Hi Donna,
First kudos to you for not avoiding situations, and continuing to go and do things. Second, we let one symptom escalate to others. It is snowballing, called the "domino" effect. Hyperventaling will lead to dizziness, so just that one symptom will trigger others. We need to educate to recognize the first and try to nip it in the bud, to stop or at least reduce the number of other symptoms that follow. You have done right by getting physically checked out, that once you are reassured that nothing was physically wrong with your heart, no neurological problems, those symptoms disappeared. We can let one feeling become a symptom of panic by our thoughts easily, when in fact it isnt. For example, before we had panic attacks, we had from time to time, symptoms like this and never gave it another thought, once we had our attacks, we feed off of everything that we feel. Just before I replied to your post, I was weedeating my yard, my hands, and arms were shaking, but I knew it was trembling from attacks, or didnt let if feed into it. Because I realized I had been holding a 5 pound weedeater for sometime, hands tightly gripped around the handle, well this would happen to anyone. Just as holding a 7 pound baby for awhile is going to cause your arms to cramp. Our behavior thinking must be educated and practiced, easier said than done, but you have to think of times before you ever had attacks, did your arm ever fall asleep? We dismissed it, knew to shake our arms, to get the circulation flowing again. Now with panic attacks, we can easily let this thought mushroom to this thinking " Oh no, my arm is tingling, am I having a stroke". Education of symptoms, and noting what you were feeling or doing before the first symptom hits, helps us identify if its anxiety. Keep the faith!!
Trish
