Published on 12, July, 2020
I've always thought that I suffered from panic attacks. Usually in a stressful situation that I can't leave, like a form of claustrophobia.
But recently, when confronting my issues with this response I've started using earplugs in very busy places, and putting them in or taking them out feels almost like a switch to turn the panic on & off.
So, is this a meltdown I am describing, or in fact a panic attack? Do they seem the same to you? Can you differentiate between the two?
Meltdown, shutdown, panic attack. I admit that I don't know the difference. But I used to suffer from something similar for many years.
My problem was trying to walk into pubs, clubs, canteens (school, college and work). People are talking, eating, drinking. And when I try to walk in my legs freeze and feel actual pain, my head gets this weird feeling like my brain contracts to a tiny point inside my head, sometimes chest tightness and pain and I can't move forward, when I try to force my self forward I start to get a blackout and lose consciousness. When I retreat backward the symptoms ease. I don't know what the medical term for this is.
Later people accuse me of being anti social, a snob, thinking that I'm too good to sit with them etc.
Robert124 said:Meltdown, shutdown, panic attack. I admit that I don't know the difference. But I used to suffer from something similar for many years. My problem was trying to walk into pubs, clubs, canteens (school, college and work). People are talking, eating, drinking. And when I try to walk in my legs freeze and feel actual pain, my head gets this weird feeling like my brain contracts to a tiny point inside my head, sometimes chest tightness and pain and I can't move forward, when I try to force my self forward I start to get a blackout and lose consciousness. When I retreat backward the symptoms ease. I don't know what the medical term for this is.
What you have described here are anxiety or panic induced shut-downs when losing consciousness, or lock-ins when freezing, with the freeze reflex being another aspect involved with the fight or flight reflexes that ordinarily get triggered in order to survive life threatening scenarios, so in your case it seems as such that you were experiencing lock-ins and shut-downs as a result of a 'Social Anxiety Disorder'.