Hi all. I’ve been a lurker but wanted to share my experience. I have C-Ptsd, social anxiety, depression and severe panic disorder. There was a point where I was having such bad panic attacks that I was passing out from hyperventilating. I couldn’t do mundane things like sit in a restaurant without noticing everyone, the lights, the sounds, and it all feeling like it was closing in on me. I constantly wondered if the world was ending, if a war was coming, if I was going to go into sudden cardiac arrest from stress. I work at a hospital as a medical professional and I love my job dearly but I was having to leave work every day to the point where I ended up going on medical leave because I had a nervous breakdown from constantly wondering when my next panic attack would come/if I was going to lose my job and everything I worked so hard for.

My first two weeks on Prozac were god awful. I had so many panic attacks that I thought I was actually going to die. I couldn’t sleep or function for days at a time. If felt like drinking 30 cups of coffee then trying to sit still. I hated it but I fought through it.

Fast forward to week 5. I can go out with friends, I haven’t left work early at all, I’m 3 weeks panic attack free, I’ve lost weight, I don’t have food cravings, I can sleep through the night, I don’t have to devise an escape plan every time I leave the house. On top of this, everyone in my life says I’m so much happier and outgoing. I laugh, I enjoy the little things and I’m not hoping I go to sleep and never wake up again.

I know it’s hard, and it’s scary, but it gets better.