[bee]

I have a family history of anxiety. I believe my grandfather had panic attacks and my mother has had two stages in her life when she was completely ruled by anxiety (she couldn't leave the house or anything). I have always suffered from anxiety myself but recently I've been having some alarmingly bad reactions.

I've always found it very difficult to talk to other people and generally be assertive and it's a bit of an issue at college because I can't physically make myself talk to others sometimes. I also avoid talking to anyone apart from my boyfriend and close family on the phone. I can't even order food in a resturant. I'm naturally shy and have been suffering from this for years but I'm beginning to accept it's a real problem now.

Recently I've watched two plays at a theatre and a movie at home with strobe lighting/flashing lights in and I've experienced extremely alarming reactions to them. First, my head goes funny, like it's spinning and all the blood is draining away from it, my heart races, then I feel extremely sick but haven't been sick thus far and generally very faint and panicky. Last time I watched a show with flashing lights I satthere for an hour looking down with my eyes closed with an intense feeling of needing to escape. I am actually quite proud of myself for not walking out when I knew I could have at the beginning.

When I was watching the film yesterday I felt the same for hours but when I was watching shows in a theatre the feeling soon went away as soon as I got out. All last night I felt very nervous, on edge, sick, headachey and generally like I was having a panic attack that slowly got better as the night went on. I haven't really been subject to any flashing lights today (except the TV when the image changes if you know what I mean, even that distressed me a bit) but still feel very faint, keep having the weird sick and headrush feelings and have actually had to go out the room a few times.

I'm really worried about these symptoms. I don't know wether it's a medical thing like epilepsy or wether it's just a panic attack. I'm making a Drs apointment asap but wondered if anyone here could give me some advise and also if anyone knows if flashing/flickering/strobe lighting can cause panic attacks?