I just need to vent and tell my story. I’m so fed up dealing with panic attacks and anxiety.

I’ve been dealing with this since I was a teenager. Bad panic attacks, to the point I would call 911. Things calmed down a bit by the time I turned 18. Then when I was pregnant at 19, all hell broke loose and my anxiety/panic attacks escalated. I guess due to hormones and being pregnant. After I delivered, things slowly calmed down. I recall being panic attack free for about 10-12 years. I always have anxiety and am a very anxious person, but the actual panic attacks were not happening and I felt I had it under control and I could talk myself down if I felt one coming.

Then last year, almost exactly a year ago, everything changed. In May 2025 I had my tubes removed and an endometrial ablation. Everything was fine until July 2025 when I began experiencing palpitations. They just started one day and continued daily afterward. These palpitations triggered worsening anxiety and eventually the panic attacks returned with a vengeance. I figure the surgery caused more hormone issues, which in turn has worsened my anxiety and triggered the panic attacks again.

August 2025 I had the worst panic attack of my life that lasted over an hour. I made my husband drive me to the ER, which usually calms me down, but while there I continued to experience the panic attack. I struggled for months. The panic attacks created phobias, I was scared to leave the house, I didn’t want my husband to leave, he became my safe person and I always wanted him near or I’d panic. He couldn’t even go for an hour appointment without me freaking out. I would constantly worry about doing things or going places out of fear of having a panic attack.

I eventually got a bunch of tests completed (echo, ECG, halter, stress test) all came back normal, my palpitations were benign PVC and my heart was healthy. By about March 2026 the palpitations had seemingly disappeared. And my anxiety/panic attacks slowly were getting better. I still had difficulty going out or doing things, but it was slowly getting easier.

Fast forward to now. I found a lump in my neck that has been confirmed as a nodule on my thyroid. I have hypochondria and finding this out has significantly increased my anxiety and made things so much worse. I can feel myself regressing and everything all the progress I made seems like it’s gone.

Today I had to abruptly leave an appointment early because I had a full blown panic attack and felt trapped. I just wanted to go home. Now I’m scared to even go back to this appointment out of fear of having another panic attack. I hate that I’m like this. Panic disorder is the worst
Thank you for reading…

One of my most frequent reasons I have panic attacks is from my death anxiety and a few minutes ago I just recovered from one. This one was different though. I don't remember what sparked it, but I started to feel my panic attack coming on. I started gasping and my stomach felt like it dropped ten stories through the floor. I was shaking and repeating to myself that I was going to die and the world seemed to tilt as I frantically looked around and started grabbing at things to ground myself to reality. It probably didn't last more than ten seconds but it felt much longer. It was one of the strongest attacks I've had in a very long time. But eventually I was able to stabilize myself and caught my breath. But almost immediately after it ended my whole body felt warm and fuzzy and suddenly everything that was worrying me before didn't worry me anymore. The type of death anxiety that I have isn't a sense of doom or death coming soon, it's more existential than that. I fear growing old and life passing me by and then dying and what happens after death. That's the root of my death anxiety. But suddenly, it was like all of my worries and questions were answered and I had this sense of calm and happiness just wash over me. Suddenly growing old and passing away turned into finding a forever partner, growing old with them, potentially having kids, maybe grandkids, reminiscing on old memories, passing away peacefully in a home full of love and not worrying about what comes after. It was like my anxiety just left and I was normal for a few seconds before the warmth faded away too. I'm just curious if anyone else has experienced this? As of right now I'm not panicking anymore but I'm also not calm like before. I've never felt that way before but it felt so nice. To joke it felt like my anxiety was like "here, have a sliver of happiness you've earned it after dealing with me for so long :)" And just to add, I don't frequently have panic attacks, I maybe have one every few months but when they happen they can be intense or silent. However, this euphoric feeling has never happened before, and to be fair, this was one of my most intense panic attacks, so maybe that's why. But I suppose I just wanted to share and discuss with others about this feeling and if it's normal. And yes I have a therapist who I can confide in as well.

I’ve been having some really heavy days lately. I’m a student about to start my last semester of college, and I struggle just to get out of bed every single day. I’ve been feeling so lonely and deeply afraid of the future, both for myself and on a global scale. Elections just happened in my country, and a dangerous person won, someone who promotes rolling back our rights and privatizing public institutions and education. I have so much fear about this whole technofeudalism thing, about how the world and my country are falling to pieces. I am afraid as a woman, and I am afraid as a lesbian.

