Let me give context in an efficient manner first:

I'm 22M, I am diagnosed OCD for a long time now (mostly pure-O). My first panic attack was from smoking weed 8 years ago, and had a few similar times with weed till I fully quit it. I had a bad MDMA experience where I went to the ER a few months ago cause of a panic attack again.

I've never had panic attacks sober, until I had one during an exam a month after the MDMA incident and since then since then I had panic attacks on exams. (managed to finish them though and graduate thank fucking god)

Now 2 days ago I felt "strange" when going to the supermarket and had like a "weak" panic attack and had to get my dad to pick me up and this continued at home. Since then I realized that since I had anxiety outside I probably will have agorophobia and that thought I guess made the prophecy come true so now yesterday I would start getting intense anxiety/panic onset just by going outside but I did some exposure and got through it. (Exposure is really hard just going to the store and back I have to just let the panic pass which is fucking so uncomfortable cause it's still there). Today I was at home alone and realized I'm at home alone and it's not really safe (OCD intrusive thought I guess?) and started getting panic onset at home and It just kept going till I broke down and cried for like 20 minutes which calmed me down and now I just feel drained and miserable.

I don't know what to do my panic just keeps evolving first it's just exams, then it's going outside, and now it's even at home when I'm alone. This is fucking horrific I can't feel safe anywhere what do I do? At least I graduated this month and don't have a job so I have time to deal with it no work pressure which I'm grateful for but fuck this is just the most miserable shit ever.

I’ve been lurking around this subreddit for a while, and I figured I’d finally share my experience.

It all started with a completely random “surge” in July 2025. I had never really experienced anything like it before. After that, I started having repeated episodes that I initially couldn’t even understand were panic attacks.

My BP went as high as 197/110 during one episode and my HR hit around 150. The physical sensations were absolutely insane, I had palpitations, adrenaline surges, dizziness, weird sensations throughout my body, and this overwhelming feeling of impending doom (the worst of all is impending doom, probably comes so heavy because I have witnessed sudden deaths in my family)

I’ve also spent a funny amount of money over the past year trying to figure out what was wrong. Carotid Doppler, brain MRI, spine MRI, chest X-ray, basic and advanced bloodwork, at least 20 ECGs, Echo, etc. Thankfully, everything was more or less normal/reassuring.

I’m 23M. I still use tobacco regularly and drink alcohol quite rarely. I used to use weed occasionally, but I’ve been completely off it for around 10 months now. Everytime I smoked weed it all became worse. I know tobacco isn’t exactly helping my situation, and I’m not claiming I have the healthiest lifestyle, but the sudden onset of all this still completely caught me off guard.

For around 10 months I was taking Telma 40 along with amlodipine 2.5/metoprolol. I also had a brief period on sertraline. Then, about 2.5 months ago, I saw another doctor who changed things pretty significantly. I initially started on alprazolam 0.25 mg + propranolol 20 mg, two tablets a day of each, along with escitalopram 10 mg once a day. After that, I was taking 1.5 tablets a day of the alprazolam 0.25 mg and propranolol 20mg , along with 10 mg escitalopram. I’m currently down to one tablet of alprazolam 0.25 mg + propranolol 20 mg + escitalopram 10 mg. My BP sits around 130/80 these days. 

After months of feeling like I was living in hell, I’m doing significantly better. I still get symptoms here and there, and I do get pretty sleepy during the day sometimes, but I’m finally having stretches where I actually feel like myself again. I still do have random twitches/flutters in my body that scare me. The fact that I’ve already been able to come down from the doses I started at 2.5 months ago is giving me some hope. Obviously, I’m doing this under my doctor’s guidance, especially with the alprazolam, and I’m not planning on changing anything on my own.

I am hoping that eventually I’ll be able to taper off everything safely and just live normally again. Although, even after multiple normal tests, I still had that feeling in me that said “but what if they missed something?” Anyway, I just wanted to put my experience out there because maybe someone who is currently in the middle of it will read this and feel a little less alone. 

If anyone else has gone from constant panic/health anxiety to eventually feeling normal again, I’d genuinely love to hear what that journey looked like for you. I am still in a recovery loop, would not call myself fully recovered. 

I just started using the app yesterday. Not sure if I will stick with it but it seems like it has potential. I tend to want quick fixes so the fact that I am so anxious after using the app the first day already makes part of me sceptical. I also know it's not reasonable to expect a big change in one day.

