I’ve got pretty severe panic disorder and have panic attacks on a near daily basis (sometimes several a day). They can last for anything from 20 minute to 2 hours. Are any fellow dopers similarly afflicted. If so, how do you deal with them? I’ve been prescribed antidepressants but they hardly do anything for me.
Try guided meditation. meditation Oasis has some good apps.
Definitely DON’T try to deal with it using benzodiazepines. Those work excellently well for short periods of time only like maybe a week. Good if you have a very short-term panic problem (like final exams, or an appointment to spend a day in divorce court). For longer-term or chronic anxiety trouble, benzos are the Devil’s toxic potion. They are highly addictive, then you’ll need bigger and bigger doses to get any effect from them, then they won’t work at all, and then when you try to quit you will find out what Hell is like.
I have bipolar disorder but have never had to deal with panic attacks. But sometimes I volunteer to help people on another website. If you are ever having a panic attack late at night and have noone to talk to this web site might help. You can select for anxiety under the category tab.
https://www.7cupsoftea.com/BrowseListeners/
I think your description is entirely accurate. I was on Klonopin and very quickly started to get addicted, it was so peaceful to take the pills. Fortunately I quit as soon as it started to become addictive. Well, it never got to addiction, I just saw how much I liked them and how tempted I was to take an extra pill followed by an extra pill. I quit as soon as I saw that happening. But the desire to take more started almost as soon as I started taking the pills.
Which implies diaphragmatic breathing.
There’s really no other solution, and it works so well (without meds), that I don’t see a need to look further.
Warm shower. Just huddle up on the floor and let the warm water pour over you. NOT hot water, you will get burned. Soothing warm water until you can breath again.
And yes, deep breaths.
Please educate me/us. I would like to know. There are are times when I think about stuff and it keeps me from sleeping at night, to down-right avoiding crap I don’t want to deal with that day, to fearing my life is crap and in danger of me be homeless (again).
I get the “Shit is gonna happen” feeling often (daily). Not sure if that is a panic attack, or as prescribed “Situational Depression”.
Just wondering what you panic about.
Me? My fear? All that I have accomplished goes down the drain in one flush of the toilet…
Peace. And if you don’t want to share, that’s OK.
Deep breathing actually helped. I never thought it would, but doing it 20-40 minutes a day has helped. Deep breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system and helps calm things down. I was surprised by how well it ended up helping me out. So has L-theanine. Supposedly Theanine isn’t addictive the way benzos are, but I don’t know.
I had a dr give me a prescription for a beta blocker, which I take at the first sign of a panic attack. It usually aborts it pretty well. Some people take anti-adrenergics like beta blockers, alpha blockers, alpha-2 agonists, etc around the clock but I just used them for panic attacks.
This to me sounds like regular anxiety and not a panic attack. A panic attack, I am told, is a pronounced physical reaction with feeling of imminent danger or alarming fear, even though there is no valid reason be having the attack. It often entails a racing heart and very quick breathing. I hope I have not described it wrong. I was just trying to give you a reply because there was not yet a reply to your question.
Off-topic: L-Theanine is entirely legal in the U.S., yes?
Thank you. When I get my insurance and make an appt. I am going to bring this issue up with the doctor. Thanks for your insight.
When I had a spell of panic attacks about a decade ago that lasted a couple years, this is what helped me. That and a bottle of water to sip from, for some reason. I did Xanax for a few weeks, but I didn’t like it. I mean, it worked, but left me feeling really odd, kind of like an exaggerated post-caffeine crash, if that makes any sense.
And, yes, a panic attack (at least for me) puts you into fight-or-flight kind of mode, where the heart races, breathing quickens, and there’s an irrational feeling of fear and doom. It really sucks, even if you know what’s going on and that everything will be okay. It took me having two of these to figure out what was going on and to understand what people were going through when they had an attack.
This is also what works for me.
That sounds like a rational response to a rather rational fear, even if the “Shit is gonna happen” feeling sorta creeps up on you out of nowhere.
Panic attacks – while related to situational stressors – don’t happen in the moment of that stress. When I started having them after my late husband was first hospitalized, I didn’t understand what was going on, even after calling my doctor’s office and being told that’s probably what was happening to me, because there wasn’t an immediate medical crisis with his illness at that particular hour. It’s like, to deal with the crisis situations in the moment required me to disassociate from the stress, and then later – in the middle of a quiet afternoon at work, usually – it would all come crashing back.
It really does feel like you’re dying, like your heart is going to smush itself into goo against your rib bones, and the panic over that imminent doom sets up a vicious cycle or feedback loop that’s very terrifying. (And exhausting.)
I was prescribed Xanax, too. Got the lowest dose and only took 1/2 at a time. Even then, the subsequent comedown (withdrawal) sucked, so I only took them when I absolutely had to. Sometimes, knowing I could take one was juuust enough to stave off the worst of it, so I’d just muscle through. (“If it gets any worse, I can still take a pill.”) Carried a bottle of the broken-up pills for months after I had the last attack, because having them with me acted as a sort of security blanket. (My doctor even mentioned knowing patients who carry but rarely take their Xanax, for this exact reason. Just having it means you don’t need it, sometimes.)
To answer the OP, though: there wasn’t much I could do, really. 
It was a physical response to an overwhelming emotional state I couldn’t possibly avoid. It did help, though, to remind myself that I wasn’t actually dying, that I’d be OK in an hour or so, etc. That first one was so terrifying, not knowing what was really happening.
When I was taking Xanax regularly, and stopped, the withdrawal wasn’t that bad for me. But I seem to have the constitution of a horse so that probably isn’t the usual reaction.
Since I no longer work outside of the home what I do now is cry, drink vodka, take a Xanax if I’ve got them, then go to YouTube Music and sing my guts out.
(If I’ve got weed that mellows me out quite well but it’s probably not endorsed by the Board.)
I’ve been in therapy off-and-on for 45 years and nothing else helps me as well. I cannot meditate…mind too racy.
I suffer from anxiety attacks, rather than panic attacks, although the line is sometimes fuzzy. I have the type of anxiety described by Cabin_Fever, but it sometimes turns into full-blown, heart-racing, difficulty breathing attacks. As I’ve discussed in other threads, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy has been extremely helpful for me. I have a number of specific mental exercises that I work through that are able to relieve not only my thoughts, but also the physical symptoms. It sounds like CBT probably wouldn’t be effective for panic attacks, but for generalized anxiety it’s definitely worth investigating.
Cabin_Fever, until you can see a doctor, you might want to check out either of these two books: Feeling Goodby David Burns, or the one that works best for me, Learned Optimismhttp://www.amazon.com/Learned-Optimism-Change-Your-Mind/dp/1400078393/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1435768041&sr=8-1&keywords=Learned+Optimism by Martin Seligman. Both have excellent techniques for dealing with anxiety.
CBT definitely works for panic attacks. It gives you tools that, paired with breathing exercises, give you railings to hold onto while you’re in the throes of an attack. For me, it helped get rid of the random, out of the blue attacks. Now, if I feel one coming on because of situational anxiety (damn you, bridges), I can work my way through it more easily.
Thanks. I just didn’t want to speak to something that I don’t have experience with. It’s good to hear that CBT can be effective for panic attacks as well.