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Panic attacks, panic disorder, agoraphobia and anxiety help

letsconnect

letsconnect

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If you suffer with panic attacks, panic disorder, or agoraphobia, we now have a web page on this topic:

Panic Attacks and Agoraphobia Information

The page also provides recommendations for self-help books and tips for dealing with panic attacks and dental fears :).
 
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Some videos

Here are some videos on the topic of panic attacks (I happen to think that the book is much better, but videos are always popular, so I thought I'd post them here :)):





 
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I have suffered from panic and anxiety (and depression) for 10 yrs, I am going to read both books. I am on no meds and in no therapy. Thank you!:)
 
Thanks for the links. I am going to check them out. At our dentists office we see several people going through a range of emotions before getting into the dentist's chair. I have had to counsel several patients before they would enter the dentist's office. I deal with these people daily and better understanding on how to tackle it will surely help.
 
I have suffered from panic attacks all of my life, but was diagnosed about 12 years ago. At one point I couldn't eat, was agoraphobic and couldn't leave my house, and I dreaded nighttime because it was the worst. I was on meds a short while and actually have conquered most of my anxiety problems without them. I ended up having no choice BUT to go to the dentist after my tooth broke and I was having major infections and swollen glands. It was the hardest thing for me to do and ended up being a two hour ordeal and having to finally get bone cut out of my jaw...all on simple anesthesia. Through it all, it was actually a turning point for me because something clicked and I realized that I COULD do it. It was the start of my "healing" process. It made me start pushing myself into the fear instead of running from it, and that is the only way to conquer it! If anyone wants to talk about anxiety related issues please feel free to contact me. :)
 
mandi_can omg i freak about just calling for an appointment... just the thought of it i start to get stomach sick, i feel like i have to throw up, maybe even cry a little, i just can't go, and i know i have to, how do you get over that feeling?
 
mandi_can omg i freak about just calling for an appointment... just the thought of it i start to get stomach sick, i feel like i have to throw up, maybe even cry a little, i just can't go, and i know i have to, how do you get over that feeling?

I feel the exact same! The physical symptoms of anxiety are the worst for me!
 
I wish I could get some help I feel paralyzed with fear ,I don't see me ever getting help.
 
Beccaposie,
I feel the exact same way. I can barely leave home, much less get help.
:(
 
I have suffered from panic attacks all of my life, but was diagnosed about 12 years ago. At one point I couldn't eat, was agoraphobic and couldn't leave my house, and I dreaded nighttime because it was the worst. I was on meds a short while and actually have conquered most of my anxiety problems without them. I ended up having no choice BUT to go to the dentist after my tooth broke and I was having major infections and swollen glands. It was the hardest thing for me to do and ended up being a two hour ordeal and having to finally get bone cut out of my jaw...all on simple anesthesia. Through it all, it was actually a turning point for me because something clicked and I realized that I COULD do it. It was the start of my "healing" process. It made me start pushing myself into the fear instead of running from it, and that is the only way to conquer it! If anyone wants to talk about anxiety related issues please feel free to contact me. :)
your post gives me courage.. i was diagnosed with generalized anxiety and panic disorder when i was 24. i have struggled with this and at one time was agoraphobic and did not drive for over a year. i would not fly and i have been terrified of the dentist all my life. i have not been to a dentist since i was 19 and now i need alot of work done, it is at the point i just cant put if off. i am doing pretty good with my anxiety due to the help of medication and exercize and breathing techniques. i still dont drive on the highway though and i finally conquered my fear of flying in january. but today i am going to have a consultation at the dentist to see what all needs done and i scared to even step in the door. any advice on what thoughts i should keep in my head? i want so badly to be brave and do this.. i want to have a beautiful smile and i am tired of this disease controlling me. please any advice would be so helpful. thank you and im so happy for you!:)
 
I have also suffered from anxiety and panic attacks for 18 years. I have a found a book recently which has helped me.

[broken link removed]


Its by a man who suffered for years with anxiety and cured himself through going with the anxiety and the thoughts instead of fighting it .....if you scroll to the bottom of the page of the link above you can buy the book.

