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Panic Attacks

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Re: Panic Attacks

#131

Post by Barrin92 »

vinbreau wrote: post #99
timrichard wrote: post #26

From personal experience, years ago : learning to control your breathing is the key. Your fear of the symptoms can turn it into a self-fulfilling prophecy. When you've deeply internalised the assurance that you can defeat the symptoms any time you like by regulated breathing, you might well find like I did that they just stop happening quite naturally. It takes time and practice. Sometimes now when I find myself in s…

This works unless your anxiety is being triggered by the vagus nerve in which case deep breathing only makes it worse. Had one related to an illness recently, the vagus nerve makes you feel like you are having terrible anxiety that is made worse at the apex of every in/out breath. Then when you can't breathe deeply you start having even worse anxiety. This is the problem I am dealing with atm.

Having gone through years of this during my university years I agree here. The general notion of 'controlling' anxiety attacks can be problematic.

Once your body is full of adrenaline it takes 10 to 15 minutes to physically calm down, there's no shortcut, and often trying to suppress the physical symptoms keeps the cycle going.

What generally works much better is to simply accept that your body is going mad for a few minutes, it's million years old biological systems you don't have any control over, fighting them isn't possible. Keeping a detached mind, breathing normally and remembering that panic attacks don't kill you (the racing thoughts are often the worst thing) helps immensely.

Re: Panic Attacks

#132

Post by ca98am79 »

I was diagnosed with sever panic disorder in my early twenties. I tried everything (therapy, medication) but nothing really helped.

I eventually became agoraphobic and wouldn't leave my house.

I did a 10-day vipassana meditation course (http://dhamma.org), where you can't read or write or listen to music or talk. You basically just meditate the whole time.

I had very bad panic attacks during the 10 days, but eventually meditation actually helped me to deal with it.

I'm now in my forties and meditation is the only thing that truly helps me with panic attacks.

Re: Panic Attacks

#133

Post by cfusting »

I suffered from panic attacks throughout my 20's. Recently I went to a cognitive behavioral therapist who guided me through a hyperventilation technique to simulate the physical symptoms of a panic attack. The results are amazing: practicing this technique three or so times a week for a month completely rid me of panic attacks. I recently was feeling stressed about a work trip and "tuned up" the night before by going through a session and had no issues.

The therapist said this cures 99% of patients. The "golden feather" in a CBT therapist's hat.

The technique:

Sitting down, as rapidly as you can, take a deep breath in and blow it out. Do this 40 times. Blow out all your air and hold your breath for as long as you can (1 - 2 minutes for me, stop when you start to get convulsions or you may pass out). During this time observe your tingling hands, light headed feeling, sweaty palms etc. This is a normal result of an excess of oxygen in your body. It cannot hurt you. Now take a deep breath and hold it for 15-20 seconds. Start immediately and repeat two more times for a total of three. Repeat three times a week for a month. If you start to feel panic more often, start your treatment again (this is rarely necessary).

The first time will be the scariest. After that it gets MUCH easier I promise. It may be helpful to see a CBT therapist to talk you through it the first time. It will change your life.

That technique coupled with a mild anti anxiety medication has completely feed me of anxiety and panic.

I hope this helps others :)

Re: Panic Attacks

#134

Post by ridewinter »

mindgam3 wrote: post #122
ridewinter wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The start of recovery for me was reading a book by Pema Chodron about not trying to get rid of the intense feelings and experiences like this. With enough experience and meditation and a practice called morning pages, I’ve learned to harness the extreme energies involved and make them a massive positive instead of something to be scared of, holding me back. It took a long time but fully worth the effort. :) Edit: A f…

Morning pages has been an incredibly helpful tool for me to process the difficult emotional states associated with acute and chronic PTSD. I kind of do the slacker version by typing them out as opposed to writing freehand, but hey, it still works.

Yep. When I started I thought I didn’t have much to say. Turns out I have ALOT. Helps me work through things and start the day out right.

Re: Panic Attacks

#135

Post by dang »

jackhack wrote: post #75
tenaciousDaniel wrote: post #32

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…

If you came fishing for sympathy, keep looking. In the future, if you're doped up, stay the hell off the roads before you kill an innocent third party. I don't much care if you get completely smashed on your own time, but risking others is criminal. And what's with showing up at a kids' birthday party stoned? Incredibly irresponsible and antisocial on so many levels.

Personal attacks will get you banned here. Please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and post civilly, or not at all—regardless of how wrong someone else is or you feel they are.