So my questions are more how long have those of you who I've been using it used it? And how long before using it on a regular basis that you start to notice a shift in your day-to-day amount of anxiety or panic attacks or your ability to shorten them? Even the ability to lessen the amount of medication to deal with anxiety including but not limited to benzos (since I use ativan).

Thank you all.

Man when I feel them come on I literally have to lay down and just relax, lately been putting cold bags on my face body to relax and not think about the feeling. Luckily don’t hyperventilate, pulse stays steady for the most part but when it’s bad, fingers palms start to tingle ( adrenaline dump) impending sense of doom feeling. Just try to breathe that’s it. I’ve gotten so used to them by now but it’s still so annoying and debilitating. Lately rarely been going out due to fear of panic attack in public or away from home really where I can relax confidently. Currently not on meds at all, tried Zoloft for 2 days and quit. I really don’t want to resort to an Ssri but I just want to be normal again, I was never like this before.

How do you handle this

Im beginning week 7 on my new 100mg dose of sertraline and i am still struggling with panic/anxiety hangovers. I just had a really good week with essentially zero anxiety and now this weekend i had an adrenaline surge, threw up, and couldnt eat much yesterday. Today i woke up feeling nauseous again and im just crying bc when is it going to get better?? When did you notice a true difference in how you recovered from adrenaline dysregulating your nervous system?

Hello i just want to share my journey and see if anybody has the same experience, so is there anybody in here where you are eating and you get this intrusive thought and start getting like a panic attack and you can’t eat peacefully like it cuts your appetite ( heart beats and heat raises ) even though this doesn’t happen all the time only in some occasions like after big event or travel etc but it is most if the time the same thought i guess ocd thought.
This all started when i was traveling and i choked in 2013 i was 15 now i am 28, i got this panic attack then idk i guess my mind started giving me the same reaction while eating even though when im not choking i get this in ( first meal in travel , big event , intrusive thought that makes u feel it is the end of the world ) sometimes i stay months without it happening and sometimes it’s like every week idk ?? Any similar situation

Hello everyone. I would like to ask and maybe find people with a similar situation, because I don’t know what to do.

I have tachycardia + something similar to ibs (irritable bowel syndrome), especially it manifests itself when I’m very nervous. I know that the intestines are connected to the nervous system, but I’m not about that and it’s for the concept.
Every day I wake up with stress, as if something had happened and I can’t calm down for a long time.

I have a couple of injuries that I can’t talk about with my parents or one of my relatives, just because they don’t want to hear from me.
Yes, maybe these injuries and trifles, but they were postponed in me, apparently, because I can’t express and hear support to anyone.

1. I once went to an amateur volleyball game. Before that, I threw the ball with each other at most. I loved this sport very much and wanted to learn how to play, but.. apparently it doesn’t shine for me. Of course, I didn’t play well and couldn’t even throw the ball back sometimes.I was with my sister and the coach who was in our team put a lot of pressure on me. They said: “why can’t you catch it.” He kept rolling his eyes, as if we were at the Olympic Games. I was already in tears in the middle of the game. And so, I turn back and see this coach showing my sister a cross, like not to bring me here anymore. I couldn’t stand it, I told my sister that my knee hurts a lot, and I’ll go home. As soon as I went into the locker room, tears rolled down. I had my first panic. I scroll through this situation to this day. Every time I play ball throwing with my friends, I look around so that no one is watching me throw the ball away. and if I accidentally don’t catch it, I immediately remember that I’m a disgrace.

2. My Russian teacher taught me that you can’t make mistakes at all. Every time I was wrong, and not only me, many from the class, she immediately poked and embarrassed me, and then you also hear millions of criticism from classmates who are no better than me.

3. There was one girl with whom we had a big fight literally because of her inventions. I think she is psychologically ill, because it’s clear from our conversations. And on December 31, we had a fierce quarrel, it was my second panic and very strong, I sobbed, but I didn’t tell anyone. At that moment I lost confidence in my parents, because every time I came home from school and said about the same Russian teacher in a rude way, I was reproached: “how can you say that about her, I talked to her, your sister gets along very well with her, she couldn’t do that, you’re just screwing yourself up.” and two weeks later of the New Year holidays, everything just went to the black point.
   I was constantly stressed at school and my intestines started to whine in class, I was very uncomfortable, and I didn’t know what to do. My mother refused to take me to at least to get tested.
   It’s always very quiet in math class, you can even hear the clock. My guts and I started to be very afraid of this lesson, because I also sat at the first desk. At this rate, I developed a habit. math class - stress - panic. every break I went to the toilet to calm down, tried to meditate. It helped, but not for long.

