Severe terrifying disabling anxiety - fear that I'm dying

I'm having an extremely terrifying frightening time. All day and all night terror and panic. Lots of books and web pages say that panic symptoms peak within 10 minutes then ease off. No they bloody well don't - either they don't or I don't have an anxiety disorder. It,s because my husband is away...I haven't been able to sleep...even after having taken a sedative. Sheer panic sheer hell....upset stomach, can't eat, nausea, retching and vomiting. Severely tense and wound up.

Just found these interesting snippets at: http://tinybuddha.com/   and I keep reading and reading things like this to try and keep the unrelenting fear/terror at bay. But I guess I'm not listening to its message!

The anxiety message simple; it’s just three words: STOP! YOU’RE HURTING!

When an experience like anxiety is pleading for you to stop and notice that you’re hurting, and you know this, your next step is to find that hurt. Its severity is proportionate to the scope of what you have to address—so if you feel like you’re going to die, look for something big!

Its methods of stopping you are varied. It will use whatever works so that you’ll finally pay attention - it will customise for you.

The loudest stop message can appear as a panic attack and causes a sensation that you feel like you’re going to die. Dying is the ultimate definition of stopping within our physical experience, and that’s why we can feel that way.

The good news is that it’s an illusion. Anxiety will not hurt you in that way; but until you catch on, start listening, and heal the source of the messages, it will keep trying to spin you around so that you’re facing it long enough to hear what it’s trying to say.

“Hey! I’m talking to you! Is she still ignoring me? UGH! OK body, it’s your turn. Make her feel like her heart will explode, make her feel like she's shutting down. HA! You stopped working overtime didn’t you? Gotcha! Now look…we need to talk…What? Now you’re hiding in a movie? Oh no you don't! PANIC ATTACK!”

It’s being maintained by you , for you, until it gets enough of your attention for healing to take place. Whatever you keep doing or ignoring (maybe the things that led to its nascence) will continue to recreate it until you go about things differently. This is an important realisation because it can help you shift from feeling victimised to feeling empowered. It can only continue as long as you delay tending to what’s beneath the message. Anxiety cannot cause you to feel discomfort forever. It will motivate you to heal, and then leave once you do.

Anxiety messages can come from anything negative you’ve chosen to carry forward. It can be a traumatic or painful event left unresolved (usually through having had an attitude of sucking-it-up, being tough, trying to forget etc.).

Spending time with anxiety to discover the source of the message and what you have to heal can be achieved in many ways. You have to find what works best for you, but here’s a great series of approaches that seem to help everybody:

Welcome it.
Make friends and peace with anxiety immediately. Talk to yourself and the anxiety reassuringly: It’s OK. I’m listening. I want to hear what you have to say. I know you’re just trying to get my attention and that the more directly and peacefully I listen, the sooner you’ll stop repeating yourself.

Fighting with anxiety or resisting it will cause it to persist.

Realise that you are your own solution. You have what you need to look clearly; to hear and to heal. Anxiety is a message born within you, speaking to you through you, and therefore it’s within you to heal.

By learning about anxiety, spending time with it and finally holding in your hand, you can enjoy the next step: You can relax your grip, and let it fall away. It will have served its purpose. You will have loved that part of yourself and it won’t need to get your attention with such a difficult message again.


I think I've found my hurt and the source of my fears.....right..I'm off to find out how to deal with it......