The website itself is really good with loads of success stories on people that the book has helped and lots of reassurance about the symptoms we all fear experience associated with panic and anxiety.

Love to you all xxxx
 
Re: Some videos

Here are some videos on the topic of panic attacks (I happen to think that the book is much better, but videos are always popular, so I thought I'd post them here :)):





I rarely get panic attacks luckily, Only if i am up high looking over feel unsafe, but once I had a panic attack when I was in bed at like 2am, it was crazy, I started feeling funny and legs was going, I got up and felt my heart going fast, as I have hypertension and could not breathe I thought I was having a heart attack and rang emergency service but they diagnosed over the phone without coming out that it was a panic attack from my symptoms, it was awful, when it had finally ended I felt exhausted. As as the video says, I was safe, there was no reason for the attack it came out of no where. A few years previous I had one when I was at a shopping mall, I was sitting at a dinery alone and all of a sudden I felt that everything was caving in on me and everyone, but there was hardly anyone around and it was quiet, I ran out of that and when I got into the fresh air I felt ok after, I have had a lot of emotional trauma in my life so linked it to that. Fact my Mother died when I was a child and she was sick through out my childhood and my Dad worked as a long distance truck driver, being only child I was left with everything, but no one really considered what I went thru emotionally really as a child. My Mother was very very sick for years. Then after she died my Dad started to become sick, So I had to deal with everything again. But always felt alone as when I needed someone there was no one there. It was like I was just useful for emergencies for family and had to be strong all the time. From the age of 10 upwards I had to cope. Years after going thru all this I finds myself in my late 30;s and early 40's with severe emotional problems of which were never addressed years ago. Its like the after shock if you like. What made it worse was, my relatives were never bothered about me to want to listen or care. They would just dismiss me and change the subject or run away. As they are hard hearted relatives and just wasnt interested when my Mum got sick and later my Dad got sick. As long as the relatives didnt have to deal with any of it they couldnt have cared less. Which left me pretty much on my own. Until I met my husband and made some friends etc.

But this all I linked with the panic attacks as I believe, no matter whether how small or big horrid event in your life, it can still affect you later on in life, unfortunately when we get old is when we start to get these problems, panic attacks, and other phobias, which all really stems from what happened to us years earlier, Maybe we lost a parent, Maybe something happened to us. anything really.

oh, forgot to add, I did have another panic attack when was at the theatre up high, but this is cause if fear of drops and heights, and when I sat up there there was no barrier and a shear drop and I was so scared I could not breath and it brought on a panic attack, but I knew the reason for it, I crawled down those stairs like a dog out of the theatre and it nearly ruined my night, luckily they seated us on the floor in VIP section. But it was horrid experience, ever since I been trying to face my fear of heights by gradually going to drops, but its taking its time.
 
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hi, i have just found this web page. i have P.T.S.D. i have had it since a child. i can only just sit in the dentist chair. i sort of got ok with fillings but then had a bad one that i felt and i was ruined all over again. i had 3 teeth removed under general anisthetic 12 days ago, 2 lower back molars right, 1 lower back molar left. they have only just started to close up and i have had a lot of pain. thing is all my teeth ache, top and bottom, would this just be from the others being pulled? i am now on the waiting list to get my last 2 back bottom molars re filled and i dont know how i am going to sit for it. so i hope this site will help me. :cry:
 
Hi gporter and a very warm :welcome: to you.

I am so sorry to hear that you suffer with P.T.S.D and truly hope that you are having some help with this? If your teeth are still bothering you, are you able to contact the surgery and ask if this should be happening? Everyone heals at a different rate, and no two people are the same, but to allay your concerns, I would suggest, if you can, giving the surgery a ring.

You need to have a good, kind caring and understanding dentist to help you through all of this, I really hope that you get the help you need to see you through all of this both for your dental health and to help you through your P.T.S.D:XXLhug:
 
Hi gporter and a very warm :welcome: to you.

