My daughter is in a hospital now for panic disorder. Long story behind all this (harassment at school for the last two years - including sexual harrassment- a friend attempting suicide, family issues) but two weeks ago she just started having severe panic attacks (she'd shake violently for 5-10 mins and then be completely exhausted afterwards). Sometimes, she'd feel tingling in her face...numbness...or a sharp pain in the chest or stomach. Last week it got so bad she was having hallucinations of a monster scratching her and stabbing her in the back and she could hear voices plain as day of it saying it was going to kill her. My wife and I were going out of our minds as we felt helpless. MRI, EEG, blood test, urinalysis all came back fine so there's nothing like tumor, epilepsy, or worse. But, with the right mix of meds (mostly low dose), it appears we get to bring her home next week and will start regular psychological and psychiatric counseling sessions. She's been your average child all of her life, done decent in school, a few close friends, socializes well, never a fear of any sort.
A guy that works me has had panic disorder for some time (had an attack at the age of 5 or so and again in his early teens). They were rather isolated until last year when he would have attacks and think he was having a heart attack. He figured he wasn't, though, as his dad has had panic disorder for a very long time and took countless trips to the hospital thinking he was having a heart attack.
Panic attacks can just appear out of nowhere which is what makes them scary. The sufferer feels like they're going to die or just has an extreme fear of losing sense of reality while awake...not like a nightmare where you dream you're dying and you wake up and feel fine.
I'm not saying what Jugernot has is definitely panic disorder but it's something to seriously look at as it can eventually lead to a major depression and other phobias (agoraphobia being a common effect of long-term panic disorder...people become completely afraid to leave the house for fear of having an attack while driving, walking the dog, anything outside beyond the comforts of home). They are nothing to ashamed of as many people have them (and were most likely misdiagnosed throughout history until medical science has uncovered the probable cause as a chemical imbalance in the brain. And, when a certain major stressor occurs, panic disorder is triggered like flipping a switch).
I hope it's not and that it was maybe something like acid reflux but...might consider some reflection on life and see if it could be anxiety/panic and consider some counseling sessions.
(whew...that was a long post, eh?)
My thoughts are with ya.
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