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Hello! I'm a Bipolar 1 and have depression. I have terrible anxiety attacks and have been ruled not to have any heart issues. I do have a stent in place due to a pulmonary embolism and thought that the stent may have been blocked. However, my chest hurts and pounds soooo bad at times it feels like I could pass out. It also wakes me up out of my sleep. Has anyone passed out due to anxiety and what do you do to prevent this? I talked to my therapist about this however, we will talk more about it at our next session in two weeks. She works very close with my doctor so they, I'm sure, will come up with a plan.




Myalex86

welcome to mood tracker

Thank you dpressed!

Hlad you've come to mood tracker. I've heard of people passing out from anxiety as I learned that in counseling. I have never had it happen to me. And at one time in my life I was having like 10 panic attacks a day. My pdoc put me on effexor and that has helped a lot. I use xanax as needed too.

The other thing that has helped with my anxiety is deep breathing, square breathing and cognitive behavioral therapy. I'm sure your therapist will be teaching you skills to help prevent you from actually passing out from your anxiety.

I hope you get help.

Thank you so much Elie!






Myalex86

Welcome. Sorry to hear about your problems though. I have anxiety issue but they haven't been too bad I guess. At worst, I will be woken up in the middle of the night with a panic attack and don't know why (no recall of dreams that might have caused it).
Deep breathing and cognitive behaviour therapy have helped me quite a bit.

I hope it is ok if I ask you about your meds. Are you still on Lithium (450mg)? How are your levels at that dose? Just curious. I am on lithium too (900mg...my levels are at the absolute low point or maybe even below what is considered therapeutic).

Nice to have you with us and good luck at your next appt. It is nice that your dr and therapist work together for your care.

Hi JustmeJ! Thank you for your response and support. Yes I'm still on lithium 450mg. My levels are normal and there have been no changes in dosage since I've started. I see my pdoc the middle of May. He may increase the lithium then. I feel okay just these anxiety attacks which he may give me something for. I'm sorry your levels are low. I hope your doc is working on that.

I use to have really bad panic attacks to the point I couldn't work at my job the only way I could get them to go away was to switch careers and since then I have gotten them under control there are still certain places and situations that I avoid due to them cause anxiety and panic but they are not things I have to deal with every day.

Have you been to a cardiologist, or is it your primary that ruled out heart issues. It just doesn't sound right that it would be anxiety if you get it in your sleep, unless of course it is due to nightmares.

I too get occasional "heart attacks" which have been ruled out not to actually be heart attacks or anything related to the heart. It is blamed on anxiety. Still makes me nervous though as it seems so heart-like. I have not actually passed out from this, but felt like it. I don't know how to control it when it happens. I just sit down and ride it out, and it stops after 20-30 minutes.

People can get severe panic and anxiety attacks that present as heart attack symptoms it is called broken heart syndrome and it can happen while you are sleeping or awake and it makes you pass out

Castillo and Dpressed, thanks for the replies. Castillo, I haven't been to a cardiologist. I do have a stent in place due to a pulmonary embolism, though. I do have nightmares. I go to see my therapist on Thursday and we are scheduled to talk about the anxiety. I listen to music on my earphones and that calms me and stops my chest from hurting.

Dpressed, I have heard of broken heart syndrome and never would I have imagined that it would be linked to anxiety. Thanks. I will mention that to my therapist.

welcome glad to be of some help

Hi Myalex86, I'm new here to, I have bipolar 1 as well, my doc said it's one of the more easier ones to treat because of the type of cycling that happens. The anxiety can get pretty bad, and I have passed out from an attack before. As for the panic attacks in your sleep those might be from night terrors. I suffer from night terrors and the panic attacks that are triggered by them can make you feel like you are about to have a heart attack. Try talking to your doc about your dreams that happen when you have panic attacks that wake you up, that can be a sign of night terrors.
Hope you find answers soon!

Hi chewbacca! Welcome to the forum. Thank you for sharing your experiences. Yes, the dreams do seem more like terrors. I will talk to my doc about them. Did your doc adjust your mess after passing out and did that help?

The most recent attack I had was on the way to see my grandpa in the hospital as he was dying and it was the same hospital that my other grandfather died in, so it was just a case of once I was conscious again taking my meds. My Ativan or lorazepam is I guess the technical name for it, is just the rescue meds for when I do have panic attacks, which with me doing yoga a lot more now my panic attacks have gone way down. But the Nabilone meds that I am on, I take one every night. Before I was on those it got to a point were I was terrified to sleep because of the night terrors and the panic attacks they caused. But once my doc got me on Nabilone they went away pretty fast, I just have to remember to take them every night or the night terrors come back and it can be a few days before I get back to sleeping with out having them

Hi chewbacca! Sorry to hear about your grandparents. I'm glad that you are doing better. Listen to music helps lessen my attacks now I just need to get some help with the overnight attacks.

Talk to your doctor about the Nabilone, it's honestly the most useful drug my doctor gave me, even more useful the my ADHD meds! See if maybe your doctor would be willing to let you try or maybe if your doc has something similar for you that he thinks would work better. And thanks for the condolences, it's been a tough road lately with losing my grandma, 5 friends in a mass murder, and then my great aunt died, that's been in the past month. So it's been tough but having a great support system can truly get you through anything. And my advice is just be open with friends and family about your bipolar and anxiety, because then they can really be there for you and not be there for the front you put on. That was one of my big challenges when I got diagnosed, I struggled with it so I wasn't honest with everyone and that caused a lot more panic attacks and night terrors then I normally got. So I finally asked my doc what was up with it and he told me it was because of the stress I was causing myself by not being 100% open and honest with the people that meant the most to me.

Oh I'm sorry to hear about all if the tragedy that you have had to endure. I will talk to my doc about the Nabilone. I'm going through grief counseling and that is helping and I do talk therapy with my therapist also.

Ya it's been rough, but I get free counselling through my work so if I need I just call the 1 800 number and get free counselling for however long I want which is nice. If you don't mind me asking what are you going through grief counselling for?

That's great that you have the support from your job! My brother killed my mother in 2001 (which I am having a difficult time getting over), my father died from Melanoma in 2012, and my best friend died this past January, from a traveled blood clot to the lung (she was only 39).

I'm extremely sorry for all your loss. That is a really rough go of things. One thing that a therapist said to me that really helped me out was to just remember that you don't have to forget the ones you lost, not do you have to move on from your loss. You simply need to move forward with your life and make your loved ones proud of who you are, and what you are becoming. That advice really helped me when I lost my five friends to the mass murder here in Calgary last month. I am also big into finding a way that you can commemorate the people you lost, for me that means getting tattoos. For others it means writing poems, and for some it simply means never forgetting the good times. It defiantly helps me to just think that all the ones of lost over the span of my life are watching over me and protect me.

Thank you, chewbacca. That is very good advice from your therapist. Oh, that happened just recently ( with your friends), sorry. Yes they are watching over us and protecting :).

I am amazed to see how infrequent the posts are on this applicaion. I am new to this type of interaction but it doesnt seem to be a problem because there is nobody here...anyone out there?

Hi Myalex86 and welcome. The posts used to be frequent here. I'm Bipolar 1,2,3 and 10 lol; I'm just Bipolar dunno the cooresponding number. I've never passed out due to anxiety. Let us know how it goes with your plan. Good luck!!