Panic Attacks

I have primary progressive MS and I feel like I’m spinning out of control. I just got diagnosed but haven’t started treatment so MS is behind the wheel and has the pedal to the floor. I’m not in control of my body so how am I supposed to have control over anything else. I have a full time job and two kids and am constantly in survival mode. I don’t feel any joy right now. I’m having panic attacks every day, sometimes all day. Please tell me life gets better. Please tell me I’m not doomed to suffer for the rest of my life with this pain that’s consuming me from the inside-out. My friends are losing patience with me. They think my memory problems and mixing things up are intentional, one recently called me a liar when I was actually just confused and said the wrong thing. I feel like such a burden. Will I ever get through this?

Hi everyone,

I’m new here and grateful to have found this space.

I’m looking for ideas and shared experiences that could help my girlfriend and me grow together while navigating the effects of her PTSD.

We’ve known each other for over four years with strong mutual attraction, but our relationship deepened last August. But after about three months of closeness, a panic attack to realize being in a relation shifted things — she began to feel overwhelmed by the intensity and developed strong urges to pull away.

Since then, it’s been a cycle of connection and distance. She’s actively in therapy, which I deeply respect, but during more intense phases, she becomes emotionally withdrawn, sometimes reactive — even humiliating me in public or dismissing any gentle reflection I try to offer. Still, when we’re connected and calm, we share beautiful moments full of warmth, laughter, and safety.

I want to emphasize: this isn’t about blaming. It is so much caring. I’m aware that trauma expresses itself in ways that are protective, even when it seems hurtful. I also bring my own patterns into the relationship. I grew up with a mother who had her own unresolved trauma — which left me with self-worth challenges and a tendency to overthink. So, while I get emotionally shaken at times, I’ve also developed strong coping skills. In some ways, I think we understand each other’s pain.

Now, I’d love to ask you — both those living with PTSD and those supporting a partner — a few questions based on where we are now and what will work well according to your experience - such a kind of partner experience exchange:

Would it be helpful to move difficult conversations into a written form (like email or messages), rather than trying to solve things live in person? I feel it might give us both time to reflect and reduce the emotional charge — preserving our precious “hygge” moments together. Has anyone tried this?

Have any of you had positive experiences with joining a partner’s therapy sessions from time to time? Her therapist seems to be someone she respects and who challenges her in a constructive way. I don’t want to intrude, but I wonder if sharing one or two sessions could build understanding on both sides?

Any thoughts, advice, or personal stories would be appreciated.

Thanks for listening — and sending a smile to whoever needs one today. 😊

Cheers Happy2Gether

#PTSD #ptsdpartners #PTSD -together-healing #PTSD -tricks

I haven’t said much here. But I have had a lot going on in my head. So I guess here are some of the things.

Last time I tried to speak out about my fears on the mighty, I felt mostly supported but sometimes dismissed in the comments. I have been hesitating to talk about it again here, because it is hard. However I need support and I don’t feel like this is about politics.
I am more concerned for my future. As someone who uses my health insurance multiple times a week, at places that receive some funding from Medicaid and Medicare- I am terrified. If you haven’t been watching- there are proposed significant cuts to Medicaid and Medicare that will affect anyone who uses these services (even if you are disabled). These cuts will have system wide impacts (think of the places you receive care- they will likely have to shift things around with reductions). Oh- and also cuts proposed to SNAP/food benefits. I have been actively calling my Representatives and Senators. It’s a really scary time right now. When I talk to some people in office, they lie to me on the phone and I have to correct them. They do not argue with me, and usually end up providing me with clearer answers. Which is alarming, to say the least. Not only that, people who receive benefits are being called things by “leaders” in the government that are demoralizing to say the least. They say they are protecting vulnerable populations while calling us names on social media or interview clips. And cutting our benefits and putting more obstacles in the way that have been proven to fail and make citizens sicker when adopted on a state level.

