I hate when this happens!
@PointlessQuestions (15397)
United States
December 23, 2011 4:38pm CST
I have the inability to speak or express myself when I have an anxiety attack. I have a conversion reaction when I have an anxiety attack, and it is so frustrating. I will have tears come, and someone will ask why I'm crying and I can't tell them because no words will come out. My hands flail around trying to get the words to come out, and of course they won't. I can write what I want to say somethings, but sometimes I can't even do that. Sometimes I have no words in my head at all... so I can't even write what I want to say.
My anxiety comes off where I am speechless, for real. I don't ring my hands or anything... but I get this building sense of frustration, or almost panic. I have to sit down and take deep breaths and just be quiet for that moment to pass.
If you have anxiety, what is yours like? Everyone's anxiety is different. I also have hunger sometimes when I am anxious.. it feels like hunger, even when I know I can't be hungry... but mostly I just get to where I can't speak. Sometimes my tongue won't work to form words, and other times there are just no words in my head to verbalize.
Please share what yours is like. 
1 person likes this
10 responses
@ravisivan (14082)
• India
23 Dec 11
This comes out of ageing and also due to the position in which we are put in-- When we feel the problem is a big one and we cannot solve it we get tensed. This tension eats away whatever little energy we have.
Instead believe all the problems will get sorted of their own --have believe in god almighty-- try to talk to people as a matter of fact and not out of judging capacity.
Accept the present position and also it has come due to circumstances over which we have little control. From hereon one has to run/walk slowly and avoid depression, anxiety--take food at the right time--do the job you like--allocate time suitable for all activities. Expect less from you and others.
1 person likes this
@PointlessQuestions (15397)
• United States
24 Dec 11
You may be right, because I didn’t do this when I was younger. I’ve never been one to remember names.. it could take me weeks to learn people’s names when I worked with them… but now I don’t remember anything said to me when they start telling me what is going on.
@mentalward (14690)
• United States
24 Dec 11
Aging is not always the problem. I began having panic attacks when I was 17 years old.
@PointlessQuestions (15397)
• United States
24 Dec 11
Oops wrong discussion... this one is about anxiety... but you may be right... aging might have something to do with it.. I just don't know.
@RitterSport (2451)
• Lippstadt, Germany
31 Dec 11
hi dear PQ thats really frustrating. Sometimes I have similar situations at work. Not with being unable to express myself but when I work too hard or try to get too much done in really too little time for the tasks it feels as if my mind is blank and I cant think of a solution which maybe normally would come quite easy.
1 person likes this
@PointlessQuestions (15397)
• United States
31 Dec 11
Hi RitterSport,
I know that kind of stress too. I used to have that when I worked as a nurse and I had one admission after another. The only thing that I could do was go to the restroom and cry a bit and then wipe my eyes, wash my face and get out there and do my job. That was awful. I’m sure it gets awful for you when that happens too. You get bombarded with work and you don’t know what to do first.
My daughter helps me when I can’t get ‘back.’ She takes my hand and rubs it and she takes me to a tranquil place. She does for me what her therapist does for her when she has worked herself into an anxiety attack. She is really good at helping me get my ‘faculties’ back. When I get to a certain degree of anxiety my tongue gets paralyzed and just hangs out of my mouth. I have no control over it. I have no control over my mouth at all, so I can’t form words to express myself.
@RitterSport (2451)
• Lippstadt, Germany
31 Dec 11
ohhhhh my. thats really not easy to bear but keep your head high. I am so proud of all you achieve and cope with.
@bunnybon7 (50970)
• Holiday, Florida
24 Dec 11
I started having them right after my first cancer in 2000.the doctor gave me inhalers to take because i get short of breath. then i found out i had COPD in '04. yes and sometimes its like im in a tunnel. thats what my mom called it. its passed through generations sometimes. my son has it and he takes celexa. hes been wanting me to break down and try that. 
we will see. in the past 3 yrs. theres times i actually have had a blind spell a few minutes from it. thats the scariest part. 
@PointlessQuestions (15397)
• United States
26 Dec 11
MandaLee, that’s not my problem. I have no fear of public speaking. I can do that. This is something that comes over me out of stress. If I had to give a public speech now, I could do it. I’ve spoken in front of hundreds of people while in college. This is something totally different. If I start talking about my life with my daughter’s father.. it happens… if I am overworked or over tired it happens. It’s like a seizure and it passes in a few minutes.
@Robswife2006 (1208)
• United States
23 Dec 11
Funny I myself just started a discussion a couple of days ago on panic attacks. For me it hits me all of a sudden most of the time, out of no where. I feel like I can't breathe, like I'm in a box that keeps getting smaller. I can speak but only a few words at a time. I can't hold a conversation. My panic attacks are not always brought on by my anxiety although a lot of the time that is the true cause. Only someone who has experienced a panic attack for themselves can truly understand just how truly frightening they are or the fact that this is something that we can not control no matter how we may try.
