Red, I am extremely pleased that you found my post intersting, but if I were to give you one piece of advice is to stay away from my observations. I am not putting myself down by saying this but I am the type of person who has to have a reason for everything, trying to find a reason put me in the position that I am in now. I believe that I goggled myself into an illness as my attack started from labyrinthitis and from there I found a medical explanation for everything that was happening to me that no doctor could test for or say no I was wrong. However, my journey is not a waste even if I have to give up trying to find explanations for everything. I have found a lot out about myself in the last two years then 40 years of my life. I refer to the philosopher Socrates’, when asked by one of his student do you know yourself, he answer I know a little more about not knowing. I think he may have been saying that there are some things to accept and move on.

I have another question for anyone if working out is supposed to simulate an attack, does that mean every symptom on the daily symptom tracker can occur. For example after I work out my body tenses up then ay night I get tingling in my body, I asked the doctor about the tingling he said he cannot answer the question. If I get tingling from working and it lasts all night, and I know I am not having an attack. If you get tingling from working out that lasts a long time can the same be true for a panic attack. When I read symptoms of a panic attack they seem to me that are saying that during the attack all these symptoms can happen. Such as pounding heart shortness of breathe which in me go away very quickly, but I have a long after affect from an attack or working out such as tingling in my body.

I noticed Red that you say after a startle you have a long adrenaline period, am I to infer that you are keyed up or tense for a long time after an attack. Are you experiencing at least one of the symptoms of a panic attack stay with you for a while during your cooling down period.

Dizzy

I was reading the doctors explanation for being in a hyper-arousal state for changing body sensation that cause an attack. In the toolbox, they mention thing like being out on a hot day and then going into a grocery store and noticing your heart may be beating due to the heat. This makes sense to me. I also read that Davit trigger was a cramp in his leg. Most of my attacks are in bed and I have been wondering for a while that when I identify a symptom as an attack this is the genesis of an attack. In other words I turn over and all of a sudden my heart starts pounding I have waited for a while to see if my heart will stop (perhaps this is part of the  problem), my hyperactive attention to see if my heart pounding will stop. Then as I wait for it to stop, I start getting additional symptoms usually dizziness or unreality this is probably when I say in my mind this is an attack. I have been thinking that as soon as I identify the symptoms as an attack that I have a panic attack. The only thing I cannot answer, using the doctors corner is what could be the cause of heart pounding when in bed. I am not in the heat of the sun as the toolbox says, the only thing I can think of as that when I wake up you are in a parasympathetic state. You have a  lower blood pressure lower heart rate, and perhaps when I turn in bed and switching to a more awake state my body  shifts from a parasympathetic to a normal heart rate.

Is there a logical explanation for heart pounding when in bed other than the one I put above. Perhaps the people with some success with attacks could tell me that they experience every sensation that is in the panic attack symptom Diary, without having an attack. I have identified that I am always dizzy and do not look for this sensation any more unless it is coupled with other ones. Perhaps the teachers could answer the question is it possible to have every symptom in the panic checker Diary and there being another reason for it. I am specifically identifying symptoms in the panic diary meaning a mono symptom. I guess what I am asking does a (normal) person experience unreality as a mono symptom without an attack.

I get all the symptoms that I usually identify as an attack when I work out but in this case, I can see the reason for an increased heart rate. When I look up an anxiety state I do not find an increase in heart rate, I thought perhaps this might be an explanation for it. Perhaps the whole answer is to stop trying to find explication for every symptom and just accept that this is I right now (which am what I have done about the dizziness).

In my support group, the author says that the identification of the source of a scare immediately stops it from becoming an attack. Such as a loud noise outside, you may be thinking that it is your partner in an accident. Then when you look and see what the noise was, it is a bunch of kids fooling around. The panic attack is immediately  terminated because there is an indefinable reason for the noise that does not fit the anxiety of your partner being in an accident.

I believe that this is what we are looking for when we have symptoms an identifiable reason for it. If I have done all the CBT I can do and ten question to prove that my heart does not pound every time I turn in bed and even some time I get out of bed without an attack. The only thing that I am left with is that the symptoms I am having are turned into an attack because I identify them as the start of one.

Dizzy