Dear Dr.Hurt

[stella-plante]

I have for many many months been awakened with a sensation of inner numbness on the left upper chest cavity, and a sense of fear and dizziness, and shaking. Am I having heart failure? I am on Chantix, and am down to about one to three a day, from 2 and a half packs a day, I have been smoking since age 15. The wierd thing is the attacks startetd when I became pregnant with my youngest Josephine who is now 6 months. They went away for a while, but returned the last two nights. Please, tell me Doc, what could these very weird numb sensations be???

[shannon-walker]

I am no doctor but I had similar experiences with these. They are panic attacks or anxiety attacks. Its the "fight, or flight" mechanism in the body. The endocrine system releases an overload of adrenalin and your body reacts to the overdose. It stimulates the heart to race, the mind to react as if it were in danger, the respiratory system to speed up, the body shakes, the dizziness comes from the "fight or flight," sensations caused by the overload of adrenalin. I used to have twelve to thirteen of these a day. They had to put me on an anti-anxiety medication for awhile. DO NOT allow them to put you on Xanax though, it is very addicting and harder than heck to get off from. They put me on Xanax for awhile and then they had to put me on Buspar to get me away from the addiction to the Xanax (as I tried to ween myself down before they put me onto Buspar and I had a bad time as it would cause me to go into a relapse of my anxiety attacks). Caffeine in medications and other drinks were restricted in my diet as these caused anxiety attacks too because of caffeine being a stimulant. I hope this helps you. Good luck!!

[stella-plante]

Thank You. I thought it noght be so, because my husband was a real jerk to me whn I had my last pregnancy, and I think it caused me great anxiety and sadness. It also runs in my family. Thank You

[shannon-walker]

You are very welcome. Medication may help eliminate your symptoms for awhile but try not to allow yourself to become dependent on them (medications). Stress is a major factor when it comes to severe cases of anxiety and this may also trigger your attacks. I was severely under stress too when mine started, as I was going through a divorce and I was raising two kids on my own, plus I was drinking Mountain Dew like it was going out of style. The amount of caffeine in it triggered my attacks but the stress was the major factor. Just know that you are not alone. My thoughts and prayers will be with you my friend. Take care.