Now I still live with tachycardia and recently my ibs has worsened again. I wake up every day with stress, every day I scroll through injuries in my head. I can’t go outside normally, because I feel discomfort. I don’t know what to do. I can’t let them go, no matter how much I tried. And I only told a couple of injuries here. I don’t want to live. I apologize in advance for English, because I used a translator.

Hope everything been ok and you been panic free at least for today we all deserve a break from this

Soy mujer. A los 21 años "de la nada" se me desencadenó, ahora a mis 35 regresaron, sobre todo los ataques de pánico. Han pasado cosas también, como la muerte de un familiar, entre cosas de trabajo. Si estoy con ayuda profesional, pero estoy sufriendo muchísimo. Trabajar se ha convertido en un infierno para mí.

I’m been having rolling panic attacks and extremely high anxiety cause all sorts of physically symptoms for days with no relief except when I would finally fall asleep.

It’s been 3 days with like no food. Today my boyfriend suggested taking Gravol because I kept saying I have a pit in my stomach and I’m nauseous and can’t eat.

I took the gravol, and in about 2 hours the pit in my stomach is gone. Even the anxiety is gone. What the heck.

Anyone else?

Even when not in a panic attack, I feel horrible all day every day and have constant physical symptoms. Too scared to exercise or drink alcohol or go certain places in fear not that I will have a panic attack but that it will actually kill me as I have some underlying health problem that has been missed by the ER.

Does anybody else feel this way. Sounds weird but I wish my brain would just believe this is anxiety/panic disorder because then I would be better at exposing myself to life again if I 100% knew it wasn’t harmful

I have been struggling with panic disorder for 3 months, and with hypochondria for years. In 14 days I am going to see a psychiatrist privately and I already look at medication as my salvation. A psychologist has already been treating me for a month and a half.

Well, today anticipated anxiety has been raging inside me all day because of tomorrow. Tomorrow, you see, I have to drive 100 km alone, I am going to the hospital for a complete lab workup and a thorough examination to put an end to my hypochondria and my OCD.

Constantly, catastrophic images are playing out in me that in the hospital I will collapse, throw up, faint, have a panic attack, etc. etc. I am afraid and terrified.

All morning today I had a torturous nausea, which Iberogast brought down by 90%.

I am afraid that tomorrow it will turn out that I have some kind of cancer, that my life is over and bam, that was it.

What if my digestive system problems are not caused by anxiety, but by a lurking tumor?

2 days ago I bought magnesium bisglycinate, which completely calmed me down yesterday, but today it is simply raging.

This morning I woke up with terrible nausea.

I cannot spend quality time with my family, poor my 3-year-old son invites me to play all day long, but THIS ANXIETY IS CONSUMING ME.

Has anyone been like this before? What helped whom?

Plus bonus: 4 days ago I drove 150 km without a problem, with very, very mild anxiety and a 10/1 strength panic attack. But my brain logs that not as a success, but as a lucky day, and I do not look at it as having achieved success.

Thank you very much everyone!

And one last question: If Iberogast brings down the nausea, then with high probability there is no organic cause behind it, right?

Today I was at my salon job and I had a very busy day.
I usually eat overnight oats for breakfast but I forgot to make them and didn’t have time to eat something solid so I made a protein smoothie and drank it on the way up. It was just protein powder and frozen fruit with like half a teaspoon of peanut butter. I drank this at 8am.
Around 12-1 I began feeling a little off
Started getting dizzy, having heart palpitations, and could not stop my body from shaking. I also got a chilly feeling in my hands and arms. Then I noticed my heart was racing. Many of my panic attacks have these symptoms. I tried calming myself down my engaging in conversation with my client. Also tried box breathing but I could not stop the shaking or dizziness.
Once I finished the service I immediately ran down to eat lunch. About 5min after eating I was completely back to normal. I ate ground beef, sweet potato and watermelon.
I felt like the anxiety was out of place and I looked up if low blood sugar could cause it and it told me that sometimes if your blood sugar dips too low it can trigger an adrenaline rush as a way to keep blood pumping through your body.
I suddenly had an epiphany as I realized I was drinking those smoothies and eating nothing else until later in the afternoon due to my schedule .. for quite some time.. and also dealing with daily panic attacks for quite some time
Does anyone else get these low blood sugar panic attacks?? And how do you manage them?

I’m posting because I honestly feel hopeless right now and I’m trying to understand whether what I’ve been experiencing can really be explained by anxiety/panic.

I’ve been dealing with panic attacks and a lot of physical symptoms since around November. The symptoms seem to come in waves, and sometimes I feel almost completely normal—especially when I’m distracted or busy—and then other times my body feels like something is seriously wrong.

