31–40 of 143 posts
Panic attacks are awful and terrifying, mine eventually turned into panic disorder, but after over a year of working on it and taking it step by step I was able to beat it and without any medication! In my experience, the following helped me. * Meditation * Deep breathing exercises * Exercising especially cardio. * Cold water showers * Learning about panic attacks * CBT
Then one day I smoked too much marijuana and then had to go to a kids birthday party whose family I didn't know. About 10 minutes in I had what I can only describe as a panic attack. My face turned gray. My heart was probably beating somewhere around 190bpm. I was sweating profusely. I had to leave the party and on my drive home I was worried I might suddenly die and then veer into traffic. I nearly drove myself to the emergency room because I thought I was going to have a heart attack.
If that was a panic attack, I can't imagine what it must be like to suffer something like that chronically. It was utter hell.
My first panic attack was triggered by smoking weed when I was 17 years old. Since then, it's been a lingering thing that has never left my mind and has kept me on a constant edge, especially in social situations. I've found avoiding caffeine has helped a lot.
Have you tried any other treatments like CBT or EMDR? Sometimes after a traumatic event the brain can be guided into reprocessing / repacking the memory of the event in a way that somehow relieves these kinds of after-effects.
I suppose my own experience differs from the symptoms of a chronic sufferer, but I used to completely dismiss notions of "panic attacks". My thought was "why can't they just take a breather and calm down?" Then one day I smoked too much marijuana and then had to go to a kids birthday party whose family I didn't know. About 10 minutes in I had what I can only describe as a panic attack. My face turned gray . My heart…
This seems so stereotypically American to me.
> But the real solution has come from many years of trying to understand the root causes of the panic and anxiety and working to deal with them.
What the doctor should have helped doing in the first place.
I thought I was having some kind of stroke so I jumped out of bed and by the time I was in the kitchen 10 seconds later I was fighting not to faint, which I thought would lead to me dying. I kept pacing around the kitchen table quickly, basically walking laps for about an hour until it subsided.
Told my girlfriend to call an ambulance as soon as I hit the floor, which luckily didn't happen.
> Right after it happened I went to see my regular doctor and got a prescription for medication that can calm me down in that situation. This seems so stereotypically American to me. > But the real solution has come from many years of trying to understand the root causes of the panic and anxiety and working to deal with them. What the doctor should have helped doing in the first place.
I suppose my own experience differs from the symptoms of a chronic sufferer, but I used to completely dismiss notions of "panic attacks". My thought was "why can't they just take a breather and calm down?" Then one day I smoked too much marijuana and then had to go to a kids birthday party whose family I didn't know. About 10 minutes in I had what I can only describe as a panic attack. My face turned gray . My heart…
For some people anxiety disorders mean years of life lost to disability.