r/panicdisorder

Hi everyone! About 8-9 years ago I had the worst panic attack of my life, I was so scared that my brain at one moment told me to just kill myself. That made me even more scared and immediately I told a family member I cannot be alone. For context, my father committed s. a few years prior so you can imagine how that affected me even more. Since then I have a horrible fear of my panic attacks, I can get through the sensations and everything but my actual fear is that the panic will make me lose control over myself and make me do it even though I don’t want to. Anyone feel the same? Any words of comfort? Anyone snapped out of it?

Has anyone else been prescribed Xanax daily by their psychiatrist? I’m currently living in a foreign country, so I’m not sure what’s considered normal treatment here. My psychiatrist prescribed me 0.125 mg Xanax twice daily after breakfast and dinner, plus 0.25 mg Xanax as needed for panic attacks. She also put me on Lexapro and Buspar.

I’m feeling a little nervous/confused because I’ve always heard Xanax shouldn’t be taken every day. For people who have experience with this, was it temporary while the other medications started working? Did it help you? I’m just trying to understand if this is a common approach or not.

Hello I’ve been dealing with panic disorder for 3 years now and I’ve just been diagnosed my dr thought it was vasovagal syncope but I saw a psychiatrist and was properly diagnosed I don’t feel anxiety with my panic disorder but my body has physical symptoms that come with a panic attack the only thing that seems to stop it dead in its tracks for me is eating even if I’m not hungry I need to eat I was wondering if anyone had any kind of things I can try to help with my attacks that happen

Does anyone have any success stories they are comfortable sharing for how they personally overcame their anxiety and/or panic?

I'm genuinely curious especially about those who's anxiety/panic is more socially/performance focused, or that is triggered when talking to people or talking/presenting in meetings at work.

I have been struggling very much with this myself for several years now and I just cannot see a way out or even the next step.

I never thought I’d be writing one of these posts but here I am, two years anxiety free and I just want to share what worked for me because I know how dark it can get.

It started when I was 18. I got sick, lost a lot of weight, and one evening I felt something weird in my body and made the mistake of googling it. First result basically told me to call emergency services. I didn’t know what a panic attack was at the time so when one came on I was completely convinced I was going to die. That was the beginning of a really long loop.

For months I didn’t leave the house. I kept going to professionals and people around me hoping they’d tell me I was fine and it would work for like an hour and then something else would come up and the whole thing would start over. I had every test done. Everything came back fine. It still didn’t feel fine. I had no idea what was happening to my life.

I eventually found a therapist who introduced me to CBT and it genuinely helped. I got to a point where I was going to the gym, playing sports, doing things I’d completely stopped doing. But I’d relapse every couple months and each time felt like going back to square one.

Then I started meditating and trying to understand how my mind actually works. Practiced every day and slowly got to a place where thoughts didn’t pull me under the way they used to. Life felt normal again and I honestly thought I was done with it.

Then I moved to the UK for uni.

First six months were completely fine. Then the homesickness hit, the weather, the culture, being away from everyone I knew. I started isolating and hiding it from my friends there. And then it all came back harder than before. I felt completely alone. Eventually I decided to come back home.

Coming home didn’t fix it the way I hoped. I tried forcing myself back into exercise and meditation but it wasn’t working like before, the anxiety was too bad at that point. I got some professional support which helped enough that I could actually function again. But I knew I had to do the real work myself.

I started paying attention to what was actually triggering me. Health stuff on social media was a big one. Any weird sensation and I’d immediately go to google. I always zeroed in on the worst possibility. Running to others for comfort gave me maybe an hour before the whole thing kicked off again.

So I just started cutting things off one by one. Blocked all health content on social media. Stopped googling. Stopped running to people every time I felt off. Went back to meditation even when it felt useless. And I stopped letting every anxious thought drag me somewhere.

The first few weeks were really hard. Every urge to check or search felt overwhelming. But I didn’t give in.

And slowly, without me really noticing, the thoughts stopped having so much hold over me. Not because I beat them but because I stopped feeding them.

Two years later I travel, play football, go to the gym. I do everything I thought was gone from my life.

The thoughts still pop up sometimes. But now I just notice them and keep moving.

If you’re in it right now just know the loop can be broken. Every time you don’t give in to the urge to spiral you’re making it weaker. It’s slow and it’s hard but it works. I’m proof of that.