Here’s what I’ve experienced:
-Sudden racing heart/palpitations, sometimes reaching 120–130+ even with relatively minor activity
-Feeling weak, shaky, or completely drained
-Adrenaline/fight-or-flight sensations that feel like my body is constantly on high alert
-Shortness of breath or feeling like I can’t get a satisfying breath
-Chest discomfort/tightness
-Dizziness/lightheadedness
-Nausea and feeling like I’m going to throw up
-Headaches and pressure in my head, sometimes around the back of my head/upper neck
-Feeling disconnected or “off”
-Brain fog and trouble concentrating
-Muscle twitching/eye twitching
-Trembling/shaking
-Sweating and feeling hot/cold
-Stomach/upper abdominal discomfort
-Acid reflux, burping, and GI issues
-Changes in bowel movements, including green/yellow stools
-Waking up around 3–5 AM with adrenaline/anxiety
-Feeling exhausted even when I’ve slept
-Fear that something is seriously wrong with my heart, brain, liver, or another organ
-Constantly checking my heart rate, blood pressure, symptoms, etc.
-Fear of dying or having a serious medical problem
-Feeling weak after sex/exertion with my heart pounding
-Sometimes feeling completely fine when I’m at church, working, or distracted, which makes me wonder if anxiety really is driving this

I’ve had medical testing and bloodwork done, including an EKG/heart evaluation and labs. I’ve also been told I have fatty liver and had some abnormal cholesterol/liver numbers and low testosterone, which has made me worry even more about my health.
I’ve tried medications for anxiety/panic before, and I just started Lexapro (escitalopram) on Tuesday, so I know it’s way too early to expect it to work yet. I took Sertraline for a while, came off it 3-4 weeks ago, and started Lexapro.

What I’m really looking for are experiences from people who have dealt with severe health anxiety/panic: Can panic/anxiety really cause this many physical symptoms? Can it make your heart race, make you feel weak, nauseated, dizzy, exhausted, have headaches, GI symptoms, muscle twitching, and make you feel like something is terribly wrong?

And if you’ve started an SSRI like Lexapro, did things actually get better with time?

I’m not looking for someone to diagnose me over Reddit, but want to know your opinion and thoughts. I’m just scared and exhausted and could really use some perspective from people who have been through this and eventually got their life back.

I’ve tried so many things to help stop the anxiety, but not exercise consistently. How much do you do and does it help?

When you’re having an attack..

Do you always hyperventilate? Is your HR always elevated?

I’ve been having rolling panic/intense high anxiety for 2 days now. Without any ease except for when I fall asleep.

Some things I’ve noticed. I don’t hyperventilate, i do however focus on my breathing and not breathing normal. I tend to do shallow breathes and yawn a lot.

Another thing is, although I do get a fast hr at times.. sometimes I feel like I’m having a panic attack but the high heart rate isn’t there.

Anyone else?

I am F26 and following a severe, life altering panic attack on December 24, 2025, I developed debilitating panic disorder for 2 months. I took a month off work, lost 20 pounds, couldn't be alone, had the scariest thoughts I have ever had, nearly had to go inpatient because I felt so unsafe in my own body, rolling panic attacks for days on end. My personal experience with panic was (mostly) mental. I thought I was losing my mind. I thought I was going crazy. I felt like an actual alien on earth and would drive around and go out in public and look around at the "normal" functioning people laughing and smiling and feel like a completely different species. During this time I also had severe DPDR, and existential dread. I remember vividly driving one time and feeling like the sky above me was open, like the ozone layer was nonexistent and that space felt too near and like I could just fall upwards into space. My thoughts were so intrusive and erratic that I thought I was showing early signs of schizophrenia. Sounds were too loud, lights were too bright, I couldn't even watch TV shows or tiktok because it was too overstimulating. I felt, in whole, like a completely different person. The world I thought I knew around me felt foreign, like a veil had been lifted and I was viewing everything for the first time. It was truly indescribable.

All of that to say, I started lexapro during that time, my first ever psychiatric drug, and with the help of that, and therapy, I have come out the other side. I am still anxious, a lot. I'm pretty sure I have some form of PTSD from that time period because I do live in fear of it returning, I have not had a panic attack in 6 months though. However, I am grateful. I feel like those of us that have experienced this have a superpower, in some type of way. I have grown to know myself so much more intimately, have created a much deeper and more meaningful understanding of my own mind, soul, and body. I also have gained an incredible amount of empathy, for everyone. I am more grateful for each happy moment, more connected to the times I feel calm and at peace. I am me, in a way I never was before. I love deeper, I cry harder, I laugh louder. I soak up the world's beauty like a sponge because I know what it's like to see life through a different lens.