My boyfriend has to change jobs because the place he works cut pay “as an experiment” for just a few branches of a national company. At a time when financial insecurity is even more greater, I am experiencing a significant increase in my trauma symptoms and my flight response has been kicking in hard. But there is no sense of normality anywhere I go.

I’m having a lot of emotional flashbacks from previously being unhoused. We are working through things in therapy, but again- I don’t feel safe even with knowing I will be covered by my insurance.

I think it’s hurting me more than I realized that I cannot access my old places and friends that I used as coping mechanisms since I ended up being displaced. Of course I can still go back and visit, talk to them on the phone or online (and I have done all of these) but we all know that is much easier said than done for people who are also managing chronic conditions.
When I panicked before, felt constrained, needed a safe place- I had them. I grabbed my dog and we went a few minutes down the road and looked for fossils or shells. I played pokemon go with casual friends. I had built up a net of accessible options. I was familiar with people there and it was a smaller town.
I live in a much bigger city now. I have tried to do things here, but the panic attacks got way worse when I moved. I have a list of a few places I can sometimes go, but no friends to just hang out with. And I have tried many ways to make new friends. I just don’t have close ones. It takes time, you know? Especially when so much of your time is managing your chronic illnesses.
The thing is- I’m doing the things most people will say to do. But being displaced really has been hard on me. And the benefits to being in this bigger city (my amazing boyfriend and my great care team) feel like they are getting further from me. I am feeling terrified of losing my health insurance and my care. The political climate is making things feel tense and uncertain. And for the first time in some time- I feel like the future might be worse. I do not hope for things anymore because I am so scared.

I know this feeling will pass. I just also know the things I am saying are also very true. My fears are valid, just as they were four months ago.

#Agoraphobia #PanicDisorder #ComplexPosttraumaticStressDisorder #GeneralizedAnxietyDisorder #Disability #ChronicVestibularMigraine #Migraine #ADHD #PosturalOrthostaticTachycardiaSyndrome

I really hope I lose all this unwanted weight and keep it off permanently. In the past I was on Adipex (a weight loss pill), I lost all the weight on the pill but when I stopped taking it I ended up gaining back more weight and it damaged my skin with deep acne scarring. I want to lose all this weight naturally and safely and to never gain back any unwanted weight. It would mean the absolute world to me if I lost all this unwanted weight and kept it off permanently

#CheckInWithMe #CheerMeOn #MentalHealth #Obesity #MightyTogether #Depression #Anxiety #MajorDepressiveDisorder #Psychosis #Bipolar2 #GeneralizedAnxietyDisorder #BipolarDepression #BipolarDisorder #Schizophrenia #SchizoaffectiveDisorder #Trauma #PanicDisorder #PanicAttacks #PanicAttack #Selfharm #PostTraumaticStressDisorder #PTSD #SocialAnxiety #SchizophreniaSpectrumPsychoticDisorders #ObsessiveCompulsiveDisorder #BorderlinePersonalityDisorder #ADHD #AutismSpectrumDisorder #Autism

I really hope I lose all this unwanted weight and keep it off permanently. In the past I was on Adipex (a weight loss pill), I lost all the weight on the pill but when I stopped taking it I ended up gaining back more weight and it damaged my skin with deep acne scarring. I want to lose all this weight naturally and safely and to never gain back any unwanted weight. It would mean the absolute world to me if I lost all this unwanted weight and kept it off permanently

#CheckInWithMe #CheerMeOn #MentalHealth #Obesity #MightyTogether #Depression #Anxiety #MajorDepressiveDisorder #Psychosis #Bipolar2 #GeneralizedAnxietyDisorder #BipolarDepression #BipolarDisorder #Schizophrenia #SchizoaffectiveDisorder #Trauma #PanicDisorder #PanicAttacks #PanicAttack #Selfharm #PostTraumaticStressDisorder #PTSD #SocialAnxiety #SchizophreniaSpectrumPsychoticDisorders #ObsessiveCompulsiveDisorder #BorderlinePersonalityDisorder #ADHD #AutismSpectrumDisorder #Autism