Happy to answer anything in the comments.

hi all. i (f20) have recently had my anxiety go from 0 to 100. i won’t lie, it all started recently about 2-3 months ago when i smoked to much weed and had my first panic attack at the heart doctor lol. i quit immediately- caffeine as well. but ever since- i can’t drive anymore, can’t eat too much, can’t do things for too long, i can’t even be alone because im terrified of the next panic attack. ive grown up with bpd & ptsd and only ever experienced panic during things like intimacy iykwim. i used to love driving all over (4+ hours just to see friends) but i can’t even make it 5 minutes down the road anymore without having to call someone to get me. antidepressants wont work bc ive failed out of at least 20 medications across my life. i guess what im asking is how do you cope? how do you live life? i live in a rural town. i have to drive. i’m unemployed right now because of how terrifying everything is. did beta blockers help anyone- should i seek that out? get bloodwork done? i’ve had dissociation issues from anxiety but the panic attacks almost daily now are making me feel like i need to be locked away. i guess im searching for help & if anyone else got them “randomly” rather than having a lifelong struggle. thank u in advance if u read this far

I don’t even know where to start, but I’m desperate to hear from people who have truly experienced severe panic disorder/health anxiety and recovered because I feel like I’m losing myself to this.

This has been happening on and off for about 8 years. I’ll have periods where it’s manageable and only happens every few months, and then periods where it completely takes over my life. When it’s bad, I can have multiple panic attacks in a single hour or all throughout the day.

The attacks are EXTREMELY physical. It’s not just “worrying.” It feels like I’m actively dying.

It usually starts with a sensation in my body, chest tightness, dizziness, weird heartbeat sensations, pressure, feeling off, feeling faint, throat tightness, adrenaline rushes, etc. Then my brain immediately spirals into: “This is it. Something is seriously wrong. I’m having a heart attack, collapsing, dying.”

Then my body fully takes over:
My chest races or pound
I feel weak/light-bodied and disconnected from myself
I feel like I need to grab onto something to walk
I feel like I could collapse at any second
I can’t think clearly
I feel trapped in panic physically and mentally
I become hyper-aware of every sensation in my body
I feel terrified I’m going to die

Then eventually it calms down…only for the cycle to restart again later.

When it’s severe, I become terrified to even leave the house because I’m terrified it’s going to happen in public. I get anxiety about going to work, the grocery store, restaurants, vacations, anywhere I can’t “escape” easily.

The worst part is I’m a mom, and I’m honestly terrified to even be alone with my kids sometimes because I’m terrified I’m going to drop dead in front of them or something catastrophic is going to happen to me physically. That thought alone sends me into another spiral.

This is VERY centered around health anxiety and fear of dying. My brain constantly convinces me every symptom is something life-threatening.

The frustrating part is I’ve already tried so much:
I’ve done therapy
I’ve been on medication before
I really don’t want to go back on medication again
I workout consistently
I eat very clean
I try to take care of myself

And yet this still keeps happening. I feel like my nervous system is completely stuck in fight-or-flight and I genuinely don’t know how to stop the cycle anymore.

I’m exhausted from constantly fearing my own body.
I guess I’m looking for people who truly had severe physical panic attacks/health anxiety like this and actually improved.

Did anyone recover after YEARS of this?
How did you stop fearing the physical sensations?
How did you stop the cycle of panic/symptom monitoring/more panic?
How did you regain trust in your body?
How did you function normally in public again?
If you didn’t use medication long-term, what actually helped?

Right now it feels impossible to imagine living normally without constantly feeling like I’m one symptom away from dying.

I am prescribed 2mg daily. I take it at night because that’s when my anxiety and panic are the worst. Recently I’ve been taking 3mg at night because I feel like 2mg isn’t giving me what I need. Is this a problem? Should I stop taking the 3mg?

I currently and unfortunately live in GA, US. This is the worst state rated to work in, healthcare, so many things. Its horrible. I'm not in Atlanta.

I've gone to 5+ doctors, multiple specialists, mental health referrals..I gave them my genesight, I've begged for help for hairless, weight gain, pcos/pmos symptoms, ocd, and panic disorder.

I've been gaslighted, infantized, ridiculed, stereotyped, judged, ignored, dismissed, and of course labeled as drug seeking. Why? Oh, because Lexapro, Sertraline, Buspirone, Effexor, and Prozac don't work for me? Wow!

I have zofran and fenegran, my pcp refused to give me beta blockers or any emergency use anti anxiety. She threatened to put me on an antipsychotic before an anti anxiety. I hate the stigma against anti anxiety medications and I want to lose my mind.

