Worst Panic Attack Ever

[mysage]

After a long weekend with my husband, who is not supportive at all of my PTSD, I had the worst panic attack. I actually thought I was having a heart attack. After countless tests to find that the only thing wrong was my nerves. I am still in a hazy fog and can't seem to get out of it. Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[Hashi]

I'm sorry you experienced this. I hope you're feeling better now.

In the short term, I think you need to do grounding exercises to get out of the fog that follows. You can search on grounding on this site, or the internet generally.

In the longer term, did the medical staff who did the tests suggest what to do next?

I'm concerned that you say your husband is not supportive at all of your PTSD. To me, that sounds the same as saying he is not supportive of you. PTSD is not something you can separate out from other things, it's part of you and your life at the moment. Are you connecting what happened to having spent a long weekend with him? Is that something it would be good to talk to someone about?

 

[mysage]

The medical staff told me to follow up with my doctor.

My husband gets stressed out and lashes out. No excuse though. He actually had a guy he worked with ask him if someone died and if no one died then stop stressing.

 

[squireparty]

I have a story here that might help.

The last severe panic attack I had was after I had left the job in Utah I posted about having to leave. I spent a night in Vernal, Utah, a city of about 30,000, in a room at the Best Western. I had been given a ride by a co-worker and was so grateful as I do not have a car and I was working 37 miles away out in the sticks.

Anyway, getting to the point. I am alone in this hotel room and out of nowhere I had this intense panic attack and I truly thought I was going to die of a heart attack. It got to the point where I managed to get myself to a gas station around the corner to find aspirin as I thought gee, maybe I can head this off at the pass if it is a heart attack.

Didn't work. Didn't slow the heart rate or slow my mind down. So I called the front desk and spoke to the night auditor about where I might find medical care. By this point I am in a total panic about the potential hospital bill too as I don't have insurance, and my panic attack has not subsided.

But here's the blessing, the wonderful thing that happened to me out of nowhere. I went down to the front desk and spoke to the night auditor for a bit and it turned out she has had panic attacks and was able to talk me down out of it a bit so that I could go back up to my room and sit still. What a miracle that was! To find such support randomly like that and to not have a huge hospital bill hanging over my head like that! My advice is if you can find someone to talk to, someone who gets it - it seems to work wonders, at least it does for me.

And that's probably why most of us are here, anyway. We get it, if you know what I mean.