I have suffered most of my life with some level of anxiety, but lately it’s developed into full blown panic attacks. I know that the first step is to see a doctor, which I am trying to do. The soonest I can be seen is the 15th of July. My question is what to do in the meantime? I feel like I’m going crazy! It’s started to become that vicious cycle of having a panic attack, heightened anxiety about having another one, leading to another panic attack. At this point talking myself through them isn’t having much of an effect. Any advice/support would be so greatly appreciated! Feeling alone is definately not helping either.
What kind of doc is your July 15 appointment with? If it’s a specialist, why don’t you get in to your “regular” doctor in the meantime? They should be able to prescribe SOMEthing to get you through the interim.
Other people will post with better info than this, but I am posting so you know I am sympathizing with you. Please PM me if you want more immediate emotional support. I’ve been there.
IANAD.
But I know how you feel. I had panic attacks over birthday parties, over starting new jobs, over silly things. I started taking Klonopins for them, but through an unlucky turn of events (not being able to pay the last time I went to the pharmacy) I had to stop taking them. I’ve since started a new job (one of my biggest triggers) with no problems.
How? Yoga, meditation, and deep breathing. It helps me calm myself down enough that I can talk myself out of it. Something physical like yoga (where you’re supposed to focus on your body) helps push the nasty little thoughts out of your head.
Good luck to you.
I’ll second the meditation, and the visit to your ‘regular’ doc. A short stint on Alprazolam [zanax] might be beneficial, IANAD of course so please try and get in before if you can. At least it will take away your anxiety and help you cope. I’ll also second PMing me if you need to chat!
I’ve been through a period of panic attacks before. It is indeed horrible. I understand exactly the hopelessness you feel. You can take comfort in several things.
The condition is treatable.
No one has died from a panic attack.
You should seek help from a doctor who understands these things very well. Until you start getting treatment, the thing you need to watch yourself for is making associations. Panic attacks can happen randomly. If it happens while shopping you will have a tendency to think shopping caused it. Or driving over bridges, etc. This is how people become house bound.
I’ll second (third?) the relaxation advice. And by that I mean guided relaxation.
(I Am Not A Doctor and this NOT medical advise) Zanax - For me, I don’t think I could have gotten past my panic disorder without them. They really are the magic bullet. That being said, they are extreeemely addictive. It was tough to come off of them but worth the symtoms for me. Klonopin works well too. I would strongly advise trying to kick this without resorting to drugs if possible.
During therapy they used to say, “Panic attacks won’t kill you they will only make you uncomfortable. You don’t need to be comfortable to live.” This is great advise and a big help in overcoming my struggle but hard to remember during an episode. I wrote it on the back of a business card and kept in my pocket to read when needed. It helped.
Because most of this is caused by your brain you might think that you can cognatively make it stop. You can’t. Come to terms with that and go along with the therapy prescribed even if you don’t think it will work.
Hang in there you will be OK again one day. If I can make it (as bad as I was), anyone can. Best of luck to you.
ETA: You are not alone. You probably know others with this problem, they just don’t let on.
I know “meditation” sounds cheesy, but I’ll third it (or however many-ith it). It really does help (though medicine helps more and No, in spite of what some will tell you, it does not zombie you out). I’d also recommend cutting down on caffeine until you see the doctor (those 5 Hour Energy bottles work pretty well if you need the boost) though if you’re a smoker don’t even consider quitting until you’re on a medicine that works. And of course the general “relax/breathe/tell yourself ‘this is a panic attack and it’s going to get better’/think of Orlando Bloom naked giving you a hot stone massage” thing.
Wha?
Thanks, everyone. I’ve been trying to get out and walk whenever it gets bad. It seems to help some what. And I am trying very hard to avoid the association problem. As far as getting into see someone sooner, I am fairly new to the area and am not an established patient anywhere. I am going to see if there are any local emergency resources though. I think half the battle is not feeling so isolated. Though I mainly lurk, the Dope is where I hang out most of the time. I’m having a hard time making new friends here in the real world.
And Don’t fight the hypothetical, an extra thank you, for reminding me that it’s not my fault I can’t think them away.
Panic attacks flat out suck and can ruin your life. I have had them off and on for years. They got so bad about 2001 that I developed a type of phobia about being forced to sit or stand still. I would become petrified to stand in line at the supermarket or even stop at a red light. Getting a haircut required hours of mental and physical prep work. I countered it at the time but running miles and miles a day. I would literally run 8 fast miles and then lift weights before doing any of the things listed above. It worked well but that level of exercise isn’t sustainable for most people. Still, exercise should help and has other obvious benefits.
