Someone Is Stepping On My Throat

[SeaQuel]

@Chava thanks for the suggestions, those are good ones.

@MT Johnny thanks, it helps to know that there is such a variation in how people experience panic attacks.

For better or worse, I was in the middle of another panic attack when I saw my therapist yesterday. My breathing was off and I was so incredibly dizzy (especially when standing/walking), I felt like I was going to pass out. She actually thinks what I'm experiencing (at least in part) is a flashback. She's mentioned that before as a possibility, but she sounds more confident in her assessment now. I don't think we ever delved into it because this symptom had been more manageable over recent months. I've had other types of flashbacks/dissociation that look and feel much different than this does, but I do have some trauma associated with my throat so I'm open to this as a possibility.

I have an appointment to see a massage therapist who does craniosacral therapy combined with brain work, which supposedly helps release the tension in the nervous system. I have to say, I am intrigued. And think this is a much better option for me than acupunture/pressure.

 

[SeaQuel]

Also going to make an appointment with my doc to rule out asthma, though neither my therapist nor I think that's likely.

 

[Higgins]

Hey Everyone.
I hear all of what you're saying. I'm in the middle of one right now. I just can't breathe. When they escalate, I cry, freak out and throw up. And mine last for hours. It's so disruptive. And yes, in the middle of one it seems just about impossible to get any sort of breathing technique to happen.

How do you guys deal with this sort of thing in public?
I try so hard every day to control it if it happens, but every once in a while, it's bad and I'm not at home.

 

[SeaQuel]

Lock yourself in a bathroom? Take a walk? Just get somewhere where you can try to slow it down. Also not a bad idea to carry a go kit of sorts of things that can bring you out of it. I don't have one myself, but I've heard of people who carry scents or fabrics or stones that help calm them. Benzos are also an option (though not for me).

 

[joeylittle]

And yes, in the middle of one it seems just about impossible to get any sort of breathing technique to happen.

That's often the case. I think you have to be very committed to addressing attacks early, even if they are so "maybe" that you think you can just ride it out. As soon as you have the slightest indication that you're starting - or even, (for me), as soon as you experience a stressor that has a chance of causing you to escalate.

If I lose the thread and can't stop it with breath early enough, it's like @DancingBull said - get out of harm's way.

 

[SeaQuel]

Well I feel like a total as* clown. I went to my primary care doctor to get tested for asthma and was told in no uncertain terms that there is zero evidence that I have asthma and furthermore there is no clinical test that she can do. I don't have the symptoms for asthma (wheezing etc.), and regardless, she explained that an inhaler could aggravate anxiety symptoms.

I agree with her. Just wish that I had managed to be more articulate and had bothered to do my research about the testing. I was still pretty drugged up from my sleeping meds and couldn't seem to articulate why I was even there other than to say that I wanted to get it ruled out. She did say she could refer me to a pulmonologist for testing if it was something I felt strongly about. Good to f*cking know :banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead:

 

[cupfish]

My throat closes and/or my airway constricts when I have a surge of anxiety. Read recently that PTSD sufferers have a very high rate of COPD. I keep an inhaler close by just in case.

 

[Freebird2015]

Its funny- I often think I can deal with stress in a healthy way by going for a run. My favorite activity for processing, talking to my higher power, and calming down. But its a finicky timing issue. If I wait until my trigger has overtaken me too far I cannot effectively run. I start to cry during my run, and I reach a point where I as gasping for breath. Im not out of breath from running, but I just cannot exhale. I suck in air- my lungs feel like they are going to burst... it makes me feel lightheaded and dizzy (or high kind of) and it goes on for quite a few minutes... which feel like hours. I need to figure out how to release that tension and energy in a safer way...

 

[SeaQuel]

PTSD sufferers have a very high rate of COPD

This intrigued me so I just googled it and didn't immediately see the connection. All I saw was that existing COPD can exacerbate PTSD symptoms, but not the other way around. Did you find something else on this?

 

[cupfish]

I will look for this source. Honestly I was searching for PTSD life expectancy, relative to how hard our disease is on our systems. We don't live as long. I'll look, it was a credible source, because so many are not!

 

[Friday]

Well I feel like a total as* clown. I went to my primary care doctor to get tested for asthma and was told in no uncertain terms that there is zero evidence that I have asthma and furthermore there is no clinical test that she can do. ////

I agree with her. Just wish that I had managed to be more articulate and had bothered to do my research about the testing.

For your research ... The clinical tests that don't exist? ;) Are called PFTs... Pulmonary Function Tests & Spirometry. And as I said above, the tell on them (and the single biggest asthma symptom) is how well a person can exhale. Wheezing is secondary to restricted bronchi, and although common, not required. Many people with asthma never wheeze or only wheeze after a bronchodilator is applied (opening up diminished areas enough to allow passage of air through restricted spaces that were formerly closed off). As above, not saying you have asthma, but the difficulty exhaling? Is the #1 symptom. & Totally rates a PFT.

While I'm just some chick on the Internet, IRL I've got a medically complex pulmonary kid with atypical asthma prone to atelectasis... Plus a bunch of trainings & certs in various areas, including in pulmonary and respiratory therapies & interventions. Not something I just looked up / wouldn't steer ya wrong. The tests exist. I'm glad you went to your doc. I'm sorry she's an idiot.

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/heal...pulmonary/pulmonary_function_tests_92,p07759/

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003853.htm

 

[Chava]

You aren't an as* clown.

not saying you have asthma, but the difficulty exhaling? Is the #1 symptom. & Totally rates a PFT

I never knew what these things were called but have had this test a few times, including even just in walk-in clinic. Took a couple seconds. That told the doctor where my breathing was at (not quite right last time, so she tried a nebulizer treatment, which after another test, showed a bit of improvement, so I was sent home with an inhaler). With asthma or wheezing (like mine is more often bronchitis), it doesn't feel like I'm getting enough air through, but it's a different sensation than feeling my throat squeezed.

It's been hard to separate all of these sensations. But I definitely get tension and even spasms in neck muscles...that situation can last a couple days. When anxious I tend to sip air, feels like it doesn't make it past my head, though it does. True body memories are intense but more fleeting, like I ride them out within minutes to an hour or so. If it's asthmatic it continues for days usually, triggered or aggravated by something, but not usually stress (stress just adds to the panic of not breathing right, which sends me in to the doc).

It hasn't been a good spring for asthma stuff. Do you notice your breathing issues more connected to certain triggers, whether internal or environmental? Is it continuous or does it come and go? For me the real wheezing sticks around and I need an inhaler and sometimes steroids.

Did she listen to your lungs? They can usually hear how much air you're getting (or other stuff). What my doctor heard clued her to do the breathing test.

I wouldn't really worry about COPD unless you're a smoker. PTSD increases all kinds of reasons for illness because so many of us are under constant stress and many of us probably smoke too much. I should worry about COPD but I always need just one more cigarette before I quit...indefinitely...:meh:

Sorry you didn't feel great about your appointment. It's good you went in. I know how unsatisfying it is to have symptoms with no clear answer.