Panic Attacks - Do You Black Out???

Hi everyone.

My message: if you are having anxiety/pa and passing out - please ask your doc to do a dobutamine (the drug) stress test. Make sure there is nothing wrong with your heart that could be causing so many of your problems - something that can't be seen on an ekg!


I am new to this forum and found you by searching on the linden method. Not sure yet if I will purchase it but it is interesting to read your comments. Also, I have lucinda basset's program and have had not great success (have not finished it) because the first few tapes talked about all the symptoms, and I didn't need to listen to that - I know them all.

Anyway, have been suffering from agoraphobia/pa for 30-40 years. I am only 49.

Now to the subject of my post:

when I was 10 or so, I started passing out. Diagnosed with epilepsy at that time. At 22 I went to cleveland clinic to discover that I never had epilepsy, but that I had some "other" issues. In the end, some of my panic was making me hyperventilate - and if "untreated" one might lose consciousness.

Started going to a shrink - back in the early 80's. What a waste, but at least I got started on an antidepressant. At that time there was little knowledge of panic attacks/agoraphobia.

Have had good and bad times over the last 20 or so years. But in the last year I started passing out. And this was not hyperventilation - it was just wow. During physical exertion, mostly. Went to the doc, did an ekg. Did and mri and cat scan. Nothing. After a year did a drug-induced stress test. Wham - I was out with only 5 mg of the 140 mg worth of the dose (don't know if mg is the right unit of measure, but you get the drift).

My heart had stopped.

Long story short, I have long qt syndrome and had to have a defribillator implated in my chest/heart. It is also programmed as a pacemaker. My heart can still stop because of this syndrome, but at least the defrillator will "kick in" and restart it. Before, my body was always doing it on its own - thank the good lord!

So when the docs asked me about some of the times I passed out as a kid - - I was the talk of the hospital, as they are classic things that would set off long qt syndrome.

This is genetic, and I probably had it forever. Makes me angry to know that I couldn't have been diagnosed correctly the first time, even though this syndrome was only discovered the year I was born.

But now I struggle with the panic - I have had it so long that it is hard to just erase it, you know? And an additional bit of panic wondering what is going to happen if my heart does stop! Will this thing work!?

I just wanted to get the word out about this disorder - hope this helps someone out. We have to start making our docs listen to us!