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Panic Attacks

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megumic

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Does anyone else get them? How do you deal with them?

I''m in the middle of law school finals and have had several panic attacks in the past few days. It''s exhausting to say the least and I wish they would just stop!
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Lauren8211

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I get them. The only thing I really do for them is try to slow down my breathing. I try not to play into the heart-pounding short breaths.

It''s hard to do, since you feel overwhelmed, but if I make a conscious effort to slow it down, I calm down a lot faster.

I''m sorry you''re having panic attacks. They''re really scary.
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Miscka

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I get them too. You really just have to work with conditioning your mind. It is really hard, especially if you are getting them for the first time. I am sorry you are dealing with this!

If I can''t get it under control I usually can do the breathing into a paper bag thing. Or doing Yoga really really helps, since it is about breath control. Also I will try to talk to someone or do anything to take my mind off it. It works well if you have a go-to person who understands and can help divert attention/calm you down. Some people are much better at this than others, my DH is amazing at it but my mom just thinks I am overreacting
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and has a tendency to make it worse, lol.

Hugs to you! My DH is in law school finals now too, its really rough. I hope you feel better soon!
 

luckystar112

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I get them all the time, but mostly when I''m driving or standing in line somewhere.

I try to curb them by not taking any "uppers" like caffeine, nicotine, etc before I am about to do something that normally triggers a panic attack. I also noticed that, at least for me, being hungry can trigger them, so I make sure to grab a bite to eat before I go stand in a long line or something.

Mine get bad. I''ve broken down crying multiple times, and its not unheard of for me to pull over when driving and wait for one to pass....sometimes it can take like 15 minutes. I hate how it affects my life so much, but there really isn''t much I can do until I get insurance. I''m a full time student right now, and when I went to get on DH''s insurance I was honest about my history of panic attacks and they declined me.
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I will say that the frequency of my panic attacks has gone down a lot with the suggestions above. I know that a lot of people on the board have had success with cognitive-bahavioral therapy. When I get insurance I will probably try that out. Until then, I''m reading a book called "Hope and Help for Your Nerves". My mom suffered from panic attacks and said that this book cured her....she hasn''t had one in years.
 

whitby_2773

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hi megumic :)

i''m was a psychologist who used to work in a women''s only practise for many years. i used to see many women with panic attacks and had them myself briefly about 10 years ago when my husband and i moved overseas to a place i didnt know where i knew nobody.

panic attacks are caused by an excess of cortisol and adrenaline in your system, and the only way to actually get rid of those hormones is to metabolize them ie sit it out. a panic attack normally peaks and subsides in about 10 minutes on average so the first thing to tell yourself is ''hey - this is gonna pass - i can do ANYthing for 10 minutes!''. it WILL pass - it''s how the body works.

secondly, slowing your breathing might work - and it might not. some people have panic attacks with no hyperventilation, so don''t pin your hopes on that. i used to see an excellent cardiologist in London who said that in his opinion the best way of dealing with them was to go into them, rather than trying to avoid them - with a view to getting out the other side as quickly as possible.

however, the ONE THING i''ve found that consistently works is distraction. people simply dont have panic attacks when they''re thinking about things that they''re comfortable with. panic attacks don''t come out of the blue. those hormones don''t increase suddenly because of no reason at all. we have panic attacks because, on some level, we''re worried, we''re imagining a ''worst case scenario'', which turns to fear, which turns to panic. if i was ever WITH a client having a panic attack - generally in australia, i would normally ask them to come for a walk around my garden with me and ask them to name as many flowers and plants as possible. sometimes i would ask them to recount their academic record from many years ago - with names of subjects and marks/grades scored. or i''d ask them to count backwards in 7''s from some obscure number (like 3,026), or i''d ask them to say tongue twisters as quickly as possible. anyway - you get the idea.

one simple exercise which utilizes this idea is the 5/4/3 exercise.

when you feel a panic attack coming on, close your eyes, and name 5 things you can phsycially feel. like - "i can feel the seat under my bottom, i can feel a breeze on my face, i can feel my feet on the floor..." and so on to five.

then name 5 things you can hear. then open your eyes and count five things you can see.

then close your eyes again and do 4 things you can feel, hear and see - each time looking for something you haven''t mentioned before. or repeating old things if you cant find new things - either is fine. but you have to be conscious of it before you can count it. if you say "i can hear children playing in the distance" - you have to take the second to actually hear it.