Re: Panic Attacks

#136

Post by serpix »

13of40 wrote: post #107
timrichard wrote: post #26

From personal experience, years ago : learning to control your breathing is the key. Your fear of the symptoms can turn it into a self-fulfilling prophecy. When you've deeply internalised the assurance that you can defeat the symptoms any time you like by regulated breathing, you might well find like I did that they just stop happening quite naturally. It takes time and practice. Sometimes now when I find myself in s…

Wow, I wish I'd read this thread a year or two ago. I'm in my early 40's, and I had a couple of panic attacks last year for the first time in my life. For the first one I was driving and had to pull over and walk around in a strange neighborhood because I was convinced if I stopped physically moving I'd die. The second time happened at work, and I got a friend to drive me to the emergency room, having tunnel vision a…

Good! Now there is also the question where are these coming from? A part of you is at a tipping point. You can ignore this message and find chemicals or methods to distract or you can face yourself now and accept the growth that is going to happen.

Re: Panic Attacks

#137

Post by serpix »

ellyagg wrote: post #117
timrichard wrote: post #26

From personal experience, years ago : learning to control your breathing is the key. Your fear of the symptoms can turn it into a self-fulfilling prophecy. When you've deeply internalised the assurance that you can defeat the symptoms any time you like by regulated breathing, you might well find like I did that they just stop happening quite naturally. It takes time and practice. Sometimes now when I find myself in s…

The breathing in and out by counts thing frustrated me for a long time. It didn't help calm me at all, but the advice is everywhere. I can easily shallow breathe into my chest all day long. That doesn't fix anxiety. You need to breathe into your belly. Watch your belly rise and fall with each breath. It works, but in my case it only works while I'm actively focusing on breathing, which isn't super helpful. As soon as…

The mind is always afraid and anxious. It is what it does, finds problems. By focusing the mind on problems you will get more problems.

Your body knows how to calm down. It knows how to unravel that stored emotion and feeling. You only need to allow it to come out. Breathing and observing the breath is the first step of accepting your experience. You can never get rid of your emotions - you can only accept, allow or resist and suffer.

Re: Panic Attacks

#138

Post by AlwaysRock »

nicklovescode wrote: post #68
AlwaysRock wrote: post #64

I've got near crippling social anxiety. It's hard because intellectually I know my brain is creating and responding to fear that is all artificial. However in the moment that's nearly impossible for me to realize or take in. I've been having more and more conversations with friends and co workers about anxiety recently and that's helped a bit but realistically this is something that I'm going to have to do real work…

Have you tried propranolol? The research shows it’s quite effective for this kind of thing

I'm pretty resistant to trying any drugs when there are drug free options with high success rates (CBT). But thanks for the recommendation.

Re: Panic Attacks

#139

Post by tossaway4567 »

nickdandakis wrote: post #57
thecatspaw wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Using a throwaway due to subject matter Exactly due to the subject matter, I choose to use my regular account. Mental health issues are not pretty, just like physical illness can be ugly. But we do not shy away from the people who have terminal cancer, we help them out the best they can. For mental illness helping can mean admitting that you have issues too. Displaying that they are not alone, that these issues are…

I think they meant the weed and xanax.

Ding ding ding!!

Not so much the drugs I was prescribed, but cannabis is still not legal for recreational use where I live and either way, there's a stigma. My usual username is easily traceable to me (at least by people who know me) and I don't necessarily want family or employers searching out a known username and running across tales of weed and panic attacks.

Re: Panic Attacks

#140

Post by tossaway4567 »

mindgam3 wrote: post #123
tossaway4567 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 n…

Consider looking into CBD. It has the anti-anxiety benefits of cannabis without the psychoactive effects of THC which can amplify a panic attack. And none of the awful poison of benzos which will kill you if you take enough of them for long enough.

As I said, I was prescribed maybe 10 alprazolam pills for their intended use as an emergency treatment for panic attacks. This was a couple of years ago and I still have most of them. No desire for a benzo addiction here.

And trust me, I tried CBD (no noticeable effect) as well as strains of cannabis leaning more toward that side of the spectrum.

For better or worse, I just lost my tolerance for the stuff. Even small amounts have the potential to make me feel uncomfortable so rather than keep trying to like something that doesn't agree with me, I just tend to decline offers these days. No big deal. I've no problem with people enjoying what they enjoy. It's just not pleasant for me anymore.

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