I am so sorry to hear that you suffer with P.T.S.D and truly hope that you are having some help with this? If your teeth are still bothering you, are you able to contact the surgery and ask if this should be happening? Everyone heals at a different rate, and no two people are the same, but to allay your concerns, I would suggest, if you can, giving the surgery a ring.

You need to have a good, kind caring and understanding dentist to help you through all of this, I really hope that you get the help you need to see you through all of this both for your dental health and to help you through your P.T.S.D:XXLhug:

hi, thanks for your kind words. had a bad night last night with jaw pain but the holes are closing so i just think time is needed. i cant go back to the place i had them out as it is over 3 hour drive away. my p.t.s.d is as fixed as it will get now. iv had every med and talking to overhe years and now at 45yrs i dont take all there meds and just take diazapam and get on with life best i can. i wish more detists understood how debilitating panic attacks really are and that it is a genuine disability. i guess things are getting better, i mean they did do my teeth under gen an, they never would have 10yrs ago. :p
 
Does the smellof the dentist make anybody else feel sick in the stomach? Its hard to explain the smell, I think it's a mixture of plaster and something else sickly...:shame:
 
Does the smellof the dentist make anybody else feel sick in the stomach? Its hard to explain the smell, I think it's a mixture of plaster and something else sickly...:shame:


Yeah, me. It doesnt physically make me sick but it freaks me out completely. I feel like running and hiding if only I walk by a practice that has a window opened and I catch a breath of that smell. My heart is instantly going wild. I do not know how I will ever be able to sit in that chair again..
 
I feel the exact same! The physical symptoms of anxiety are the worst for me!

I hope that you have been able to move through the anxiety in the last three years. For those who have not, and I am, again, after a 25-year resolution of all those problems, back in the cycle again.

I did not watch the videos, nor see the recommended books, but the one book that helped me, along with some behavior modification techniques I practiced, is, "Women Who Marry Houses, ...panic and protest " in Agoraphobia," by Robert Seidenburg and Karen DeCrow.

This is a socio-cultural-psychological perspective. The bottom line for me - what stuck - was that I made choices, and that I needed to take responsibility for them. But that sounds harsh and pat. Not the case - if I embraced my decisions, or made needed changes - then I would feel far better, and I would not need to be ill. Once I understood that - and used "practice," for doing such things as driving a distance - (I could decide to turn around if I chose to do so, for example), all symptoms stopped.

Let me be clear that I had had a chance to work with an incredible therapist who could not have been more validating, and who seemed to 'like' me. I needed that, but also used such techniques as not blocking symptoms when they occurred, doing the old rubber band snap on the wrist (far more difficult to feel pain and anxiety simultaneously), and seeing myself go around "blocks" - a visualization.

In any event, I cannot find the book anywhere in the house, and just may have to buy another. They've been out of print for a long time - sadly. A great book for a host of reasons, not only anxiety.
 
Went to dentist after a 5 year absence with pain and broken tooth. Had the courage to go thru the root canal because I didn't want to be in pain anymore. But now I went today and experienced fear/anxiety, in which I don't think the dentist truly understood the idea or symptoms. He reclined the chair and immediately went for the needle, which I don't have problem with, what I did have a problem with is that awful tasting numbing gel which I couldn't feel the back of my throat, and felt I couldn't swallow, which in turn I felt suffocating, and my nasal allergy condition doesn't help at all...so there I was sitting up and refusing to get my tooth done today. The dentist explained the procedure and that I am going to feel completely numb, it will be noisy, and smell...you know that did it for me...no way!!! So instead we did x rays, and the hygienist checked my gums. Next appt., is for a deep cleaning...I will do that as a step along with the oral anti-anxiety med he prescribed. I hope I can move on and get over the fear...but I have had panic attacks in the past and I fear having them again, and losing control...I am glad I found this forum!!!!:)
 
Does the smellof the dentist make anybody else feel sick in the stomach? Its hard to explain the smell, I think it's a mixture of plaster and something else sickly...:shame:
I don't like the smell at all either...and when they are drilling and grinding...oh yuck...instantly sick to the stomach...I was offered mouth wash after the last visit that helped, but during the procedure I can't help but concentrate on that smell. It might be cloves?
 
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