you then do three things.

then 2.

then 1.

open your eyes and see how you feel. one of the problems with panic attacks is that they tend to take us out of our bodies (anyone who has had panic attacks knows what that means) and they get us stuck in our heads. this exercise forces us to reconnect with our surrounds.

if you still feel panicky, do the counting backwards in 7''s exercise and see how you feel.

you might need to do this a number of times a day, but practice makes perfect. if you really want to overcome these attacks, you''ll need to do some work - but it''s entirely possible. i''ve found going to a gym helps no end as it''s simply impossible to panic intensely about almost anything when stomach crunching 70lbs.

when having panic attacks, what we most want to do is freeze and concentrate on the things terrifying us. WRONG. get up - move - do something. anything to distract your head. remember always - it''s your head, you CAN control is. it just takes practice.

good luck!
 

tigian

Ideal_Rock
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Feb 25, 2009
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2,731
You may want to try acupuncture. I have several people that suffer from panic attacks (including my own sister) that come to my office for treatments. If the panic attacks don''t go away altogether, they decrease substantially.
 

megumic

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Amazing! Thank you everyone for all of your fine advice, especially a thank you to Whitby! I had no idea it was related to hormone and chemical release in the body and now that I think about it, I can literally feel it coming on and have to go hide because I know I will hyperventilate and cry. (It''s so embarrassing!) I can imagine the hormones also lead to the dizziness that accompanies the panic attacks. Who knew?!

I will definitely give all of these suggestions and techniques a try -- anything to help me move past these faster and with less panic is an improvement! Just knowing more about panic attacks and how others manage them makes me feel so much better.
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Thank you again for all of the wonderful advice!!! Fingers crossed I make it through finals (the next two weeks!) panic attack free!
 

soocool

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My daughter (16) had some anxiety issues a few months ago and was taught CBT by her psychologist which has helped her immensely and she is not having any problems going to school now. Whitby offers some great feedback on how to handle the attacks, especially about distracting yourself. This has helped my daughter.

My daughter's BF, however, suffers from panic disorder and because of a severe attack she had in the classroom last month all parties (school principal, teacher, parents, and her psychiatrist) thought it was best to keep her at home for 30 days. In addition, this girl sent my daughter and her other friends an email stating that it would be for the best if no one initiates any contact with her while she says she is "recuperating". To make sure everyone understood that she did not want to hear from or see any of her friends, she also sent a letter to each of them to make sure they knew.

Most of her friends, except my daughter and another girl, did not know about her panic disorder and now don't want to have anything to do with her. Have you lost any friends because of the panic attacks and were you up front about this with them? My daughter, while she doesn't want to give her up as a friend, finds that it is hard to be her friend, because she consistently canceled plans very last minute.
 

megumic

Brilliant_Rock
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Hi soocool. I luckily have not lost any friends because of my panic attacks, but I also did not start having them until I was in my early twenties. I think because your daughter is younger, I can imagine how difficult it is to be friends with this other girl. But I would suggest you continue to encourage her to be friends with the other girl who suffers from panic attacks. I think it''s a good lesson in perseverance - just because the other girls don''t want to be her friend doesn''t mean she should follow the crowd. Plus, I can imagine this girl would feel comforted to know that your daughter has some anxiety issues too -- don''t we all feel better when we don''t feel like the only one? Ultimately though, it should be your daughter''s choice. At 16, she should make her own decisions about what she is prepared to handle and what she is comfortable with.

Good luck!
 

pinkelephant

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Jun 27, 2007
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73
Thanks for posting this topic. I too have panic attacks, but have only had them for the last year. I have been told to try a technique called thought blocking or stopping... can''t remember which one. Anyway, it basically means that when you are panicking, you tell yourself that you are fine and that what you are panicking about is not going to happen. It also means that when you are panicking, don''t be hard on yourself. I used to tell myself that I was being ''silly'' which really only made the problem worse. Now, I just accept the ''panic'' which does not make it any ''better'' but it is not as bad as when I used to beat myself up about it.

