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Heart attack or panic attack? Why young men are calling ambulances for unmanaged anxiety
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this post was submitted on 26 May 2025
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Mental Health
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Truthfully this was the first point in my life where I realized I had a problem. I had horrific panic attacks for about a three month period that were extremely disabling.
Been there, done that. Over a decade later and I'm not fully over it and still on some medication. Don't be stupid like I was. Take care of yourself, get enough sleep and avoid toxic people.
The current social order is designed to cause stress, prolonged exposure to stress will result in a panic attack.
People should not be experiencing constant fight or flight.
It'd be interesting to see what average cortisol levels are now in humans compared to previous times in history.
Happened to me a little over ten years ago. I had my wife drive me to the emergency room in the middle of the night because I thought I might be having a heart attack, but it was just a panic attack. Nothing a little lorazepam couldn't fix. It's been mostly downhill from there.
Have you been to the white lotus, quite relaxing there
Quality time family bonding
When I had my first panic attack 13 years ago I honestly thought I was dying. Called an ambulance (luckily I live in a country where that cost nothing) and lay in the ER for an hour before being sent home. Even the second panic attack a couple of weeks later had me thinking that I was about to die, so I called the bulance again. Panic attacks suck and it takes much learning and therapy to understand how to handle them.
As a man who's been on SSRIs for almost 7 years I can't recommend them enough. Second only to THC.
Unfortunately that's a hard pass on the THC. It actually can cause panic attacks.
I loved smoking weed, but it was always a major trigger for a panic attack unless I did 50%+ CBD bud and 50% low/med THC bud. Eventually it got so bad that no matter how much CBD I used I would still get panic attacks.
Anxiety sucks... :(
Yeah weed can amplify paranoia when taking a high dose for your tolerance.
I had a roomate that ate my 200mg of cookies and had a panic attack
Low doses and CBD are usually ok for sensitive people.
I wouldn't treat a mental health issue with THC. However, I have anxiety which is why I take an SSRI so I don't really worry about a panic attack; the meds take care of that.
I'm on Prozac and I've had two panic attacks. The first one I thought was a heart attack and I checked myself into the emergency room.
That sucks! Have you tried any others? I'm on Zoloft, my wife was on Lexapro but that wasn't working well for her so she switched, I can't remember to what.
Yeah, I've been on many over the years. Prozac was a life saver though.
Yeah, certain people, like me, have to be careful. Too much, too quickly and it's an instant panic attack for me. I didn't give it up since I enjoy the other effects a lot.