1 person likes this
@PointlessQuestions (15397)
• United States
24 Dec 11
It’s unreal! When I was a young woman after my divorce from my daughter’s father I started having my first panic attacks. They happened only when I drove in traffic. I would get sudden diarrhea. All of a sudden I had to go, and I would have to find a bathroom fast, because I was having such panic. You literally lose your bowels from panic. I had to go on paregoric for that and finally it passed and I never had it again… then last year I started having episodes where I couldn’t talk. The first time it happened it was so scary and everyone thought I was having a mini stroke or TIA. It turned out to be from anxiety. Now it happens almost daily and more than once a day sometimes. 
@tabatha7 (187)
•
30 Dec 11
I don't really have panic attacks anymore... at least not like I used to.
It used to be that every time I went into a grocery store, or anyplace that had a lot of people, like festivals, the mall, school, etc., I would totally freak out. My heart would start racing, I felt light-headed, and would get nasty headaches. I would even stutter sometimes when I was trying to talk.
Strange, though. I was in a reallllllllly bad relationship at the time, and once I made it clear that it was over with him forever, the headaches went away, and the panic attacks stopped.
1 person likes this
@mr_pearl (5018)
• India
24 Dec 11
HI... Mine is somewhat like yours.. When I am irritated or panicked, I can't speak. My eyes get watery and I am aware that if I open my mouth, the tears will roll down my chicks the next moment.. So whenever such thing happens, I simply sit there taking heavy breaths and smoking... I must cry (lonely) to get it off me... If I don't cry then it remains there threatening the life out of me... :(
Thank you !!!!
@savak03 (6684)
• United States
24 Dec 11
I had an anxiety attack once. I was sitting in an auditorium listening to a lecture I had been anxious to hear. The seating attendant seated me in the middle of a row next in between two men. Normally this would not have bothered me but the chairs were tethered together so there was no room between them. Now, I am not a skinny person and neither was one of the men I was sitting next to. What made matters worse was he could not sit still. He kept moving and reaching into his jacket pocket which meant he kept touching me. I know he didn't mean to and probably didn't realize he was doing it but I kept getting more and more anxious. I kept scooting over the other way but because the seats were so close together there was no room. Also there was very little leg room. I finally jumped up and climbed over everyone's legs to get out of there and went and stood in the back of the hall. One of my friends saw me and came over to see what was wrong. After I got myself back under control she got the seating attendant to get me a chair and place it back against the wall where she was sitting. I enjoyed the rest of the day.
@PointlessQuestions (15397)
• United States
26 Dec 11
That was enough to make anyone anxious. I would have been clostophobic. I don't like people intruding into my personal space like that. I have fears a purse snatching or pocket picking.
@MaryLynn321 (2680)
• United States
24 Dec 11
I get anxiety that gets like a panic attack, or a scared feeling that runs through my entire body, it is over in a few seconds, but it can reoccur. If it gets really bad, it can cause me to get the diarrhea. I had this when I was younger and I think it almost got like a phobia.
@PointlessQuestions (15397)
• United States
24 Dec 11
I know what that is like. I used to get panic attacts that caused me to have colitis. I would get diarrhea also. I was treated with paregoric and it finally went away.
@francesca5 (1344)
•
24 Dec 11
its interesting, the fact that sometimes you have a feeling of hunger makes me wonder if maybe when you were a very small child, a baby, there was a point when you were really hungry and just ignored, and would have felt completely powerless.
these things can happen in the happiest of childhoods, but it sounds like its triggered by a memory that you can't actually remember, so you can't rationalise the anxiety, because its not properly remembered.
it might be worth thinking about what triggers the panic accounts, and what you are feeling at the time, i am just making a wild guess that you suddenly find yourself feeling powerless in some way, but identifying the feelings that trigger the attacks may help.
@PointlessQuestions (15397)
• United States
24 Dec 11
Funny that you should say that. I was a fat ahold. I was fat in kindergarten. Any time I wanted a treat that others had I was told 'you don't need that' and I would feel deprived. I wasn't allowed to have bread when everyone else had bread for their hamburgers and hot dogs. Mom would buy stuff for groceries but she didn't let me have much or any. Like if we had pie she would either give me just a sliver or none at all.
I remember saving my lunch money and not eating in school because I felt shame. My mom always told me I should feel shame for my looks and actions. So I took my lunch money and bought jelly donuts and ate them before I got home from school. I'd throw the box in the ditch before I got home. I rode the bus and I got off at a bus stop by a little store. The kids all made fun of me because I was fat.
Then when I got to be 16 I got anorexic and wouldn't eat at all during the summer. I lost 60 pounds from not eating. No one saw it as a problem. I looked better and that was all that they cared about. Then school started again and I started buying donuts again and the weight went back on in record time. I may talk to the doc about this since you made me think about it.