Just wondering... Has anyone ever had several attacks in a row? If so, how did you stop them? I can''t seem to cope as well when they occur one right after another. The worst was when I had them for an entire hour. I simply was exhausted after.
 

whitby_2773

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hi janey :)

i don''t know who suggested to you that you try ''blocking/stopping'' (never heard these terms and suspect someone just kind of made them up), but whoever it was, if it was a psychologist, i''d ask for my money back and go find someone new. when one is having panic attacks, the ''you''re just being silly'' approach really has zero validity.

the thing about panic attacks is that, by the time you''re having them, you already believe something is terrifyingly wrong. a panic attack finds its genesis in your psyche perceiving a significant threat to your survival - either physically or emotionally. for example, people who have had assault experiences often have them as part of an ongoing anxiety disorder. or people who are contemplating huge life changes (such as divorce or who have lost children and now have to redefine themselves as no longer a spouse of parent) have them as a result of what they perceive as a fundamental threat to their identity. sometimes people sitting big exams have them - the threat here being that they may lose their identity as successful if they fail their exams. it''s a fear which threatens us at our deepest levels - either in how we define ourselves or in our actual survival. so telling yourself it''s silly, or overblown.... well, you see my point. not gonna help.

janey, here really isn''t the place to explore what''s happening to you in more detail, so i can''t work out for you whether you''re experiencing multiple panic attacks (which would be EXTREMELY rare - one of the side effects of a panic attack being that your body releases soothing hormones afterwards, making a second attack immediately almost impossible), or whether you''re having a long lead up beforehand and then are simply distraught afterwards (hugely upsetting but not technically a second panic attack). either way, it really doesn''t matter, does it, in that this is horrible for you and just not a tenable way to live going forward.

i can make 2 suggestions tho; firstly, i am generally anti medications for panic attacks, because they CAN be overcome without them, given sufficient supervision and training. and drugs always have to be stopped at some point, and there''s not a lot of joy in that! and the drugs dont help everyone and some people feel worse. so i tend to suggest cognitive behavioral therapy and a whole lot of hard work. you have a genuine condition which needs to be addressed; don''t fool yourself that you can short cut this - this is going to take hard work! but you are definitely up to it, and NOTHING could be more exhausting than what you''re describing. as an effective stop-gap, try the exercises i wrote out above; they do work very well and have a high success rate. they were originally developed for people with a fear of flying anxiety, which is one of the most acute anxieties there is, and they have a very high success rate, even in that situation. but they must be practiced daily - and preferably twice daily, and ALWAYS when you feel an attack coming on.

secondly, i recommend (insisted on, really, when i was working as a therapist) exercise. exercise produces all the hormones which are the exact opposite to the ones that produce anxiety. anxiety is produced by cortisol and adrenaline; exercise produces the feel-good hormones, dopamine and serotonin. exercise also ups your metabolism, meaning that when a panic attack does come, your body can process it more quickly. go to a gym where there are other people around, pump some weights, get on a treadmill, use the step machine; it doesn''t matter what age you are or what physical condition- gyms are for everyone. i used to be a gym junkie up till a few years ago when i had a back injury (NOT because of the gym), and had to stop going. i went to a number of gyms, and there were always PLENTY of overweight, middle aged women there struggling to find their way to physical fitness after years of abuse and neglect! if you''re embarrassed and dont want to be surrounded by too many people, avoid early mornings (the high powered pre-work crowd) and straight after work. mid afternoons are good as most gyms are traditionally very empty around that time (people are working and mothers are going to collect their kids from schools). friday and saturday nights tend to be dead quiet at gyms, as do sunday mornings. but set up an appointment with a trainer, let them assess your physical fitness, and get on a treadmill. it is THE BEST thing you can do for your head - from about half a dozen different perspectives. apart from the hormones exercise produces, it''s wonderful for yourself esteem and it''s very empowering for your body, which teaches you on a subconscious level that you''re strong and able to meet challenges. that will effect how your body responds to stress and anxiety.

people with panic attacks can often respond by staying home and trying to avoid the situations they think might bring on an attack. this is the wrong way forward, i assure you. this is the gateway to agoraphobia - and you dont wanna go there. if nothing else, try to schedule a weekly massage. one of the immediate effects of panic attacks is that people lose their ability to focus on the outside world and get lost in their own heads. their internal fears overwhelm them. a massage reconnects you with the physical world via touch, and the repetitive physical movement is extremely soothing for the mind. it''s also difficult for your brain to process the touch sensation of a massage...and also concentrate on fears to the extent where an anxiety attack is precipitated. learn to see physical touch as your ''safe place'' - as the one thing which can pull you back from the abyss. if you''re married, and you feel an attack coming on, ask your husband to rub your neck/back which you sit and do the 5/4/3 exercise. play music. burn oil. give your brain as much to process as possible; your brain cant do everything at once and it can be distracted. i advise all people suffering from anxiety to buy an oil burner. put a little water in the dish, then add 6 drops of lavender oil, 5 of sweet orange oil, and 4 of cedar oil. i used to burn this whenever i worked with anxious clients and it has a soothing effect. and it smells nice; - just one more message to your subconscious that the world is a friendly place.

and, as i used to say to anyone who came to see me re panic attacks - stay off alcohol; it never helps. artificially induced calm often brings on the biggest attacks of all.

janey, i hope this is of some use to you - good luck!