On top of that, there is this constant uncertainty regarding my family. They have been emotionally abusive, but in that specific way that always leaves me thinking, "it's not that big a deal, it's not that bad." Still, the fear is always there that one day they will just decide to cut off their financial support while I'm trying to finish my degree, or that I’ll get a job, lose it, and have to go back to them with my tail between my legs.

I suffer from anxiety disorder, but since last year the snowball has only kept growing. During the last two semesters, the panic attacks haven't stopped, and they are triggered by the smallest things. Last semester I had one right in the middle of class just because the professor assigned a workshop and I didn't know how to answer it. Not long ago, I went to my parents' house, my grandmother spoke to me a bit sharply, and I had to sit down because the shock made me dizzy and my blood pressure dropped. Even everyday things make me collapse. Recently, I gave my girlfriend a haircut and it looked really cute, but the ends were burned, so I went in to trim them, ended up cutting more than I should have, and ruined the shape. I spent the whole afternoon in bed trying to stop thinking about it, but the night came and I just couldn't. I kept waking up abruptly, my heart racing for long stretches.

Now, every time I panic, my blood pressure drops, I get nauseous, I cry uncontrollably, I shake, and all I can do is lie down to sleep because my body feels so heavy and I can't even manage to fix myself something to eat. Physically, I am incapable of relaxing. I suffer from hypertonic pelvic floor and bruxism.

I don’t have the money to pay for a therapist, not even for a single session. Right now, I’m doing JournalSpeak and I read Nicole Sachs' book, and I really try to stay positive, but I honestly don't know how to keep going...

I want to hear your worst panic attack stories. I feel there are comfort in numbers. My two most frustrating ones include and unfinished tattoo and crapping my pants on vacation. Community, let's talk about this obnoxious condition!

Hello im am here asking for help because currently i am dealing with alot of anxiety, i have always dealt with anxiety since i was a little kid but since Sunday it has gotten to an extreme level. I am shaking uncontrollably, i dont want to eat and i did feel like there was a lump like where my double chin was but I no longer feel that. It comes and goes which makes me believe it’s anxiety, Yesterday I woke up at 6am to go to the ER because I felt like my throat was closing and stuff like that they gave me a nebulizer and sent me home the nebulizer has helped with my breathing and they diagnosed me with a viral illness idk I forgot the name. Later that night I felt so good I ate and I didn’t shake or anything I felt better. Today now in the morning at 10am I got the same thing all over again yes a little less such as not feeling like my throat is closing but I am shaking and nervous for some reason and im not sure exactly why I am this way. Has anyone felt this way before I just want to feel okay and eat like a normal person again please

Hey does anyone have advice on finding a remote job? With the panic disorder its been extremely hard to maintain in person work. Ive managed a retail position enough to not get fired but not good enough to ever be considered for management. My wife got a ok full time job but its not enough for us to afford rent, food, car payment, phone bill, and whatever life throws at us.

I have a cyber security A.A and certification along with a Linux certification. Im working on getting a business administration bachelor's. I do not care what the job is as long as its remote I'll be able to be reliable for full time without panic attacks getting in the way.

My panic attacks are so bad I can only leave my house in a 10 min radius and even with that driving myself is a huge struggle but I still need to make money and I dont know where to look or what to so. Posting here for advice from people who understand panic disorders

I really hope someone has gone through something similar because I feel so hopeless right now.

I moved to South Korea in 2022, which had always been my dream. But after moving here, I became very lonely and depressed. I cried almost every day, but I ignored those feelings and just kept going.

In 2023, I struggled a lot with school and put a lot of pressure on myself. I was also living in a tiny apartment that was full of cockroaches. I have a severe phobia of them, so I would often avoid going home until my boyfriend came back from work. I lived there for almost three years, and I never really felt safe in my own home.

In 2024, I became very depressed about turning 30 that next year. I constantly worried about getting older, and my thoughts became very dark.

Then, in January 2025, I started experiencing strange physical symptoms. Sometimes I felt like I couldn't breathe properly, especially at night. I would even wake up feeling like I had forgotten how to breathe. During the day, my throat would sometimes feel like it was tightening. These symptoms lasted for months, but I ignored them.