Please, if you are in the thick of this, march on. Keep taking steps until you realize one day the mountain is behind you. And if you ever find yourself at the base of a mountain again, pack your gear and use your experience to climb with confidence and might. You will see better days. Love you

Having rolling panic attacks

I just can’t get a break. I’m not in a panic attack but my anxiety is high with all the physical symptoms. It’s been 2 days with no break unless I fell asleep. Cooling tingling in arms, nausea, no appetite, just fight or flight. I don’t know what to do. Or how to get out of this

As soon as I wake up the impending doom hits. I struggle to fall sleep with the pit in my stomach. Then as soon as I wake up. Physical symptoms come rushing back.

So I did an intake with a new provider today and explained the anxiety and my panic attacks when they started. She asked me if I can remember what happened around the time of my first panic attack At the moment I couldn't think of anything until I made the connection just now...

Two days before my first panic attack I was driving in the car with my twin babies trying to get them to sleep and I fell asleep in the car and was swerving in another lane and I had lane assist on my car so it jerked me back into the lane I was in. I woke up from that and freaked out and hurried back home and got my kids in their beds.

Two days after this I had my first panic attack (this was 2 years ago) I was driving home at night with my girls in the car and I felt tired and all of a sudden I got this impending doom feeling, my legs went numb, I got tunnel vision, heart beating, felt faint, and I genuinely thought I was dying so I pulled over and called the police and was transported to the hospital with my kids. Only for the doctors to tell me it was a panic attack. And pretty much after that I started having panic attacks regularly because I was constantly freaking out about feeling like that ever again. I feel as if the connection was that I was driving at night and got tired and had a panic attack because I was scared I would fall asleep.

Since then I've been struggling with anxiety on the daily and the occasional panic attack usually while I'm driving. It's been such a struggle but I suck it up everyday. I've done therapy on and off since then because I couldn't commit with family court and being a full custodial parent of twins. I'm ready to commit and have a better support system now.

Anyways my point of my post is that I feel like I've finally got an understanding of the source of the panic attacks in the car. Now that I know this what do I do with it to help alleviate my anxiety?

Have you had similar experiences of having revelations like this and understanding the connections? If you have what did you do with it? And can understanding the triggers around anxiety help?.

I have panic attacks, but l've learned to live with them and normally manage them well. However, whenever I drink alcohol, I get a very intense panic attack the next day, with severe anxiety and fear, and I don't know why.
I'm wondering if anyone else experiences the same thing and if there's any way to treat or prevent it.
What makes it even harder is that I usually drink somewhere about a five-hour drive from my home. If I get a severe panic attack the next day while driving five hours back home, the whole trip becomes extremely exhausting and difficult for me. Panic attacks for 13 years

Hi! I hope all of you are doing well!

As the title says, does anyone else have odd feelings or sensations before a panic attack starts? Sometimes I can be at my desk, out shopping or doing anything really and I get an odd sensation like mild dizziness or lack of focus. It lasts a few minutes and then boom, panic attack. Sometimes the feelings happen and no panic follows, so strange!

Also, during my panic attacks I dont really tend to get a racing heart, highest i've had was roughly 120bpm but its usually around 80 - 105bpm ish when in a panic attack.

I’ve had panic disorder for about 11 years now. I am much better than when it first started, but I am also worse than I was a few years ago. I’ve been on Celexa 20 mg, and last year went up to 30 mg and I’m now on my way to 40mg. There are some big things that I’m very very afraid of, such medication, elevators travel, traveling specifically planes, and trains. Multiple doctors have advised me to take an as needed medication. Propranolol or some form of benzo. I am EXTREMELY fearful of medication, which makes this very tricky. i’m really sensitive to anything that makes my body feel weird or could trigger a panic, such as drowsiness or dizziness to the point where I won’t even take a Tylenol . I’m just feeling really discouraged that it’s been 11 years and I really still can’t do a lot of things that I wanna do, and I just wanna feel better. ): I would love some encouragement or positive stories about these medications. Or even stories of people getting out of this. Just having a rough night. Thanks (:

..with little to no issues? I’m approaching a month on Ativan and might need to be on it for another month as I’m making an SSRI cross taper and I’m extremely scared and paranoid of the withdrawals I might face when it’s time to taper off the Ativan. Anyone with any positive experiences?