozinan.

If I hadn't taken the Trazodone I would never be able to sleep from the fear of the panic and anxiety.

I have been given many ssri's but they made me worse. The last one they gave me was lexapro/cipralex--I live in canada so lexapro is called cripralex. I was on that pill for one month only 10mgs.and I got worse from the first pill I took after 4 weeks I couldn't even leave the house. I also and ONLY AND I MEAN ONLY if I had an attack i would take .5mg of clonezapam. That takes away the fear and anxitey and panic. But I never take it on a regular basis it is too addicting and that is why benzo's (lorazapam, xanax examples) are only to be used for that moment. Never take benzo's on a everday basis, they will make you worse.

Trazodone is the only pill that has ever allowed me to go to sleep without fear. But I still have the panic occasionally but not as bad as before.