A few months later, I noticed my heartbeat while lying in bed. It wasn't fast usually around 80–85 bpm on my Apple Watch but feeling it made me anxious. I made the mistake of Googling it, and from that moment on I became hyper-aware of my heart.

Then one evening, after coming home from a concert, I was sitting in the subway when I looked at my Apple Watch and saw my heart rate was 120 bpm. I immediately panicked.

It quickly went to 130...140...150...160.

I tried to get off the subway, but it was still moving. As soon as the doors opened, I ran outside, and my heart rate reached 170 bpm. I was crying, convinced I was dying, and called my parents. They told me it sounded like a panic attack, but I was convinced it was a heart attack or heart failure.

I asked a taxi driver to take me to the hospital. They did blood tests and an ECG, and they told me everything looked normal.

But after that night, my life completely changed.

Now I'm terrified of anything that raises my heart rate.

I'm scared to:

• walk up stairs
• exercise
• walk fast
• go outside in hot weather
• drink caffeine
• even notice my heartbeat

My world has become so small.

In February, I had an echocardiogram and a 24-hour ECG with a cardiologist. The embarrassing part is that I became so scared that I never went back for the follow-up appointment to hear the official results.

I also saw a psychiatrist at the same hospital. She prescribed several medications for anxiety and depression. She mentioned that she had seen my echocardiogram and Holter monitor results. I asked her if there was a heart problem, and she said she couldn't officially discuss the cardiologist's results, but from what she saw, she thought they looked normal. She said the cardiologist would explain everything during my appointment.

For some reason, that terrified me. My anxious brain immediately thought, "What if they found a tumor or something serious?"

At the same time, another part of me thinks: if there had been an obvious heart problem, would a psychiatrist really have prescribed multiple anxiety medications instead of sending me back to cardiology immediately?

Since that panic attack, I feel like I've developed severe health anxiety. I constantly monitor my body and I'm terrified of my heart.

Has anyone else experienced something like this?

Did one panic attack completely change your life?

And if you recovered, how did you get your life back?

hello i’m very new to this sub, im 21 and have always had some degree of health anxiety that would come and go but this year i started living alone which really increased the level of health anxiety i was having constantly. the past month i have been so stressed and consumed by multiple health “issues” to the point where ive been to the er a bunch of times and even gone home because i couldn’t live alone anymore.

yesterday i had what i think was a panic attack for the first time in my life. i am so scared of what happened, i felt like i was out of control of my body and so shaky and in a rush, i was showering and couldn’t even stand there anymore because i had to get out and be with someone. is this normal? more than my usual health anxiety, im now scared about my mental health. i really dont want this to happen again and feel scared of my own body. will i be okay again?

i’ve struggled with anxiety my whole life, but it has never been this bad.
over the past few months i find myself panicking at random moments during the night for no reason, since the end of june to now it’s been way worse.

i’m pretty sure i have stomach issues, because i can’t eat anything without feeling nauseous and like i’m about to vomit. i’ve never felt this way before and it has only been a problem until now. my mom thinks it’s acid reflux so i started taking medicine for it and hopefully things get better.

today i was helping my grandma move out of her apartment with my family and the whole time i just didn’t feel like myself. i feel like i’m not here and like i’m watching someone through their eyes. it’s really freaking me out and i’m scared for school to start again because what if i have a panic attack randomly during the day?

i’m trying not to let this get the best of me but it’s affecting me badly, i want to hangout with my friends but again i’m scared that i’m going to panic and freak them out.

does anybody know what’s going on? i’m really scared and i’m going to make an appointment with my psychiatrist and pediatrician but i don’t know what’s wrong with me.

Hey everyone. I had a severe panic attack yesterday that seemed to come out of nowhere. Hours later, I was still panicking with arm numbness, chest tightness and other muscular pains. I called the online emergency department because I was convinced I was dying since the symptoms lasted for hours. Fast forward to today, it’s been over 24 hours since the peak of the attack happened. I still have chest tightness, some minor pain in the chest and other muscular aches (neck, back). Is this normal so long after an attack? I’ve never had one this bad or prolonged before.

Thank you!