Don’t be shy or passive about medications. Psychiatric drugs are very much a black art and almost totally patient specific. If you get a prescription, be aware that there is a good chance that it either won’t work at all for your panic symptoms or there is a better choice for you. Read about the options available on the web and become an informed consumer. Mental health physicians need detailed feedback from their patients because their aren’t any objective tests that can tell them how you are responding in total.
The generic form of xanax calms me down.
Panic attacks mean different things to different people. For some people they feel like a heart attack. Others feel the urge to lie in the floor and squirm. Some feel like passing out. Others need moving air around them. Some feel waves of nausea and trembling.
This is such a little thing, but it helped. While I was having an attack, I would put my face into a big bowl of ice water – with ice cubes floating in it. It was a shock to the system, but it helped me to slow down and focus.
Later I was able to graduate to a spray bottle of water that I kept in the refrigerator. When I returned to teaching, I kept that bottle in the frig in the faculty lounge. I had to use it only a few times, but it kept me going.
By the way, I got the idea for putting my face in ice water from watching Paul Newman put his head in ice water in two or three movies. I wonder if he has done that in real life.
Meditation and relaxation tapes also have worked for me. I wouldn’t be afraid of taking xanax or its generic form alprazolam.
You are going to be okay. Anxiety can make you think you are losing it. If it gets too bad, I wouldn’t hesitate to go to the emergency room or a clinic. Let them know you have an appointment and are new to the community. You might take something to prove that – like a recent bill that was sent to your old address.
Do you live in a city, small town, or a rural area?
I had my first full-blown one in 2000, and it took over a year of daily mental struggle to get over it.
I controlled it by exerting lots and lots of mental thought control, but eventually I got tired and gave into it. I basically said “bring it on bitch! Go ahead, kill me! Kill me right now damnit, I don’t care anymore!”
The panic is of course a pussy that can’t kill you, so after I dared it, it receded.
YMMV.
How’s your stimulant intake, OP? Lots of caffeine, nicotine, etc.? Moderate those.
Meditation is a great thing if you can concentrate while you’re having an attack. I found that just getting outside where I could breathe fresh air helped me.
Also, it can really help to find soothing music to have ready and turn it on and focus on the notes. Bonus help if you can lie down and close your eyes and just listen.
A few times when it has been unbearable, I’ve gotten into the shower and started with the water being fairly warm and slowly turning down the hot water until it was cooler and cooler.
One other thing that would help would be to sit quietly and concentrate on my breathing. While doing that I would take the tips of my fingers and massage right where your jaw comes together. Just rubbing little circles varying the pressure.
Hang in there.
In my experience, meditation really is great for both the here and now of an attack, and for putting you longer term in a place where they just simply won’t stick anymore. You know you should be having an attack, and you know its in there somewhere, but it doesn’t worry you any more. Highly recommended.
I’ve been very sensitive to visual (good for spotting any moving critter), as well as aural stimulation my whole life. Always avoided crowded, noisy places. Finally manifested itself in panic attacks at age 33. Bought a zillion books on stress and got more stressed. After seeing a shrink, trying Paxil (paroxetine), and giving up, I suffered the attacks for several more years. They were running my life, for sure.
Saw another shrink. He told me I had an overly sensitive “alarm”, and prescribed Paxil again. This time I stuck with it for a month or so and it started to do the trick.
In the 8 years I’ve been on it, I’ve been able to move, get married, move again, calmly go on job interviews, and have two darling kids. I still get twinges of panic occasionally, but I can stuff it down and get on with things.
The downside is that Paxil has a wicked withdrawal syndrome. If you stop taking it for a few days you will get nasty brain “zaps” when you move your eyes side-to-side. Can also cause orgasm to be delayed or even unobtainable on occasion. Wife doesn’t complain.
I don’t know what long-term effects it will have on my health, but I’m so happy to even have a life I don’t care. There’s worse vices out there.
To remove the cheese factor, I recommend the book, The Calm Technique: Meditation Without Magic or Mysticism. It gives a well-cited account of how meditation works and how to do it without any of the wishy-washy New Age crap.
