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So this obviously isn't a health forum, but I wanted to talk about it... The other night I took 3 Diphenhydramine sleep aid (Benadryl) pills. I've taken them for years on & off. Unfortunately my body reacted differently then it ever has before. After about 2 hours my heart began racing, I had trouble breathing, vertigo & I thought I was seriously going to have a heart attack & pass out. I debated calling an ambulance for 5 hours straight... Turns out I had an overdose. Anticholinergic toxicity can kill...

The net few days I experienced dizziness & shallow breathing & I had the worst migraine of my entire life. I then started having panic attacks 2 nights ago. I almost called the ambulance again...

Today I still feel dizzy. No nausea, but I am telling myself that its all in my head.... My question to y'all is. Has anyone ever suffered from panic attacks? The kind that make you feel like you could possibly die due to trouble breathing & passing out? I am not doing well financially at the moment & would prefer to beat this without going to a doctor. If the dizziness continues I WILL go to a clinic, but form what I've read all Doctors can really do is prescribe you antidepressants & I dont want to get on them.... Thank you for anyones reply & opinion.....

 

Hey friend, sad to hear you're in bad shape. Get well soon and keep your chin up!
I'm no psychologist, but for me the most helpful thing against fear, sorrow, pain, aggression and all other useless moods is sport. I'm doing it 2 hours a day, at least.
I've also had panic attacks at night, I woke up soaked in sweat multiple times a night, followed by dizziness in the daytime. I'm completely set against pills etc., for me sport was the only medicine to help me find back on the right path.
I'm sure not every doctor will tell you this, they benefit from prescribing remedy, but just try doing sport. Strength training, cycling, jogging, ... there's so much you can do alone. Outdoor leisure, also hugely underrated. You should give it a try if not done yet.

 

My father told me I should exercise too. I think that is what I'm going to do. Thank you for the reply!!!

 

You're welcome! Good luck!

 

its easier said than done but the most effective way to deal with it is to realise you are going to be okay and dont make a big deal out of it - after ruling out of course any medical issues if you are worried your health is not something you can take your chances with - we all deal with shit life throws at us trust me you are never alone , your symptoms seems familiar though and lack of sleep is a major contributing factor from my experience , my best advice is to excercise if you can , and stay away from stimulants until you are feeling okay , try to maintain a good healthy easy on the stomach diet , ginger works wonders on nausea , and pick up a pen and paper and write everything you are thinking about if you have anyone to talk to it helps very much and good luck

 

Thank you for the replies fellas... I'm going to start light jogging again. I am out of shape but I think a 2 mile jog can reset some stagnant blood in my system. Also, I need to lay off the junk food. Sleep is always an issue w/me.. Thats why I took the Sleep Aid crap to begin with. But if I'm active I naturally should be able to get sleep at night... This is all really weird to me though. I've never had a true panic attack.

 

Even if Diphenhydramine is NOT a product against insomnia it is (too) commonly prescribed for OCCASIONAL sleep problems

Diphenhydramine is an anti-histaminic. (anti-allergic)

Giving a patient a product made for one thing, to use it against another thing is . . . . like playing roulette (russian roulette sometimes) (*)
My advice: see another doctor

In my humble opinion, benzodiazepines are more effective with less side effects if (as you said) U use it when crisis strike.
The older diazepine is the best like Valium. (they try to sell the latest ones because . . . others are in public domain)
We know them very well, we have background on those.
The newer diazepines have very complicated actions therefore we never know if it will not interfere with your own metabolism.
(dopamin - serotonin - melanin - etc ... production)
Theses are better as anxyolitics or against depression.

There are some herbs whitch are effective, like Valerian (it stinks, but it works)
DuckDuck "herbs against insomnia" and try them. Low cost and you are an actor of your healing (more important than we think)
If none of them works go for allopathy then.

I wish you the best and take care.

(*)
I started to loose sleep in 2006. (less than 12 h sleep per week)
I've been treated with a product against Alzheimer (they had good results they said)
6 months later my brain shutted down: I loosed all inhibitions. I had hallucinations and much more.
I never fully recovered. I had to shut down my company, and all my spare money dropped in clinics' one.
Now I'm an Hikikomori, and you won't believe how painful I feel every day (I'm on opioids for 7 years now)
I spare painfully some money to buy a midi controller to learn to play keyboards because I can't play bass or guitar anymore.
That's what a misused product can do.
Cheers

 

Exactly. Leave out the garbage junk food, do sports and continuously increase your level of fitness. This will automatically supersede the sleep aid crap because you'll sleep soundly at night. Both your psychological and physical constitution improve simultaneously.
By doing sport you'll set yourself a target you'll enhance consistently.

