Pen, Thanks for sharing. You are the individual that needs to be heard. Please continue to share your thoughts and emotions and let us know if we can help. We are always here and can make a difference :) Keep Strong, Josie _____________________________ The Panic Center Support Team.

I am so sorry to hear that your case worker didn't believe you. It isn't unusual for that to happen to people with Panic Disorder because no one can feel what you are feeling and it doesn't appear that anything is wrong with you. Some people think it's for attention and want us to just "stop" but what they fail to understand is that many times we can't control it and the fear is overwhelming. I think it is wise that you sit down with her and a supervisor and tell her what you think. Tell her how that makes you feel and that it is the most ridiculous thing to think someone is faking Panic Disorder. Most of us would do anything to not have it so faking it is totally obsurd. Good luck with everything and I hope you get a caseworker that is compassionate, understanding, and more knowledgable in the field of Panic Disorder. Keep us posted :)

When my therapist let me into his office on Friday for my weekly visit, the first thing he did was tell me he wanted to ask me some questions. The first thing he mentioned was that he had a conversation with my case manager about our therapy sessions, which lately, have centered around my panic attacks. My case manager than told him that before I started taking zoloft, I wasn't having any panic attacks. Then he told her that he was helping me to be more "assertive" as he put it, with my mother. She replied that I was always assertive with my mother. I don't know how you get when you feel anger rising up in you, but here's how it happens for me: it starts in my abdomen, like a rush. My breathing rate increases, and my heart beats a little faster. Suddenly I have energy I didn't think I had before, energy to jump up...or hit somebody, or something, like the wall. But I didn't. I kept my cool as best I could. "Are you trying to tell me that Shontay [that's her name] thinks I'm faking"? "Yes," Frank [my therapist] replied. All I could do at this point was shake my head in unbelief. It all made sense now. "I knew it, I knew it", I thought to myself. For months I had the feeling that she didn't believe me, and now, my suspicions were confirmed. "Yeah"? I said. "Well did Shontay also tell you about the time she left me stranded on the corner of 6th & H st NE at the beginning of this year when I had a panic attack as we were walking back to her car coming back from the Dept of Human Services? And this was BEFORE I started on Zoloft. Did she tell you that?" I said. "No, she didn't", Frank replied. "I thought so. Did she also tell you that I yelled for her to slow down because I had just had an palpitation while we were walking and I was scared ****less, and she ignored me? And that I ran into the nearest building I could find to feel safe, and that I ended up having to ask a complete stranger to walk me to her car? Did she tell you that"? "No, she did not". "And did she also tell you, that after I got in the car with her, she had the nerve to get angry with me, for no other reason than I was 'slowing down her schedule'. She never asked me if I was okay, instead she fussed at me like I was a child. Did she tell you that?" "No, she didn't".