Okay, for about a year now I've been occasionally experiencing this weird thing. I'm not sure what it is, but I just call it a sleep paralysis panic attack. Here's what happens:

Sometimes, when I go to take a nap (it rarely happens when I'm just sleeping for the night), I'll almost drift off to sleep. I lose control of my body (I can't move anymore), but sometimes I can kind of wiggle my toes. I can move my neck, but it kinda... Just, twitches?

While this is happening, I have severe anxiety. You know the "head wooshies" you get right before a panic attack, where you get these huge waves of body and mind tingles, and you get dizzy and can't really see? It's that. I get those every 2-3 seconds. It's over and over until I eventually move enough to pull myself out of it. It's extremely hard to pull out of it, because my entire body is SO weak. It's miserable, like someone pulled all the energy from me. I can hardly open my eyes, let alone move enough to keep myself awake.

And because I'm so weak and absolutely exhausted, this process happens 2-4 more times until I'm able to sit up enough to stay awake. It's horrible, and it's terrifying and uncomfortable.

Has anyone else ever experienced this? How do you handle it? Is there something I can do to make it stop? Please, any answers are helpful. Thank you.