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the spanglemaker asked:


Hi all, just a bit mystified and wondered if anyone out there had any similar experiences and a speculative diagnosis. Sorry for the wordiness but I’d like a considered answer so I’ll give a considered description!!

First, a bit of history which may or may not be related…

I am a 23 year old female, somewhat underweight, blood sugar levels usually fine, and I have a history of anxiety managed normally by anti depressants and occasional anti-anxiety meds. I’m a smoker. In the last couple of years my panic attacks have been strangely based on finding it difficult to breathe, which I then labelled as a psychosomatic symptom of my anxiety. However recently several doctors have diagnosed me with asthma. It is hard for me to dilineate between what is an asthma attack, a panic attack and if I even have asthma at all. I still have some issues when on meds to do with breathing, which makes asthma seem likely. Plus I really should stop smoking, yes.

It has now been about a month since I have taken any of my medication and I’ve already weathered the SSRI withdrawals… anyway, it’s been at least six months since I’ve taken the SSRIs regularly and haven’t taken any other anxiety meds for longer. The other night I was riding in a taxi when I felt my heartrate pick up and my hands start to become sweaty. I had taken some ventolin a while beforehand, which sometimes causes these symptoms. I waited for it to pass and it only increased. I didn’t seem to be having any trouble breathing and it came out of the blue. I started focussing on my breathing and my chest felt relatively clear and just slightly tight. My hands were now completely engulfed in pins and needles and my thumbs on both hands spasmed suddenly against the rest of my fingers. This was pretty scary but I was trying to ride it out, noting I could prise my hands apart with mental will but on their own, without concentration, they immediately went back into spasm. Then my feet started to sweat as well, and became slightly tingly. They reached a brief point where I thought “I will fall over if I have to stand up” but this passed quickly and subsided to a vague tingle. Occasionally my legs started to feel tingly behind the backs of my knees too, and there was a slightly odd muscular sensation like the faintest of spasms. All these other areas of my body stayed pretty OK and just faintly effected but my hands remained locked, sweaty, freezing and tingly. I may have been beginning to hyperventilate by now, getting a bit panicked. I was starting to feel dizzy and I couldn’t focus on the road ahead, and I also couldn’t tell if this had started before or after the hyperventilating. I almost warned the cab driver I was about to faint, because it felt exactly like pre-fainting dizziness. Instead I called my friend with great difficulty (trying to make my hands cooperate) to distract myself but the mental distraction did nothing to lessen the hand issue, or the dizziness. Throughout the conversation I controlled my breathing better but the dizziness kept coming in waves and made me feel very detached and odd.
My hands were getting worse. Now they had no dexterity, they shook (more slowly and obviously than normal tremors) and were still completely tingly. When I had to give money to the cab driver, I literally had to sort of manipulate the money between my thumb and the side of my forefinger against which my thumb was stuck, awkwardly. I couldn’t really handle notes and change and despite my best mental efforts to look normal for the cab driver (this sort of effort usually brings me out of panic attacks), I had no choice but to completely fumble my change with my now near-paralysed hands.
I got out of the cab OK physically aside from the hands, but I was feeling pretty panicky now because I’d never had anything like this. My legs felt a bit weak but carried me. The dizziness was quite intense still but manageable. It took about ten minutes before my hands started to return to normal. I suddenly felt very hungry but then immediately ill when I thought of food, and I returned to normal without any sugar or food of any sort. Slowly the sweats and racing heart subsided. Three days later I was walking when my legs were overcome with weakness in a similarly sudden unprovoked fashion, no tingles but it took some time before they felt normal and for a few minutes it was a serious effort to move them and stay upright.

All very odd. Sorry about the length but googling has returned no good results….just curious and a little worried :-/

Thanks for putting up with that

Cheryll