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I have had in the past several panic attacks (a dozen if I remember), had to call the ambulance, and end up in ER. They knew about my COPD... but systematically didn't understood the physiologically link there is between Panic attacks and COPD (doctors are so often stupid ones in that matter!).
One problem with COPD is that it causes shortness of breath. This dyspnea (shortness of breath) causes a fight or flight reaction that can result in anxiety and panic. Your brain is two steps ahead of… read more
Just be careful though, since Thanksgiving (and before) I’ve been suffering from anxiety and panic attacks.i see a therapist and I take medicine,and I’ve become almost agoraphobic. The reason I say be careful is because for probably at least 6 months if not more I thought I was suffering from just anxiety and panic attacks, I ended up in the emergency room with congestive heart failure and pulmonary hypertension. The symptoms are soooo similar!! If I wouldn’t have had a uti go septic, I probably wouldn’t have made it much longer according to the doctors. So please don’t be stubborn like I was tell the doctors your symptoms,and don’t say I think it’s just anxiety..I had been to 5 doctors and 3 telehealth visits from Oct.-Thanksgiving..they listened and didn’t check my lungs or heart or order any tests.💜💜
I had panic attacks really bad for 11 years almost every day. It got so I could barely walk out of my house and I couldn’t drive at all. A doctor started me on Citalopram quite a few years ago and it was almost magic. I occasionally have an anxiety feeling but I am able to control it and talk myself down. I still can’t drive on the freeway but I do get around town sometimes. I won’t let my new Dr. take me off of it.
Dismissive comments from medics about me being anxious or panicky bring out the 'sarcastic' in me.
I often respond with a question.
"Are you talking about the natural anxiety you or any one would experience if they can't breathe?
Or are you saying my anxiety has no basis in reality?
They usually don't have an answer or solution.
So, by trial and error I found a few strategies useful if I start them early enough.
* Pursed lip breathing/PEP Buddy device
* Vagus nerve stimulation (for example rubbing your ear lobe, stroking your forehead across the boney part of your eyebrows,
* humming
@A MyCOPDTeam Member,I'm so happy you finally were heard ,too bad it took 4 years of medical gaslighting but I was in the hospital quite a few years ago and after a week the dr.said he was discharging me and I didn't clue. into my high anxiety and he said that I will just have to find a way to breathe better but I felt so scared and lost and when I was around 20 years old I was diagnosed with agoraphobia and just got lost in the system and fell through but I finally found my biggest problem was addiction and I have been clean and sober for over 40 years now and I am grateful that my God stood by me and gave me courage because I feared everything and when I used drugs and then moved to only alcohol, I was numbed out and had false courage but I thank my lord ,but for the grace of God,go I!❤️
HI Dominique02.So very true what you said about panic attacks.I think,more often than not Doctors don't know what to do with a COPD patient with these issues.They haven't been there.How could they know?Very well said frank
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