Has anyone experienced panic attacks that only involve a racing heart?
Sometimes I’m just in the middle of my day when my heart suddenly starts racing real fast and loud for no apparent reason. I think I’m relaxed, I am home alone, not stressed out, there is no reason whatsoever to feel anxious but my heart starts pounding hard.
I don’t experience any other symptoms that are commonly associated with panic attacks—no intense fear, no sense of doom, no problem breathing, or noticeable mood changes. Nothing. It’s literally just a racing heart.
When it happens, it can last anywhere from a few minutes to about an hour. Sometimes it happens several times in one day, and other times I can go weeks without it happening at all.
I’m 30F and generally healthy. I had my annual health checkup last year, including a standard ECG, and everything came back normal and healthy. I do have ADHD and Bipolar disorder but I’m taking meds for both(Concerta for adhd and Depakote and Latuda for BPD) and have been dealing with them very well.
Could this still be a type of panic attack, even if a racing heart is the only symptom? Or is it a heart problem?

Was given for a flight, I have been suffering with extremely bad flight anxiety and panic attacks due to claustrophobia. I am also very scared to try the medicine and panic on it or feel trapped in the feeling of it. Another worry is could I get rebound anxiety from using this just two times? Can anyone give me advice or convince me to take the med?

I frequently have panic attacks due to my stomach , just 20 mins ago I had a short lived one.

I think I over ate and was feeling extremely stuffed + had gas stuck in my chest. Genuinely felt like I couldn’t breathe and burps were getting caught in my throat making it extra hard to breathe.

Does anyone else experience this? I do have GERD and I suspect I have rumination syndrome, I regurgitate my food a lot bc I feel like I need to burp a lot.

I just am so sick and tired of this. I always get to the point of extreme fear and anxiety that I’m actively dying and about to succumb to my panic. My whole body gets numb and I grab at anything and everything so aggressively. I’ve ripped my hair out and have made myself bleed due to it.

I don’t mean to but I can’t control my body’s reaction to feeling like I’m approaching deaths door

Luckily my panic attacks are shorter lived now a days, I am able to sometimes logic my way out of them, but still. I hate even having to deal with these

26, F. I’ve had what I assume are nocturnal panic attacks for 4 years now, they were pretty rare. Isolated around nights I stay up too late or was under extreme stress, woken abruptly or had a nightmare. I am on a trip right now, and they have flared so badly that I’m terrified to sleep because when I do I wake up panicking. My symptoms are awaking 40 min - 2hrs into sleep initially fine and then 10-30 seconds later my heart starts racing. The highest I’ve captured is in the 170s but my daytime panic attacks (triggered by exercise) have been up to the 180s. I’ve convinced myself I have SVT despite the fact my attacks have a fast but gradual speed up and gradual slow down. If I stay in bed, the attacks last less than two minutes but are still terrifying. If I get up and walk around they can last 15 minutes. I haven’t slept in 24hrs and before that it was fragmented. I try to sleep and my body jerks me awake or I realize I’m about to sleep and get anxious. I’ve been living in a constant anxious state for the last week and I don’t know what to do. The less I sleep, the more likely I am to awake in a panic and at the same time, I’m avoiding sleep because I don’t want to panic. I’m from the US and am currently in Canada and so if I go to the ER or Urgent Care it’ll be expensive. I’ve never taken any meds, except Zoloft when these attacks first started. I am not on it anymore but the attacks have persisted. I’m afraid to go to the ER and what meds they’ll give me. I feel trapped ):

Holy moly idk why this happens all the time, I feel crazy to admit having panic attacks

I’ve smoked weed most days for about 2 years, roughly 0.3-2g a day depending on the day. This all started about a week ago, over what’s been roughly a 6 day period. Before this, I’d sometimes get a weird pressure (no pain) in the same collarbone/chest area if I smoked a joint too fast or if there was nicotine mixed in. Rubbing the area lightly would sometimes relieve it, maybe just distracting my brain from the sensation, though sometimes I’d end up fixating on the tightness until the high wore off. Water or a shower would sometimes help too. I was also dealing with some relationship issues giving me anxiety here and there.

