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Panic attacks

Rjat

Hi all,

I was diagnosed with ASD and ADHD last year in my 30s after having a mental breakdown. I have had ongoing struggles as long as I can remember and I had hope that I was traumatised and I could overcome this with discipline and constant personal development. Other people couldn’t see it and never understood what I meant when I said I was struggling. 

I was going through a career change and went from coping relatively well to having regular panic attacks. This left me in a fixed state of anxiety for a while and my usual coping strategies at the time stopped working. I stopped interacting with people and lost my spark for a while and was physically ill from the stress and worry. I’ve been rebuilding and have good days and bad days but doing much better currently. I was wondering has anyone else been through something similar and if so, what helped?

any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Parents

  • I’ve definitely had panic attacks yeah, they are traumatic on their own without anything else to come along and add salt into the wound. I would suggest long walks in the open air, just keep walking until you get bored or wish to head home, key is to occupy yourself with more than the same four walls because this can make you feel stale, groggy and without hope. At least if you are moving and the scenery keeps changing with any luck you’ll feel a bit more in control. 

  • in reply to Autismman

    Thank you. It’s good advice and something I know works. I worked as a postman briefly after this happened and it got me moving in the right direction again doing 28000 steps a day and exhausted me to the point I slept well. However, it wasn’t a long term solution in terms of job but a lesson to be learnt there. Thank you for the advice, it’s greatly appreciated! 

Reply
  • in reply to Autismman

    Thank you. It’s good advice and something I know works. I worked as a postman briefly after this happened and it got me moving in the right direction again doing 28000 steps a day and exhausted me to the point I slept well. However, it wasn’t a long term solution in terms of job but a lesson to be learnt there. Thank you for the advice, it’s greatly appreciated! 

Children
  • in reply to Autismman

    I know what you mean. Seeing other people maintaining active social lives, whilst I don’t really feel like I fit in majority of the time and feeling like you’re observing your own life drifting by..

    I’ve been there with stress not allowing you to sleep! I’ve had a lot of nights walking around my flat at 3am worrying about the day ahead, unable to sleep. Ironically when the alarm goes off you feel like you could actually sleep!

    It is comforting to know there are other people experiencing the same thing. Since getting the diagnosis I have realised that a lot of the people I connect with are probably autistic as well and they are mostly creative, intelligent people who are struggling on the most part. I am maybe delusional but I have started engaging with other like minded people close to me in the hope that if we support each other our chances of success/survival increase significantly. 

  • in reply to Rjat

    For me I think it’s the derealisation that intensifies the fear, I can be looking at others as they carry on their lives as normal while I’ve been sent to another dimension, just like a spirit in the afterlife watching the living and not being able to reconnect with the reality I see around me. The physical symptoms never concerned me it was always the psychological ones which made the biggest impact on my mental health. The first major panics I had stopped me sleeping, I would walk around in a daze in a constant state of fear and dread. 

  • in reply to Autismman

    100%. I think that’s the worst part,I worry about situations incase it happens again but before all of this I would feel uncomfortable at times but I’d do stuff anyway and deal with it. I’m lucky to have good support around me though and a wife who understands but it’s really nice to connect with other people who have faced similar struggles

  • in reply to Rjat

    No worries, panic attacks are in a league of their own when it comes to mental health. They certainly did a number on me, wouldn’t wish them on my worst enemy. Only thing is they teach you to fear….fear which creates further problems with how you perceive situations current and future.