What is wrong with me..

This is a great thread. My nurses are yelling at me to get back to my patients, but I'm going to throw my 2 cents in.

Ryan- I agree completely that you are experiencing panic attacks occur as result of your how your mind interprets the physical effects of stress and/or anxiety. It is common in young adults.

I am 42 years old and experienced exactly the same symptoms as you when I was 20. Medicines are very effective but I prefer physical exercise as a first line choice to help reduce the physical effects of stress. I think TJ was suggesting this. I'd recommend some type of aerobic activity like running, basketball, cycling etc at least 3 or 4 times /week. I know that exercise alone and the knowledge that this was a common disorder extinguished the occurence in me a that stressful time. If that is not sufficient then by all means go see your doctor. You are already well on your way to feeling less anxious now that you know what you are experiencing is not uncommon.

Good luck bro- you're not alone.

Great thread, good for you coming out and doing this for yourself Ryan, and great quick responses. Now, Im not a doctor or anything, and your doctor will tell you much more about this and tell you what to do. But Im in Human Anatomy and to me it sounds like you have a hormoneal imbalance. This happens a lot in young people around you and my ages, this is because of puberity and the body trying to react to the amount of changes. The fact that you are having panic attacks and having trouble sleeping tell me right off the back its hormones.

Now, like I said Im not a doctor but the trouble of sleeping could be a hormone called melatonin which is a hormone that pretty much controls your sleep-wake cycle. I don't know how your normal day is so I really can't comment on if you have too much or too little of this hormone. All I know is that the hormone is turned on by the presence/amount of light you get.

As for the panic attacks, it sounds like your body is trying to cope with a prolonged stress. Are you stressful? Maybe something traumatic has happened recently in your life and your body is trying cope with it in other words defend itself. This hormone is called glucocorticoids. The symptoms that this hormone has been activated are slow metabolism, weight gain, increased blood pressure, and suppression of the immune system- meaning you get sick a lot more.

If you don't have those symptoms you could have a problem with the hormone called norepinephrine. This slows the heart rate, increases blood flow, and slows breating. This hormone is controled by your nervous system.

(The last two hormones I just talked about all come from the same place which is the adrenal gland, which also controls the amount of adrenaline you have. Really I think the adrenal gland is the area your symptoms point to the most.)

If I were you I would maybe take a jog everyday just to get outside and stay active, maybe that would help.

Thats my spill on that, Im glad you will be seeing a doctor soon, do what he says. And he hopefully will know what do. As for us we hope soon you will be back giving us good news on your situation. Stay strong...

Ryan, I had anxiety attacks in the worst way for a many of the years in my 20's. At the time I thought I was going to die with each attack. Weird social situations often triggered them. Went away around the time I reached 30. Just realizing that you're not gonna die no matter how aweful it got was a start. Great recommendations from the folks here.
I know there are online support groups for this - might wanna check them out..

See thats what gets me through them. I say to myself... Why am I worrying. This has happened to me so many times and nothing ever happens. The more I worry the more it happens. I have the appointment with my doctor this week so everything is going to be fine now. Thanks to everyone who helped.

WOW.

http://www.adaa.org/Public/inmyownwords/RickyWilliams.htm

Holy crap. Everything Ricky said in that interview is almost exactly what I have to go through.

Articles like that can be good for you. Realizing other people have the same problems & get helped with them,can give you a sense that there's light at the end of the tunnel.

Reading & researching too much into your condition can sometimes do more harm than good as well. Not everything you read/find will have come from medical professionals.You can also convince yourself that have a condition that you've read about that you don't necessarily have. Just be careful that's all I'm saying.

With that in mind here's another link good you might relate to.Just don't get bogged down with reading more than the symptoms.

Feeling detached,almost like it's happening to someone else?

On the flip side, reading stuff like that can also be bad for you. You read about something and think 'Hey, that's me.'

It's like that with the DSM, you open it to a disorder and read the symptoms and you're thinking 'oh crap, I have Dissociative Identity Disorder'.

Like others have said, best thing to do is go to a doctor rather than self diagnose and stress about it when it could be nothing of the sort.

Just don't turn to drugs dude, that stuff will make you think you are okay only for a moment because it opens your blood veins- but it also will slow down your body and that can bring down hallucinations in your situation...

By the way there is much more cases of this than many people think, its just that so many don't talk about it. I know someone who told me about someting like this and he said he went to the doctor and he said that he felt a relief and load off of his shoulders just because he knew there was a name to his condition, that it was treatable, and there are others going through the same thing...

Why does this happen. I will be tired and lay down to go to bed then just out of no where I will wake up and everything around me will feel funny.. like my body goes numb and I start to breathe wrong...

Now im just so tired and nervous that its making me feel sick. If I just lay there and close my eyes and stop thinking about it will i sleep? lol