panic attack at 17 days
Since I was a kid I've had anxiety issues and about 4 yrs ago started having full blown panic attacks quite often and was put on an SNRI with a prescription for xanax to use in emergencies. The anti-d worked well! I never had a problem with abusing the xanax and have only felt anxious enough to use it as prescribed once every couple of months. But it's been AGES (well over a year?) since I've had a full panic with hyperventilation, erratic heart palpitations, sense of imminent unidentifiable danger, numb arms and not being able to hold onto anything due to loss of hand control.
BAM- out of the blue- after a great night's sleep and while in a great mood- I had one today. Was simply terrified and wanted to hide in my house. I dug out the xanax and took one and was able to make it to work for my evening shift. The panic has passed and aside from the xanax making me a bit sleepy I feel okay-ish now except for what I can only describe as an adrenaline hangover.
When I was a binge drinker my cycle between dumbass drunken blowouts ranged from 7 to 14 days and now I'm wondering if I was subconsciously using alcohol to ward off an impending panic flare up without realizing it all that time. Food for thought! Anybody who can relate out there?
Otherwise doing OK with not drinking on day 17. While so thankful for SR I found that reading here every day was making me think more often about alcohol than I was when I was actively binging so I took a break and have been keeping busy doing non-drinky projects & chores and things like that. I had to reread my posts to see how many days it had been since my last episode. I must admit I was a bit disappointed to see it had only been 17 days but hey it's an improvement right?
Thanks for letting me ramble on.
Love, light, and strength to all!!