It properly started the night before the main event. I’d had 3 joints in a rotation with 2 other people that day, figured my lungs needed a break, and decided to sleep it off. Woke up completely fine the next morning. There was a joint left over that I was going to smoke with my girlfriend before bed, but she couldn’t finish it, so I ended up waking and baking with the leftover bit the next morning, maybe 1-2cm long, about the width of a pencil. I felt fine for around 20 minutes, then while lying down I felt this sensation like air leaking, kind of like poking a balloon, probably just my stomach rumbling given the position I was lying in, but it freaked me out. I sat up and tried to feel my heartbeat, and because my muscle position had changed I couldn’t feel it right away, which made me think my heart had stopped. That sent me into a full panic spiral, heart racing for an hour or more. I tried everything, drinking water, standing in the shower for like 30 minutes, and the only thing that gave some relief was sitting hunched forward with my arms crossed over my shoulders. Eventually I called my girlfriend and she talked me down enough to sleep. I woke up feeling fine again, but a few hours later the chest tightness and shortness of breath started.

For the first two days I just tried to ride it out, assuming it was leftover soreness from the panic attack. Then I started feeling nauseous, constipated, lightheaded, and breathless walking normal distances, so I went to A&E. They did an ECG, bloods, and an x-ray, and told me everything looked normal, the bloodwork looked fine on the surface. After that, my fear of a cardiac event actually went away completely, since normally I’m a genuinely happy, non-anxious person. I noticed at night the chest pain and tightness got worse when lying down, but didn’t think much of it since the doctor had already chalked it up to musculoskeletal soreness from the panic attack.

The pain itself is in that little hollow between the shoulder, collarbone, and chest muscle, right in that corner. Sometimes I also get a dull pulsing pain in my neck, lasting a few seconds to a few minutes, or the same pain in my arm (not past the elbow, though I felt it in my wrist once). I’ve also had an ache in my shoulder since day two, which I put down to sleeping wrong, and tried stretching it out thinking that would ease the tightness. Mornings are consistently the worst for the tightness and soreness. At first I wondered if constipation was pushing on my diaphragm, since I naturally breathe diaphragmatically rather than from the chest, and chest-breathing did feel slightly less tight. But then the breathlessness and lightheadedness started happening just from walking normal distances, easing when I sat down, which made me wonder if it was something like early-stage angina, so I went back to A&E a second day. Another ECG, again normal. Around this time I noticed a slight yellow tint in my eyes, though I couldn’t tell if it was just the lighting.

Next day, same pattern of breathlessness and tightness, but I had a GP appointment where they read out my bloodwork and mentioned my bilirubin was high at 57, which felt like it confirmed something was actually going on, so I went straight back to A&E after. Third ECG, plus an oxygen test after walking about 20 meters, both normal again. This time the doctor seemed like he was just trying to move me along, said stuff like “don’t smoke weed, it’s bad,” brought up a story about someone having a cardiac arrest in front of their mum (though they’d also taken coke and other stimulants), and generally seemed to brush off my breathlessness, pain, and the bilirubin result without really addressing it.

My mum mentioned she’d had similar symptoms before and gone through the same testing process, and the doctor she eventually saw asked if she had pets, said that was the cause, gave her a shot, and she felt better afterward. That’s made me wonder if something similar is going on for me, since I do have 2 indoor cats (unvaccinated, getting that sorted this week, I know, just been tight on money). So now I’m stuck wondering if this is really just anxiety after 3 ECGs, an x-ray, and bloodwork all in a few days, even though I don’t actually feel anxious at any point until the symptoms are already bad, or if there’s something underlying with my heart. It’s felt like it’s been beating harder since the panic attack, with some random palpitations here and there. Today I finally managed to have a bowel movement, and almost immediately after, the chest tightness and breathlessness felt like they went away completely.

Had my first panic attack three months ago and since then my life has just been a complete mess. It was so intense I went to the ER and then went to the ER a following 2 days and had 4 EKgs, 3 blood tests and a chest x ray but my brain said there is absolutely a health problem here.

I had daily panic attacks for weeks after. Things started to calm down and I started to make a bit of progress but still having physical anxiety symptoms daily.

Everything is back to being terrible again. The last 3 days in a row I have been having stupid amounts of skipped beats a day and every time I try and fall asleep it feels like electric is going through my chest and then I wake up almost choking? I wake up in the morning literally vibrating. I constantly having this feeling like I can’t get air in properly and I’m forever manually shaking my leg when I’m sat down.

I’m so fed up and I just have no idea what’s wrong with me but I’ve developed severe cardio phobia. Has anybody else been through anything similar I’m permanently terrified?

Just made a post but made another as I'm new to having panic attacks and I'm quite frankly terrified.

I'm in hospital rn for food poisoning.

But how long does the pins and needles last for you guys and the leg shakiness