Panic Attack

[Haulin]

Hello hello bluelighters. I've been a lurker here reading various post that I found through google and such, and as this is my first post, I really want to thank you wonderful people for all the information you put out. It's great, and I'm sure it's saved way more than a few lives.

But, on to the topic of this post. Recently after coming home after I party, I believe that I had a panic attack. I had been reading for a probably about 30 minutes in a chair, and I wasn't anxious/worried/panicked about anything (which is what I find strange about this). Suddenly I noticed my heart rate pick up, and my heart started beating so hard that it made my chest hurt. I was also feeling like I was getting ready to pass out-kind of like the feeling of donating blood and then standing up too quickly and everything getting really fuzzy. I had some sort of idea that I needed more oxygen so I started hyperventilating to accomplish this but it seemed to make things worse (maybe it was hard tell). I switched back and forth between hyperventilating and breathing into a bandanna, as I couldn't really decide if I wasn't getting enough oxygen, or too much of it. All the while my heart was speeding up, I was getting dizzier and dizzier, and I felt hot and cold at the same time, accompanied lots of sweating and a growing feeling of weakness and muscle tremors/spasms. My mind jumped to a heart attack at first but I realized that didn't make any sense at all, and then I thought maybe it was a panic attack. Eventually I mustered the energy to pull a blanket and a pillow off my bed (it's lofted) and layed down on the floor and tried to slow my breathing and heart rate. It tapered off and eventually I fell asleep in the floor.

My question is, do you think this was a panic attack? Also, I wasn't heavily under the influence of drugs. I had consumed 1 10mg ritalin (which I am prescribed 3 of a day), I had drank a jaegerbomb which contained two shots of jaeger and an entire can of red bull, and we smoked a blunt, a joint, and a couple of bowls at the party (and I have a fairly decent tolerance to cannabis) and lots of hookah (but as a regular cig smoker, I doubt the nicotine from the hookah had any effect on my body).

So it wasn't like I was messed up or anything, I just had a kind of sleepy buzz going. I'm not too terribly anxious of a person though I do have some social anxieties, but they are at a normal or slightly above normal level.

So if this was a panic attack, do you think it was the drugs I consumed? Or possibly just some random fluke in my mentality? I've never had one before by the way.

 

[The_Jesus]

yeah, you had a panic attack.
Amphetamines, caffeine, bud and alcohol all combined would have given me a panic attack as well.
Could have been the atmosphere, rate of drug consumption or just the bud.
Whenever I smoke weed in a party atmosphere I get pretty bad panic attacks, same happens to a lot of other people.

 

[NeighborhoodThreat]

Hey man, welcome to Bluelight!

From what you wrote in your post above, it does seem like you had a panic attack. I have panic disorder and my first attacks sound like mirror images of what you described. A lot of people say it's like a heart attack, intense fear, etc. My first attack I was completely sober (and I hadn't consumed any drugs in days before it), but others have been triggered by a combination of stress, lack of sleep and amphetamines. So I certainly think your Ritalin (methylphenidate) could have had something to do with it, but there may have been other factors.

The caffeine in the Red Bull may have done something as well, believe it or not, caffeine does a pretty good job of making people anxious and tense. Probably a bit better than amphetamine, if you ask me.

Short answer: It was most likely a panic attack, and it was probably a combination of the drugs (methylphenidate, caffeine and alcohol) that you consumed and other factors. For a lot of people, panic attacks just appear out of nowhere. Other times they have triggers.

Having one panic attack isn't something to be too worried about, but if you start to have them again and again its time to speak to a doctor. I ended up having anxiety about having another panic attack, which caused me to have another panic attack. My psychiatrist calls this "anticipatory anxiety".

Hope this helps, there are a lot of Bluelighters who have anxiety/panic issues, you're not the only one man! Hope to see you around here in the future.