I owe thousands in medical appointment fees and co-pays, but no medication, no help. I can barely think or function, I wake up nauseous, I have cyclic vomiting and panic attacks constantly. I literally wake up with panic attacks. I have been saying for years I have CONSTANT anxiety that doesnt go away.

If they allowed assisted goodnight in the US, I would at this point. Since they refuse to give me even a few pills to just feel normal after suffering constantly. I just want to be able to sleep. Its 4am and I'm wide awake, melatonin, benadryl, and magnesium do not help me. I begged for sleep medicine also, she wouldnt do that.

Idk why they love SSRI/SNRI and Hydroxyzine so much, but I hope karma gets all these pigs back one day.

Is anyone else surrounded by people who don’t take their diagnosis seriously? I’m sixteen and my parents only cared when the attacks first started happening. Now they get annoyed with me whenever I have one. I often end up curled up on the floor sobbing and they either get annoyed or think it’s funny, or they just ignore me all together and step over me. My dad often starts nudging me in the back with his foot because he thinks the fact that I’m being “over dramatic and worrying over nothing” is funny. My older sister has also outright told me it’s annoying and that I “look so fucking stupid” when I have panic attacks.

(22M) I was diagnosed with panic disorder back in 2024 and was put on Zoloft to treat it and it worked. 7 months ago I took myself off the Zoloft because I thought I didn’t need it anymore and I don’t love medication. I recently had a bad reaction to weed and gave me a panic attack for the first time in a long time. Now I’ve had recent anxiety and small panic nothing major the past couple of days.

I went to my psych who’s a new doctor not the one who originally prescribed me and he told me to go back on the Zoloft. Ive struggled with GAD and OCD as well and now have completely convinced myself the Zoloft is bad for me and is going to make the panic so much worse.

Looking for some words of encouragement to go back on the medication. Luckily this doctor gave me a prescription for Xanax which knowing that it’s there has curbed the panic attacks. Just down on myself is all.

After my first panic attack I spent months terrified of having another one.

I found an article that talked about the body getting stuck in fight or flight mode. It did not fix everything but it helped me understand why I felt the way I did.

Might be worth a read if you have time.

I've never dealt with panic attacks until 2020. Got on meds, proceeded till I got pregnant. Dealt with postpartum panic attacks, tried a bunch of meds. Went off meds for a while; major medication sensitivity. Lots of labs and doctors.

This past month, I had the worst set of panic attacks in my life. I've been struggling with my health anxiety, life, divorce, single parenting, etc. I was hit my a category 5 panic attack wave. It wouldn't let up. I was disoriented to the max, tremors, nauseous, incabale of taking care of myself, couldn't sleep, hijacked by my brain, doom and gloom nonstop. Had someone bring me to the hospital by day 4. Took over a week for meds to even begin to sort of touch it. It brought me down to a place of massive distrust and unsure if I can take care of myself. I swore up and down, something was wrong with me. What was this? What did I do wrong.

Psychiatrists in the ward and outpatient have been minimally supportive and helpful. I see a private one tomorrow. I'm very sensitive to meds. That's my issue in the past. But Jesus Christ. How did I get knocked off my feet so quickly. For such a long time.

Has anyone experienced this? What helped you?

About 6 years ago I used to do molly every few months. A few days after the last time I did molly I got a huge brain zap which turned into DPDR for a few weeks(didn’t feel real and didn’t recognize my surroundings) and ever since then I’ve dealt with a panic disorder that has recently turned into agoraphobia. My doctors have suggested SSRIs after trying everything else to heal in the past 6 years. Has anyone has any success with SSRIs after the same/similar situation?

I'm 9 months postpartum with my first baby (a son, born in August). In December, I lost my mom to cancer. I weaned in February. And since February, I've been dealing with a brutal resurgence of panic disorder that had been mostly at bay for years.

I know the combo of post-wean hormones + grief + already having health anxiety as a trigger is basically a perfect storm. But knowing that doesn't make it easier when it's happening.

The panic attacks have been more intense than anything I remember. I had one today that lasted 90 minutes and even though I've had panic attacks for years, I genuinely wasn't sure it was one. I was begging my husband to call 911. He held me off because my vitals were normal, and eventually it passed. But in the moment I was completely convinced something was actually wrong.