 

Have you ruled out COVID? These are some symptoms of this and if so you might just be having a mild case of it. 3 Benadryl wouldn't cause an overdose but could seem like the culprit if the timing was right. If you can run 2 miles I would think you are going to recover fine but if symptoms persist a simple blood test at the doctors could help put your mind at ease.

If these are more on the anxiety/psychological level then try some youtube yoga and SKY breathing exercises (SKY is super relaxing). Meditation is a great everyday practice with a bi-naural beat as well.

 

I recently discovered a podcast by a guy named Dr. Andrew Huberman. He has a very interesting back story, but that's besides the point. His second episode is dedicated entirely to sleep and how to feel more alert when awake. There's a lot of really good information that I think most people would benefit from. I highly recommend anyone with sleep problems or tiredness throughout the day to check it out. You will likely learn how to improve your sleep so you'll never have to use a sleep aid again.

I apologize for not directly answering your question, but I'm not a doctor and I'm very hesistant to offer medical advice since I have no qualifications to do so.

 

Last edited: Apr 8, 2021

Although I've no personal experience (but witnessed): Be careful with Benzodiazepins. Better don't use it, risk to get addicted and then get rid of it seems not fun.
I also recommend doing sports and healthy food. Also breathing therapy could help or other techniques like Qi Gong:

 

Can you share a link to the podcast?

 

WOW ... I'm glad you went out of this.

Same here. I have my own tricks but they may not work for everyone. Also never had a panic attack.
But physical exercise can only do good for sure.

 

Omg!!! I hope you can recover eventually!! That all sounds awful!!

 

Absolutely, sorry for the late reply. I just realized I got his last name wrong. It's supposed to be Huberman and NOT Hubner. I just edited my previous comment. Here's a link:
https://hubermanlab.libsyn.com/

 

Mental and Physical Wellbeing go hand in hand:

- Learn / exercise to get a mindset focussed purely on the Here & Now, thus waving away negative anxiety feelings about things that may happen.
- Highly appreciate the very little things in live.
- Focuss only on every little thing you do, for example hanging out the laundry, try to do those things with great compassion.
- Then be proud of every little thing you do in life.
- Be kind and helpful to another person,also if you don't know this person.
- Stay in contact with your family, be nice and helpful to them.
- Walk much in the open air, taking firm steps, preferably in quiet nature surroundings.
- Try to do exercise 30 minutes a few times a week (cardio).
- Smell and observe quiet nature surroundings, listen to its peacefully silence.
- Learn from other people every day, by really listen to them, not judging them beforehand.
- Loose your ego, take critisism as positive learnings, to make a better person of yourself.
- Walk away hard from narcissists and never look back.
- Drink enough water, every day.
- Don't eat junkfood, don't drink alcohol, don't do drugs, eat healthy (much vegetables).
- Leave your phone aside when you are eating
- Have a regular awake-sleep pattern, sleep in a good ventilated bedroom, with quality matras, make preferably 8 hours sleep a night.
- Have much intimicy in your truly beloved relationship: much physical contact.(cuddling and sex).
- Don't go for materialism, learn to live minimalistic.
- Don't try to control things you can't control : "It is What It is"

 

Here is the trap with panic attacks and anxiety. I assume that the drug with some extra fear, caused your first panic attack. Thats the end of story. Everyone gets one panic attack in their life. What happens next is simple. You forget about it and you move on with your life. Or start obsessing about your health. This will add anxiety and your body will start the alarm system at some point (panic attack). The body doesnt know if you are really in danger or just obsessing about a made up thing. So you enter a cycle thinking that you are not ok - more anxiety - symptoms - panic attacks. More anxiety = more symptoms = more panic attacks.

Please dont fall for it. You will waste many years. I did that and it sucks big time.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_attack

 

Tai Chi for Beginners

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Hi. I’m sad to hear about your panic attack, but sadly I can share mostly the same story as yours. I used to have panic attacks earlier in my life, and I used to try so many methods to deal with them, but everything was a disaster. The only thing that helped me rehabilitate was them https://seniorsite.org/assisted-living. They are providing all the help you need, making meals, cleaning up, and when it comes to health problems, they have the best approach ever. They do not prescribe you antidepressants, but they have many other methods to deal with the problem. When it comes to the prices, it is really different for everyone, and if you are interested, you can call and ask them, but I think it’s worth the money in any case.

 

Last edited: Oct 9, 2022