(PS i''m going to take a copy of my two posts in this thread in case anyone wants a copy of it going forward; panic attacks are so common in our society - i suspect this topic may well come up again.)
 

PilsnPinkysMom

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Oct 11, 2008
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1,878
Oh. My. Gosh.

I opened this thread because I''m heading into my Con Law final
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and thought, "Oh man. This is SO timely! I need to read this advice, pronto!"

Well- I should have figured. Another law student.

Good luck and tons of PS dust!!!!!!
 

megumic

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Mar 8, 2009
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1,647
DUST!

I hope your con law exam went well! I''m taking my con law exam on Wednesday, and the two more next week
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Thanks to all of this great advice on managing anxiety I''m managing the stress a bit better
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zhuzhu

Ideal_Rock
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Mar 15, 2006
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For those of you who are knowledgeable, can you please define what are considered "clinical panic attacks"? I also get anxious from time to time, with sweaty palms and fast heart rate. However they were never really so horrible that I would consider it a clinical illness. What are the signs of real serious panic attacks, as oppose to "strong nervousness"?

Thanks!
 

luckystar112

Ideal_Rock
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Jan 8, 2007
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3,962
I think what you''re describing sounds like a panic attack, but it sounds like you are able to manage it very well.
I''m not that knowledgable, but judging by my own experiences I would say that once the panic attacks become unmanageable to the point where they start significantly interfering with your daily life, there is a problem there. I''m not sure I''m at that point yet, but I will say that my panic attacks tend to go beyond a "nervous" feeling with sweaty palms. It''s more like my heart is popping out of my chest, I start to feel nauseaus, my vision becomes sort of hazy, I feel like I might pass out, and I have an extreme "fight or flight" urge. The "flight" urge is what usually gets me, I just want out of the situation as fast as possible! Like I said, mine usually occur when I''m driving or standing in a line. I''ve been known to get them in class as well. I was diagnosed with social anxiety as a teen, which I thought was odd since I''m a very sociable person. But I think it''s more the feeling of being out of control--on the road I can''t control other drivers, and I can''t control how fast a line moves.

The thing about panic attacks is that while you''re having you can literally feel yourself overreacting and the adrenaline pumping. The worrying only causes more adrenaline to flow, making it worse.
Some people have panic disorder so bad that they don''t want to leave their house or do normal day-to-day things. At that point it is considered "Agoraphobia"--a fear of having a panic attack in a place where there is no easy escape. I think I might have some symptoms of this, since I''ve avoided driving on freeways for the last few years and tend to hate to go anywhere that will force me to be on one. Luckily I''m good at finding alternative routes that aren''t much longer. I''d say that''s about the only way that it''s really affected my life though. It''s not like I''m afraid to go to the grocery store or anything, and I can mentally prepare myself before standing in lines.
 

pinkelephant

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jun 27, 2007
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73
Hi Whitby... Thank you so much for your post. I have been really working on these panic attacks and they have been decreasing. I have also incorporated physical activity in my weekly routine as well as massage once a month! I found that these things have been helping me quite a bit. The doctor has suggested some medication, but I do not want to go down that route. As for experiencing the panic attacks one after the other; it has only happened to me twice. I went through the usual cycle of panic, but as soon as the feelings of ''calm'' started to come, another attack would come on. Anyway, I am hoping that taking better care of myself will lead to fewer panic attacks and hopefully they will stop all together!

Thanks again. :)
 

whitby_2773

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Jan 5, 2009
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you''re very welcome. 12 months from now you''ll be in a completely different ''place''. work hard, and you''ll be great.

a common misconception is that emotional good health is a bottomless resource. it''s not. we have to work hard for our mental health and we need to guard it jealously when we achieve it. those of us who have had to fight to attain it or hold onto it know that lesson best. and that makes us smart, not inadequate.

you go girl!
 
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