What's been throwing me lately is that the attacks seem to get triggered by these random waves of EXTREME fatigue. Out of nowhere I'll feel so physically awful that my brain spirals into "something is really wrong with me" and the panic takes over. I don't know if the fatigue is hormonal, grief-related, postpartum thyroid stuff, or just my nervous system being fried - but the pattern seems consistent.

is anyone else navigating postpartum + grief at the same time? Or postpartum + a panic disorder flare? Especially the fatigue to panic loop?

I just feel really alone in this specific combination right now and would love to hear from anyone who's been there.

So as the title implies, I used THC and now 2 days later I'm still having some pretty bad anxiety, panic, and dissociation/depersonalization, feels like im losing it.

For some back story, i smoked a lot in my teens until I had a fucking awful experience one time, im talking panic, shaking uncontrollably, vomiting, hallucinating, the whole nine yards for a bad weed experience from medicinal strength shit. Every time after that, every experience I had with THC was VERY NEGATIVE. So I gave it up and i ended up developing generalized anxiety disorder and panic disorder at 21, a little over 10 years ago.

So here I am in my 30s, Ive been on max dose of celexa and buspar for the past 10 years and it honestly saved me when it came to my GAD and panic disorder, no longer waking up 5x a night to panic attacks and being unable to leave my house without panic, i could live normally again. But ive now decided to try and get off of the Celexa due to liver issues (rare I know, but its all we could attribute it to as I havent had any alcohol in over 10 years). Its been going decently well as my taper has been very slow and, I'll admit, i started taking CBD to help with my SSRI withdrawal anxiety, it honestly really helped me.

That was all fine until 2 days ago when I suddenly got cocky at the dispensary. I figured I could probably handle some THC. I got a soda that had TWO, yes you read that right, only 2mgs of THC in it, such a tiny amount I figured there was no way itd go bad. It honestly hit me harder than I expected and i had to fight off a bit of anxiety here and there while under its effects but generally it was an overall decent experience, atleast it wasnt hellish like in the past. HOWEVER, as it was wearing off i started to feel anxiety creeping up and by the time it was all worn off I was in full blown panic. Now 2 days later Im still dealing with panic attacks, anxiety, and feeling disconnected. It feels mirrored to when I first developed panic disorder at 21. I have no idea why this happened and my anxious brain is doing the same thing it always does when i feel this way and it's telling me "you fucked up, youre going to feel this way forever now, youll never escape it and youre gonna lose your mind" despite it always getting better in the past. Ive had thoughts like that everytime my panic gets bad too, so this is far from new, but once again my brain is saying "no, *this time's different*, this time is forever". It's probably a mix of anxiety from the THC and from the withdrawal from the prescription meds, but im in a real bad place.

Basically, has anyone else had this feeling after THC? Did it go away? Nomatter how much i tell myself, it helps when others who have experienced similar things tell me that it isnt forever, this will pass as it always has. Would yall recommend even fully stopping the CBD too just to completely detox? Looking for people who can maybe relate.

to those who mightn’t know, flooding means deliberately doing a big, sudden exposure with no escape. i ask this because, as someone who has been suffering from panic disorder and agoraphobia for the past five years, i plan to fly to my brother’s place in another city.

i’ve been a filmmaker since 2010, and i stopped working since i developed agoraphobia. besides white-knuckling through small exposures like grocery runs, i’ve mostly been housebound. some people i used to work with recently went to the Cannes film festival, and it sorta triggered this decision to try and reclaim my life.

since there’s no way of doing slow, graded exposure for flying (i’ve already tried visualizing myself in every part of the trip, and watched videos of airplane and airport scenes), the only thing i can do is to actually do it.

to people on here who have tried a very big, sudden exposure without practice, how did it go?

I’ve had panic disorder since 2023, around the time where I first quit binge drinking. I don’t drink as much anymore like alcoholism, I have a couple drinks every so often maybe on a day where I don’t work the couple days. During my panic attacks, I get intrusive thoughts and I don’t know what causes them but it fucking scares me so badly. I’m on sertraline 150 mg, I don’t know if I should switch medications or if I have a different diagnosis. I am currently in my car bawling my eyes out because I’m in a panic and I don’t know why, these thoughts are fucking terrifying. I just quit nicotine pouches today. I don’t know if that could contribute to any of this, but I’m so lost. I can’t keep feeling like this. 💔💔

I have a cold rn and for some reason I keep having panic attacks. I feel like I can’t get a full breath and my hands feel tingly and numb. But idk if I’m experiencing the panic because I have low oxygen or if all of it is just anxiety based. I’m trying to stay calm but it’s like im not in control