I have never had this problem. I have felt panic but it never became a full blown attack. I'm not sure what the difference between an attack and anxiety is.
There's a world of difference between panic, anxiety and a panic attack.
Panic Attacks
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Re: Panic Attacks
#42so are there really just magic pills you can take that stop panic attacks? this guys carries them around but doesn't say if he's had to use them.
benzodiazepines are the effective treatment for panic attacks. they're flawed for a lot of reasons, however: addiction potential, rebound anxiety, reduction in emotionality / cognition, weakening of short term memory, somnolence, etc.
the medical standard of the 2000s - present would also be pushing SSRIs as the remedy for chronic anxiety, though they're quite useless for acute panic attacks.
third-line treatment might be barbiturates or similar, which would work in cases of acute panic. not sure if they are actually used however.
Re: Panic Attacks
#43so are there really just magic pills you can take that stop panic attacks? this guys carries them around but doesn't say if he's had to use them.
Any benzo would probably work but they need time to kick in.
Re: Panic Attacks
#44> 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.
"Stereotypical Americans" don't have a "regular doctor" let alone just go to one without a second thought about the costs of doing so.
I would only imagine so. Which of course makes this whole situation of a seemingly low barrier to getting drugs prescribed even worse.
Re: Panic Attacks
#45so are there really just magic pills you can take that stop panic attacks? this guys carries them around but doesn't say if he's had to use them.
No, there aren't. But physicians aren't psychiatrists and often the first treatment people get to treat panic attacks comes from their physician, and is something like a beta-blocker. By and large these are ineffective. That said, the placebo effect can be strong.
can confirm firsthand that beta blockers are not useful for panic disorders despite being widely indicated for them. the beta blockers are intended to treat the physical symptoms of anxiety like shaking, sweating, and fast heartbeat. IMO they're a therapy which is really targeted at the doctors, who will feel better if they are able to prescribe something which theoretically helps the patient but doesn't carry any major risks like other therapies might.
it turns out you can still have extreme anxiety and a panic attack if the overt physical symptoms aren't there, however. anxiety is a state of mind as much as it is a set of physical symptoms.
Re: Panic Attacks
#46>> “I’m a type of guy who has a very long fuse,” Love says. “I try to be as non-confrontational as I can, but when that fuse breaks, I explode.
This is me. I had what I feel was a panic attack / semi nervous breakdown on the last day of my internship this summer. It was basically a 12 week interview for a job. On second to last day I received a full-time job offer, and there where a few times where I had embarrassed myself in front of the VP and I was afraid If I got sick and vomited on the last day I embarrass myself again, so my brain just locked into panic mode. I asked my team leader to give me a ride home, and as soon as I walked in the door the panic subsided. I've still had a few flare ups over the last week; we're looking for houses now (our first home purchase) and I'll have to commute for a while, so I'm nervous about that too. I may have to stop drinking coffee and practice more meditation.
I think I just get over-exhausted and loose the ability to absorb and cope with stress, so when it happens its like any incoming stress hits my reptile brain directly like touching a raw nerve. I'm very happy that I've had the last week off to relax and rebuild my stress-buffer!
Re: Panic Attacks
#47I 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…
Using a throwaway due to subject matter, but I also learned the hard way that cannabis just doesn't agree with me the way it did in my younger years. I had what I now know to be panic attacks a few times after smoking a bit of weed and it's not worth the risk for me anymore. It's a bummer because I used to occasionally smoke when I was in my 20s with no issue other than maybe feeling a bit groggy in the morning but now it's a tossup whether it will mellow me out or leave me a wreck off a few puffs.
Had a couple of panic attacks unrelated to any sort of mind-altering drug as well and I actually did drive myself to the ER because I didn't know what was going on. I thought I was having a heart attack or a stroke or something (which of course doesn't help the panic attack). Heart wouldn't stop racing, blood pressure through the roof, dizzy, trouble speaking, etc.
I kept the rest of the handful of Xanax I was prescribed in case I have another one someday. No desire to pick up a benzo habit but the few times I thought I felt something similar coming on in subsequent years, half a tablet (whether through placebo or drug effectiveness) made it fizzle out before ramping up into a full panic attack.
It's weird because I had thought knowing it's a panic attack and not a heart attack/stroke/whatever would "disarm" the process but it doesn't seem to matter. Still interested in figuring out what can cause that to happen seemingly out of nowhere.
Feels like a feedback loop where normally mild anxiety comes and goes in the course of daily life but in rare cases, instead of "turning the mic off" it stays on and the feedback builds to a point that is overwhelming.
Re: Panic Attacks
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Stereotypical Americans" don't have a "regular doctor" let alone just go to one without a second thought about the costs of doing so.
I would only imagine so. Which of course makes this whole situation of a seemingly low barrier to getting drugs prescribed even worse.
Read the reply you commented on again.
Re: Panic Attacks
#49I have never had this problem. I have felt panic but it never became a full blown attack. I'm not sure what the difference between an attack and anxiety is.
the difference is gigantic.
The usual kind of panic for me is "oh shit, I forgot to do this, if I cant fix it Im getting fired" kinda.
For me a panic attack is "oh shit, I forgot to do this, if I cant fix it Im getting fired. ooooooh no I cant fix it because im a idiot and . Im gonna get fired, not get another job ever again because I was only at this job for 6 months. Fuck, is this it? convenient life, gone, just like this? Why can I not just be neurotypical, with a working brain? What happened in the last few years, I used to be such an upbeat happy guy. my whole life will be like this. Full of bullshit, can't dos and more. How can my partner still be happy with me? All I do is be a cynical asshole"
Sorry, this turned out a bit longer than expected. It just leads down a rabbithole really quickly, and getting out of it is like climbing mount everest
Re: Panic Attacks
#50My 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.
That sounds very difficult to carry around. I think for people who haven’t had panic attacks even impossible to really comprehend. 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.
It truly is awful. Try to imagine what you think dying is like and then that is what your brain puts every single system into overdrive trying to achieve. It triggers a fight or flight response and also is a feedback loop of awful that will only subside once your adrenal glands are tapped out and tired. You really can’t stop it once it has begun and no telling yourself “it will be ok” will help it even though you intellectually know it will be fine.