I created this website as an altruistic effort to help those living in the living hell I once experienced. An inner living hell that no one really understands unless you have lived it yourself. A hell so pervasive and unrelenting, that the patient needs all of their own strength to fight, survive, and hide a merciless fear with all of the excruciating bodily responses ( heart palpitations, hyperventilation, numbness, anxiety, irrationality, and more), while seemingly living a normal existence around their family and friends. Sure, you have panic attacks in front of your family and friends, and exhibit fight or flight responses when they happen, but that is the apex of the drama. They don't see the frustration, fear, helplessness, dysfunctionality, discouragement, and more that takes over your life. Your mission becomes one from living your life, to one of trying to solve this vexing problem through medical advice, medications, and personal research.
Surprisingly, it might be your personal research that trumps everything to find a solution. Incredibly, the healthcare system that we all depend on, doesn't seem to have a married sleep apnea and panic attacks as a possible link. It's 2020 and I solved my problem 15 years ago...
Like you, I have suffered for years and years with a plethora of alternative therapies to try and alleviate or cure my panic attacks. I have been down the road of Beta Blockers, Antidepressants (benzodiazapenes, SSRIs, Tricyclics (never tried MAOis)), and natural solutions like adding tryptophan, and magnesium to the diet. I've tried relaxation techniques, acupuncture, massage, and more – anything to help or solve the problem. I've tried the psychological side - "behavioral" therapy, and ironically "breathing techniques". All for naught!
There was no relief until I arrived unexpectedly at the solution. A solution that was accidental in intent, but highly obvious in probability if anyone would've just taken the time and effort to look.
You are here because you a suffering or know someone suffering from panic disorder. With that in mind, I know you are looking for the solution. Click here to get it. If you are interested in my information based on my own experience, and how a layman arrives at this conclusion, read on.
I was nineteen years of age having the time of my life when it started. I was in New York City partying for over a weekend with a group of my high school friends. Finally I was in college, and experiencing the freedom that I had craved for as a budding adolescent. We were up late every night – to at least 4 AM, having a blast. Nothing was apparent to indicate that I was about to experience a dramatic life changing event.
At the time, I was in school in Texas, so when Sunday Afternoon arrived, I was at LaGuardia Airport boarding my flight back to Texas. My girlfriend and I were flying a circuitous route on Piedmont Airlines to get back: Norfolk, then Fayetteville, to Charlotte. Then Charlotte to Dallas. We were on a college budget so more stops meant a cheaper fare, just what we wanted. It was a windy but nice day in New York City, and as we took off, I was seated by a left side window near the back of the plane.
I has been feeling like crap because of all the bad behavior that had taken place over the weekend. Alcohol was all that was consumed, but in large quantities over a lengthy time. There was no question I was majorly hung over, but at the time that is all I attributed it to be.
As we took off from LaGuardia, and hit some mild turbulence in our climb, my crappy hangover began to morph into something far more onerous. I had this foreboding feeling that something terrible was about to happen, and it began to get worse and worse as we were banging around in the plane. This foreboding took on a life of its own as my heart started racing, and I began sweating profusely in my palms. I felt terrified, and I suppose claustrophobic! I had to get off that plane. Just get me off that plane! Something terrible is about to happen!
I got off that plane in Norfolk. I didn't get on another plane for years...
It took me about a week to get back to Texas. I took an Amtrak from Norfolk to Atlanta, and switched in Atlanta to get to New Orleans, where I rented a car to get back to Dallas.
Little did I know this was the beginning of years of hell to come.
College continued and I started developing more panic symptoms. Random heart palpitations, numbness, trouble breathing in a normal fashion. It was becoming worrisome. Soon these smaller symptoms began to exhibit a momentum all of their own. Depending on my state of mind at the time, these things could start to become full on panic attacks. A cyclical process, where something innocuous as a heart palpitation or adrenaline rush could turn into a full fledge panic attack. And like my experience on the plane, a person associates their environment around a panic attack as part of the fear response (fight or flight). For me, vestibular experiences might bring on an attack. Flying, in a car, or in an elevator might trigger an attack. Even going over a bridge made me feel somewhat uncomfortable.
This continued for years. I wound up in emergency rooms countless times, convinced that something was wrong. I was suffering attacks every day, sometimes up to 25 times a day...
It is not like I didn't seek medical help. I had wound up in my local hospital's emergency room countless times during my sophomore year in college. Nobody had an answer for me. I was having a vasovagal, or simple hyperventilation. Just breathe in a bag to solve that the doctors would tell me. Finally, one day I went to a corporate meeting with my father in New York City. After the meeting, we went and had lunch at Flutie's restaurant downtown. The restaurant had a lot of windows and for some reason my vision was really messing with me. I was seeing "floaters" in my vision; lots of them, and I felt like crap. I got through the meal, and got into a cab with my Dad to go uptown. That is went it hit – I had a massive panic attack that put me on the floor of the cab! I begged my Dad to take me to the hospital – we wound up at New York Hospital on 68th Street. It was there that I was finally diagnosed with "panic disorder."
