A few nights ago I had an awful anxiety attack. I woke up at about 4 am and I was unable to breathe. I think the underlying cause was my allergies because I have not been taking my allergy pills and I went somewhere with cats. I was ok while I was there, so I assumed all was fine. Then, when I woke up in the middle of the night I was all congested. I laid there for a minute weighing my options, when I realized that my heart was racing. Since, I could not breathe well, I thought I was having an asthma attack. I grabbed my inhaler, but I have not had an attack in years, so I thought I would check the expiration date before using it. I am glad that I checked because it expired last year!! Needless to say, I did not use it because I had no idea what would happen since some medications stop working and others get more potent after the expiration date. So, I took an allergy pill hoping that it would start to work soon and clear me up.

After that, I tried to calm myself down with deep breathing, but I just could not do it, my heart just kept on racing. My chest was tight and it was so hard to get air into my lungs. I started panicking and then my throat felt like it was going to close up on me. I drank some water, and tried to slow my breathing, but I noticed that I was starting to shake from being cold. Mind you it was like seventy degrees outside. This made me panic even more, so I got light headed. I put on the water for green tea and I laid down with a heating pad on my chest. I finally calmed down and the heating pad eased the muscles in my chest. I drank the hot green tea, and I felt like I was able to breathe better. After this, I could not sleep because I was afraid it would happen again. Thankfully, it did not happen again, but I was shaken up all day, and really tired since I had not slept.

I called the doctor in the morning, but he was not open on the weekend. So, then I called the pharmacist and convinced him to give me a refill on my inhaler. Even though I had no prescription, since I could not get in touch with the doctor until Monday, and I asked really nicely, he obliged. I felt a lot calmer after I got my hands on a new inhaler. It made me feel like I was more in control, just incase I did get a repeat of what happened in the night. I looked up anxiety attacks and I went down the list of symptoms and I had them all. I am not really sure if I woke up panicked or if I really was having an asthma attack. Whatever the case, I am trying to think positive and I recognize the fact that anxiety attacks can become a circular process where the person is always worried about when the next attack will happen. Since I have this knowledge, I am hoping that I can change the way I think to alleviate this possibility.

No word on Prudential yet. :(