Hello ladies. I have the same exact symptoms. Starts with an overwhelming feeling of dread followed by tightness in my chest then surge feeling running down my arms and legs. Then the hot flash. Have not had a good nights sleep in 5 years. I have a foggy brain and irritability. I run 20 miles a week and I meditate. I've tried HRT (worked but got nervous about continuing), antidepressants (made sleep worse), Melatonin (super irritability), Estroven (kind of helpful) and Ambient (yikes no thanks). Read that there is evidence that a low dose of the antidepressant Effexor works as well as HRT so went to the doc to give that a try. She also prescribed Trazadone for sleep. That was a month ago and my life has changed for the better. I'm taking 37.5 mg Effexor (super low dose) in the am (it alerts the system) and Trazadone 50 mg (low dose) before bed. Did more research on Trazadone and learned that at low doses, it acts to block, guess what.....adrenaline. May not work for everyone and yes there are risks. In my case, the benefits outweigh the risks. It also does not alleviate all of the symptoms but no more dread, a good night's sleep, I can think again and i'm not so irritable. Here is a link with more info. on what Trazadone does- http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.605.7477&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Q