Through the rest of my college career and even some of my professional career, I experimented with different medications to treat my panic disorder. All failed. Either the panic attacks were not subdued, or there were side effects from the medications that made me quit. Regardless of the reason, my panic attacks and subsidiary malaise continued unabated into my early 30s.
Then serendipity.
I had been having trouble sleeping and felt crappy so I went in to my local doctor to have a physical. In my sleep I had had a couple of evenings where I actually jumped out of bed looking for a breath. Scared the hell out of me. When my blood work returned, my GP said my liver enzymes were elevated, and that I should go to Duke to see the doctors there. When I got to Duke they seemed relatively unimpressed with my circumstance, and I came and went without much further concern. They did, however, mention something to me which was to forever change my life: and that was if I had ever had a sleep study?
TO ALL PANIC SUFFERS: I blew this off as ridiculous when I first thought about it. How could sleep affect and give me PANIC ATTACKS?! Quite simply, it isn't the sleep or lack of sleep that is giving you the panic attacks. It is the mechanism that your body undertakes to free yourself from suffocation (apnea) as you sleep. This is what is creating the problem!
Panic Disorder is defined as "a psychiatric disorder in which debilitating anxiety and fear arise frequently and without reasonable cause."
Sleep Apnea is defined as "a disorder in which your breathing repeatedly stops and starts during sleep."
What could be bring these two entirely different diagnosis together?
If you put some thought into this, it is entirely reasonable to think that stress has something to do with panic attacks. After all, panic attacks originate in the locus coeruleus, part of the brain stem. That is undisputed.
If you think about what happens to a person with sleep apnea, they are experiencing stress while sleeping or unconscious. Their body is supposed to be in a relaxed state of sleep, but paradoxically they are experiencing a "fight or flight" response due to the smothering and lack of oxygen from obstructive sleep apnea. Your body needs to breathe and your adrenaline surges so you move in order and until you restore breathing.
Imagine drowning while unconscious. Your body takes great involuntary means to get a breath if you are drowning in water. This same thing is happening while you sleep. The parasympathetic (automated) nervous system is telling the sympathetic nervous system to move because you are in mortal danger. In this case you are in mortal danger because you can't breathe.
And this is happening countless times every night as you sleep.
A person experiencing sleep apnea and panic disorder has the following:
So what I am hypothesizing is that the high frequency of activating the fight or flight system during sleep (sleep apnea) is creating the panic disorder you are experiencing while you are awake.
A major contrarian response is happening in your brain while you sleep. Your sleep is supposed to be the most relaxed state of being for your body. It is a time when your body's functions are at a minimum, yet with sleep apnea, your fight or flight system is going off during this period of time. Going off at a high frequency, every night! Relaxed, yet panicked! It is like trying to sleep with the stereo on at full blast! Not a natural state of being.
The relative frequency of this phenomenon I think is of great concern as well, for you are "practicing' this every time you go to sleep! Just as a musician practices their instrument to reinforce and grow the neural pathway, sleep apnea is "practicing" the flight or fight response again and again every time you go to sleep. What would naturally happen over time? Your body develops a propensity to activate the fight or flight mechanism. Doesn't that make sense? If you practice something again and again over time, you get good at it. Your body is learning to get good at activating the fight of flight mechanism! Add to this that this "learning" is taking place when you are asleep, when you are in your "lowest stress state", and it is of no wonder to me that people have panic attacks during the day when baseline stress is significantly higher!
Go get a sleep study! Now! Just ask your doctor. I might've solved my issue years in advance had I just taken this advice.
If you do get diagnosed with sleep apnea, don't expect everything to clear up overnight. For me, it took about two weeks before I started realizing an effect.
Do not get discouraged about wearing the mask. It will take some time for you to get use to wearing it and using it every night. I know it sucks, but in a couple of weeks you will really appreciate it and in a month or more it will seem like old hat. Lying on your side is the optimal position.
I highly recommend wearing the full face mask to cover both the nose and the mouth. If you have a severe enough blockage, you will need full pressure to open it. A nose mask won't be enough, as the pressure can redirect and escape through your mouth.
Finally, take this seriously and be diligent about the use of your sleep apnea machine (CPAP). Ask your spouse – one night is all it takes to start the process happening again. One night of disturbed sleep. If you had panic disorder, you'll never want it again, so be true to yourself and use the machine every night.
Since I started using my CPAP machine every night, I no longer take or need anything else to stop my panic attacks. I just don't get them anymore. Good luck and God speed that this is the solution for you!
WARNING! I am not doctor and do not represent any medical authority whatsoever. This is only presented as anecdotal experience. Your experience may be different. Consult your doctor.