by Charlotte Howard

Created on: June 23, 2009

Whatever the cause behind them, panic and anxiety attacks can be frightening and difficult to cope with. When they happen on a daily basis, life can seem almost unbearable. They put a strain on not only your sanity, but your relationships too. I should know, I've been dealing with them since 2006. With explaining hot I cope with them, I should first explain how and why they started.

The History Behind My Attacks:

As a teenager I was diagnosed as clinically depressed. This is hard enough to deal with, along with the hormones surging through your body and the other regular stresses of growing up. Over time and alongside some family and personal issues, the depression worsened. I was put on anti-depressants and slowly learnt how to live with my depression. I thought I'd found happiness in 2003, when I met my now husband. Life seemed perfect until 2006 when, as many young married couples do, we decided to try for a baby. We suffered a terrible miscarriage in October 2006, which included several weeks of tests and scans followed by surgery. Happily in February 2007 we discovered I was pregnant. That was when they started.

After the miscarriage, the slightest abnormality worried and scared me. I began to have problems with my pregnancy and was warned that I might lose my baby. Fear overwhelmed me. My chest began to tighten, my lungs constricted so that they could not inflate. I started to gasp for air, the pain shot down my arms. My head pounded with the sound of my racing heart beat. I thought I was going to die. The doctors gave me some medication at the hospital to help me sleep. In August 2007, eight weeks before my due date, it happened again. This time I began to get stomach cramps as well. I was rushed to the maternity ward, where my panic attack got worse. My baby went into distress and I was given an emergency c-section.

Every day since then has been filled with panic and anxiety. Made worse by post-natal depression. I would wake up in the middle of the night, unable to breathe. I've lost count of the amount of times I rushed myself to the accident and emergency department of our local hospital, convinced I was struggling to take my last breath. In February 2008 I was given news that would ultimately cause the attacks to become unimaginably bad. I was pregnant again, and my pregnancy was going to go from bad to worse. From my 27th week I was pretty much hospitalised due to severe stomach cramps, shortness of breath, sharp

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