I was recently asked by a person a few days out from surgery if panic attacks after tonsillectomy were common. She had had one, but never had before. She wondered if perhaps the pain medicines had caused the panic attack.
It got me thinking. After reading thousands of stories from people recovering from tonsillectomy surgery, I know that panic attacks are not unusual. I always assumed that they happened to people with a history of anxiety and/or panic attacks. But here was someone with no history of such.
I dug around a little and really did not find any compelling evidence of a link between common pain medicines and panic attacks or increased anxiety, though there certainly are anecdotal cases.
My next step was to go to my readers. a few hundred veteran tonsillectomy patients follow my Face Book page, MyBigFatTonsillectomy. These people have been an extremely valuable resource for questions like this. I asked the question: Did you have a panic attack(s) while recovering? Had you had them before?
Here’s what people had to say:
Panic Attacks After Tonsillectomy?
Tonsillectomy Resources
2 hours ago
Did you have a panic attack(s) while recovering? Had you had them before?
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April and Chente like this.
Ashley I didn’t have panic attacks while recovering and I’ve had them before. But I have woken up in the middle of the night worried that my monster tonsils grew back!
2 hours ago · Like · 2
Christy I just felt like this must be what starving to death feels like…unable to eat, drink water, horrible unrelenting pain until about day 8 or 9
2 hours ago via mobile · Like
Brandi Yes, I had gotten sick a couple of times and then felt like I could not breath from the swelling. Called my doctor and he said it was a panic attack. After I calmed down, I was much better. Scary stuff though!
2 hours ago · Like
Maja I didn’t have them before but I experienced 2 or 3 during my recovery period. I was surprised how intensive and scary it was, I felt like jumping out of my skin from fear, pain and over-excitement. This operation is really a nasty one.
2 hours ago via mobile · Like · 1
Lucy I had a panic attack & in doing so somehow made my tongue swell. It was so bad I could hardly breath, I couldn’t swallow so I couldn’t take any pain killers & was just dribbling constantly. I went to the Dr’s but he couldn’t see anything wrong so went home, lay down & concentrated on my breathing & after 20 mins was fine again!
about an hour ago · Like
Sarah I had a panic attack in the ER on day 3 post-op… I went to the ER for fluids because I hadn’t been able to drink anything since the surgery due to the pain. Even the IV morphine didn’t help the pain all that much! The nurse who put the IV line in my …See More
about an hour ago via mobile · Like
Nicole No panic attacks but the narcotics gave me a lot of weird dreams and I’d wake up kinda freaking out, my cat would sleep with me a lot and I’d wake up and think she was dead so I’d wake her up too, poor kitty. And no haven’t had them before. And I kept …See More
about an hour ago via mobile · Like
Chente The pain meds helped not to have them but after I had to go back into the hospital due to bleeding and stayed 1.5 days I began to have them so I asked for klonopin.
about an hour ago via mobile · Like
April Had my first real panic attack during this surgery when I woke up and couldn’t “feel” myself breathe or swallow. I wasn’t able to use the liquid lidocaine afterward for this reason. I would have rather dealt with the pain than then feeling of numbness in my throat…
about an hour ago via mobile · Like
Amber I already have huge issues with anxiety and panic attacks, but while I was waiting to be taken back, I nearly had one and it took two doses of anxiety meds to get me calmed down before they took me back.
Also, I had some during my recovery, especially one day when I used throat numbing suckers and physically couldn’t swallow so I was too terrified to sleep because I was sure I was going to aspirate during the night.
30 minutes ago · Like · 1
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I’ll continue to research this topic and add information as I find it. I’m interested in how common panic attacks are in tonsillectomy patients and also the causes.
Do you have experience with panic attacks after tonsillectomy surgery? Please help others by sharing in the comments section. Thank you.
-Greg My short bio
I began having panic/anxiety attacks about three weeks after my tonsillectomy. My ENT made me feel as though I was nuts and told me it had nothing to do with the tonsillectomy; however, I had never had any history of anxiety of any kind prior to my tonsillectomy.
After seeing my regular doctor, he concluded that it was a side effect of the pain meds I had been taking. I was prescribed oxycodone and took it regularly for the tonsillectomy pain for almost three weeks. One of the withdrawal symptoms is anxiety attacks. My body was in withdrawal from the pain meds.
My doctor prescribed Paxil to help regulate my system, and a small number of Xanax in the interim for the attacks. It took a couple weeks to feel like myself, but once the tonsillectomy drugs were completely out of my system (and I was able to get some actual sleep that I had missed out on for weeks) I was back to my old self!
The tonsillectomy process for adults is quite grueling… but the results are wonderful in the end!!
Colleen 🙂
Thank you Colleen. I clearly need to look further into the connection between narcotic pain killers and panic and anxiety. Hope you are well.
I had anxiety issues months after my tonsillectomy, but I don’t think it was at all related. I had mild issues with anxiety that got worse in the year following the surgery, but I also had undiagnosed hypogonadism, which can cause anxiety/depression.
I DID panic when the anesthesiologist didn’t tell me he was putting a paralytic in the gas he used, but that’s a different issue.
Thanks for the feedback Will!
Fortunately, no panic attacks here. Too tired. Too sore.
Too focused on survival and the next, blissful, pain pill.
Three and a half weeks and twenty five pounds lost…
Wow! 25? Whew! Hope you’re doing ok now.
I had never had a panic attack prior to my tonsillectomy. In the recovery room, I panicked a bit feeling like I couldn’t breathe, but the nurses quickly soothed me, gave me ice chips, and calmly told me that I was breathing just fine, which I was. I felt fine after that, it went away quickly. A couple of days later, out of nowhere, sitting in my living room, it happened again and this time it was much worse. I dropped to my knees and thought I was dying. I called my doctor who said if I knew anyone with valium or xanax, to get my hands on some quickly. Someone brought me Xanax which I took. A few days later I had another minor panic attack but I was with my husband and he talked me through it.
Since then, I have had a few panic attacks, and I had never in my life had this before my tonsillectomy. I panic when I can’t breathe well, particularly through my nose. If I get a cold, the pain and inconvenience of the cold is *nothing* compared to the panic. I hate it. It’s been a year, and cold season is coming, and I’m already nervous. Ugh.
My goodness Christine- that sounds just awful. I hope this is not an issue for you in the future. Take care
Your doctor was very wrong to tell you to ‘find someone’ to give you their personally prescribed controlled substances like xanax and valium. That’s illegal and dangerous. He should have referred you to an ER or sent a script somewhere. That puts an unfair burden on people you know who take xanax and NEED it and get it in limited quantities, and now you’re asking for it from them because your dr is unethical? I’d say no.
You’re doctor sucks.
I have huge issues with anxiety. But I don’t recall having a panic attack post-tonsillectomy. Like the previous poster, I did wake up panicked a little a couple of times due to nightmares my tonsils grew back.
That DOES sound like a nightmare!