The thing that really helped me most with anxiety was something I learned in therapy, so this might be more helpful to you later when you have someone to help you through it. What I realized is that during a panic attack, I didn’t want to feel panic, so I would mentally resist it which only made it stronger. Once I realized what I was doing, I could feel myself resisting and let go a little. When I did that, the panic would sort of wash over me in waves, and I could feel it getting weaker. The first time that happened, it was a wonderful feeling and I thought I was cured. I wasn’t - sitting there with your anxiety takes practice and willpower - but it was a relief to me to know that I did have control over the anxiety if I could learn to let it go.
I also recommend meditation, but if you find that you can’t do it, don’t beat yourself up over it. I still have a very hard time meditating because the act of sitting down and just listening to my thoughts can freak me out. Again, if I sit with the “freak out,” then it dies down in waves and I end up with a clear mind. What I do far more often than meditation, though, is yoga, which is like a moving meditation for me.
I’ll also recommend not just going out for a walk when you get panic attacks (although that definitely helps me too), but doing it on a regular basis. I’ve got this pet theory (for which I have no real evidence, just a hunch) that the type of office work where you sit in front of your computer for long periods results in anxiety because your body is designed to be moving for several hours a day. Exercising in any way on a daily basis can release the adrenalin or whatever else gets built up during the course of a day.
Rereading my post, I think I need to practice more what I preach, but anyway, I hope it’s useful!
Wow Shagnasty we may be related. Panic attacks for me usually happen in that twilight zone of sleeping and mostly awake in the morning if that even makes any sense. The idea of impending doom before I take a shower can be overpowering.
Part of the problem I’m sure of is that I don’t have a normal job were is that I don’t have to be at work at a certain time. It probably would be better if I had a set schedule and routine. I’m tied to my work cell phone and the uncertainty of when it will ring drives me nuts.
My situation was somewhat similar- the worst bout of panic attacks I had was when I was actively trying to calm myself down. For me there’s a time prior to a panic attack when I can distract myself (walk, count backwards from 100 by 3s, etc.), but once I get to a certain point, trying distraction just prolongs the attack.
Once I get to that point of no return (which is well before the panic attack, maybe 10 or 15 minutes), I need to just ride it out. I think the idea is that the chemicals are building up in your body, and they need to be released. (okay, that’s a gross oversimplification, but it helps me to understand it by framing it that way.) If I try to avoid the panic attack, I get no release, and end up having a much worse one, or a few right after each other. If I ride it out, it can be over and done with.
I found it helpful to read a book called The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook, not particularly because it had a lot of great suggestions, but because it made me realize that what I was going through was not unique. I had always known that, but seeing my symptoms written down in a published book cemented it for me.
I learned the average time for most panic attacks, and used that when riding them out. I tell myself, “okay, this is going to suck while it’s ramping up, and be really shitty and I’ll probably cry while it’s going on for about 15-20 minutes, then it’ll ramp back down and I’ll feel weird.” I just try to keep in mind that yes, I’m going to feel awful, but then it will stop. I try to get myself in a place I feel safe, like a closed room, my car, with a really close friend or alone, and ride it out.
When I started thinking of the panic attacks in that way, they decreased in frequency dramatically. Just knowing that I had some kind of tool to deal with them made them less frequent. I still get panic attacks, but I have some close friends that are aware of the situation, and I know I can make it through them by gritting my teeth and riding it out if I can’t distract myself first. I’m certainly not against medication, I took some years ago that didn’t seem to help. With the help of a therapist I was able to deal with this without medication this time, though it took a while. (and I was initially convinced meds were the only thing that would help me.)
I wish you the best of luck! Feel free to PM me if you want to talk! You can do this, you can make it through this stuff. It sucks to have your body working against you like that, but you can do it. I know everyone’s experience is different, but a lot of us here have had similar problems and we’re here for you!
Can you elaborate on this withdrawal symptom? I’ve been on and off Paxil a few times now and don’t remember any withdrawal (and I stopped abruptly each time).
The side effect with the unobtainable orgasm was present and very frustrating for me. And my wife didn’t complain either, but I stopped taking it that time because I just couldn’t take it anymore, not to mention I was developing brushburn in that very sensitive area.
I finally quit taking it the last time because I couldn’t afford it and my health insurance didn’t cover it. It’s been over a year and the panic attacks have not returned. I don’t know if the Paxil totally fixed my condition, or if I just outgrew it.