Sufferer Hi New I Am Scared Of The Sky

[Daxter8025]

My situation I was feeling like I couldn't get enough oxygen this summer in Texas. Then one night I let my dog outside and looked outside and looked at the clouds and got scared. It bothered me that I was scared of the clouds. Then I went to the doctor. He told me I needed counseling and gave me meds. So I took them and the same day started to be scared of the sky. Now I feel like I am being suffocated by the sky. I know it's not true but it scares me that I am going to actually 100% believe it and I will have to live in a hospital sedated the rest of my life or die trying to breathe myself to death because I believe there is no oxygen in the air.

I have been to the ER twice in two days because I thought I was on the verge of having it come true and just wanted to be close in case I went to that point. They told me I couldn't die from a panic attack but it's like I know there is oxygen but I am watching my breath in case it is my last one before I go into the afterlife.

My question is will I be able to get out of this mind set or will I be like this the rest of my life or could I actually die if go into a panic? Thank you for reading any advice will appreciated.

<edited for basic grammar>

 

[Elisacullen21]

Welcome to the forum. I'm here for you if you need to talk. And you must remember ever two things: You are not alone. You're stronger than that.

 

[Daxter8025]

I would like to add that I suffered a loss. My mom died of ALS. It was the most horrible thing I have seen and it happened to the rock of my family. I developed hypochondria after she had passed about a year later. And when I was a child I had really bad depression from mental physical abuse from my father. And I just moved back in to the house with father so I could go to school to become a nurse and now this has happened. I can barely drive my truck to work. It is slowly getting worse because I am constantly thinking about my breathing and dying from this.

<edited for basic grammar>

 

[afraidofthelight]

Sounds like your past traumas have been triggered by the move (at least to me, i may be wrong!). Everyone here has felt helpless fear in one way or another, You Are Not Alone.

The mindset can be changed/broken - but how long that will take is different for each person; how much it can be changed is different also. Some people managed to break free, others lessen it to different degrees. But you CAN lessen it, and every little bit helps.

One thing I do is to focus on something that is not a reaction (in your case the rate of your breathe is probably what you are thinking about). For example, if there is leaves nearby I try to see the veins in each leaf and follow them around the leaves seeing the connections.

Something that may (MAY!) help is stilling in your truck (not driving anywhere) and just concentrate on the feeling of the steering wheel under your hands. Try to feel every bump, dent, texture. Don't think aout anything but what your feeling. This will be HARD - your brian will want to think about breathing or driving or where you want to go/be or a million and one other things.

With practice you may (hopefully) be able to concentrate on the steering wheel and your brain will stop sending "argh! panic!" messages to your body and it will settle into normal(well normal for a PTSD person) levels. Then hopefully, as you get used to doing this, when you do drive somewhere and you start to panic, you can pull over to the side of the road close your eyes and focus on the steering wheel, which hopefully will help steady you more quickly as your mind and body is used to it.

Okay I used the words Hopefully and May a lot because it is different for every person. I can only hope that this idea helps in some way ;)