People With Panic Disorder

[jda1292]

I have just started reading many of the posts on this site that pertain to Gluten and dizziness and panic. I am sharing my information for anyone that may benefit from it, this is my own experience and is posted here to share. We are all different.

I was diagnosed with panic disorder 14 years ago. I have taken SSRIs and many others and xanax and then klonopin. The doctors will convince you that this is purely psychological disorder, but I have found out in the past two years that when I eliminate Gluten from my diet the problems go away. I still take Zoloft and 1mg of Klonopin a day which is down from 3mg, sometimes I take less.

My panic attacks happened on the highway. I do not highway drive, but any other roads are fair game. I used to get my attacks on the highway. I had noticed through the years that I felt better when eating fruit and cheese. This was an attempt to lose weight.

Today on Thanksgiving I got tired after having some stuffing and then driving was a dizzy affair, slight, but I knew something was different.

Anyone having PD or problems driving should look at everything. I have been tested for many things. I did not test positive for Celiac, but I do have Gluten sensitivity. My symptoms are panic, dizziness/balance and diarrhea (when I go overboard), I also get moody when eating Gluten.

I hope this helps someone. Try to eliminate Gluten.

[Di-gfree]

Hi, I started having panic attacks when I was 21. I was finally diagnosed with celiac when I was 34; and I thought maybe that was what was making me have anxiety, but a strict gluten-free diet did not help significantly, and I still had the panic attacks and anxiety.

So, fast forward to 08 (I'm now 45), and I've finally been diagnosed with Hashimoto's. So I thought maybe *that* was what was making me have anxiety. It is a symptom of being hypothyroid. I've been on thyroid replacement for 4 months, and I might notice a little bit of improvement now and then, but it hasn't disappeared, that's for sure. Maybe in time. It's so hard to live with, I know.

[BRUMI1968]

I was diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder many years ago, and going gluten free knocked it out completely. I have had probably two attacks since then, both of them after being glutened.

[darlindeb25]

My panic attacks started 28 yrs ago, although I had been sick for a few years before that. I have been gluten-free for 8 yrs, and my panic attacks are very rare now, and yes, I have panic attacks if I get glutened too.

I too was on Xanax, which I still keep on hand (be aware, not all Xanax is gluten-free), and then I was on Paxil for several years. I still had panic attacks while on these meds, until I went gluten-free.

I was diagnosed as having panic attacks, anticipatory anxiety, and agoraphobia, before going gluten-free. It didn't matter where I was, I would get panic attacks. Walking into a store, going to a meeting at school for the kids, a party, a doctor's appt, sitting in traffic was terrible for me. Now, I live in one of the worse traffic areas there are, and I do very well.

[Juliebove]

For me, it was a combination of things. I didn't really think I was having panic attacks. I know people who have them and what I was going through was not what I saw them go through.

The problem I was having was my muscles locking up on me. It happened occasionally with my arms, like when I was trying to prepare dinner. All of a sudden I would fling a piece of something I was trying to cut up or put in a bowl or whatever. It was like I just had no control over the muscles.

But the legs were the worst! I could barely walk. At one point I could only crawl or more often scoot across the floor. I could not stand up. I would scoot around to a chair, the bed, or the toilet and it was all I could do to bring myself up to that level. Standing was next to impossible. It was like the muscles went weak but at the same time they would become totally rigid and they would not cooperate.

I eventually progessed to using a walker or cane. Meanwhile they were testing me for all sorts of things, including MS. I was told I had Fibromyalgia and Psoriatic Arthritis. And years later it was discovered that the veins in my legs are bad. They leak and after the blood leaks out, it can't get to the muscles. And I have diabetic neuropathy.

But the biggest thing was my thyroid. The Endo. I was seeing at the time was deliberately making me hyperthyroid because I was overweight. I know this because he told me this. Prior to him telling me this, he kept telling me my thyroid was fine, but wouldn't let me see my labs. It was my GP who ran the labs and discovered the problem.

But it was many years after that before I finally found a Dr. who took me totally off of the thyroid meds. I also changed my diet and elimnated all soy. I think soy messed up my thyroid.

But back to the "panic attacks". I would try to walk a short distance without the walker because taking it with me was a royal pain. Sometimes I could do this and sometimes I could not. When I could not, I would get the locked up muscles and I would get stranded somewhere. If there was a pole or something I could lean on for support, I could sometimes wait it out and get better. If there was a bench I could sit all, I could recover and then try to walk again. But if I was in an open space, I would first begin to lose all perspective of where I was in this world, then couldn't remain upright, but with the locked muscles, couldn't bend my knees to sit down on the ground or floor and then the sense of panic would take over. Once I forced myself to fall over and was sitting on the ground, I would not be panicked.

I now wear medical stockings and that helps a lot. I also have to plan where I am going so I don't have to walk very far and if the walk will be further than I can comfortably do, I need to have another person with me, or have visual clues like a wall, a fence, edge of a sidewalk, etc. so I can help to align myself.

I think in a lot of cases there is an acutal medical problem when the person is suffering from panic attacks.

I did have a panic attack once many years ago when driving. We were in Canada. My now husband insisted that I drive. I hate driving on the freeway or on unfamiliar roads where I have to go fast because it makes me very nervous. I can't remember now which road I was on, but I think I was going about 45 mph and went through a green light. All of a sudden the lanes shifted and I found myself going over a bridge and suddenly in two lanes. People were honking at me. Then my husband began screaming at me that I needed to change lanes while on the bridge. Apparently I was in the most inside lane and needed to be in the most inside lane. From there I had to get on some freeway and then do some other stuff I've since forgotten. It all became a blur. I remember having trouble breathing and thinking I was going to pass out from hyperventilating. I just kept telling him I needed to get out of the car and feel the ground beneath my feet. It seemed like an odd thing at the time. But I did find a place to pull over, and once out of the car, I was instantly feeling better. That was a weird thing.

[one more mile]

I have been off gluten for 6 months, yesterday I had to drive for four hours in the fog. for part of the drive I was only able to go 22 miles per hour do to limited vision. About 5 miles from my house I realized that with all that bad weather driving I had not had a single panic attack!!! I am think that most things they told me were in my head were all from physical things. My chronic, colorful nightmares stopped when I had my thyroid removed. It could also be the yoga and platies I have started doing but I would not have started them without getting rid of the gluten and the depression it caused.

one more mil

[caek-is-a-lie]

I still take Zoloft and 1mg of Klonopin a day which is down from 3mg, sometimes I take less.

If you go off the Klonopin, taper really really slowly! I was on 1mg/day for a year my Narcolepsy (actually cataplexy) (also very gluten-related) and it took me 6 mos. to taper at 10%/wk. When I did more, the panic attacks, edema, etc. were unbearable. Of course, it was because of the taper that I tried a gluten-free diet to control the edema and happened to make my Narcolepsy go away by accident, so I don't ever really regret taking it.

I have panic attacks when I eat gluten, too. A lot of my gluten symptoms are neurological. I also have a co-worker that suffers from them and we've discussed my going gluten-free many times. I'm sure if I told her about your success she'd try it. So, thanks for the post.