How do you deal with panic attacks?

[TheFaerie]

@purplehorseshoe

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.)

This. There is a bottle in my purse right now that I rarely open. I haven’t mastered the art of deep breathing yet, but when I’m in the middle of an attack, it would be difficult to remember to do that anyway.

[Arabella_Flynn]

@Shagnasty

I described the problem again to my doctor and he prescribed a medium dose of a common beta blocker. That has been a godsend and what I should have been prescribed all along. A beta blocker makes it almost physically impossible to react strongly to any stressful or fearful situation and that is just what I needed. I wasn’t ever scared of anything in particular. I was scared by the threat of fear itself going into an uncontrollable feedback loop and the beta blocker stops that loop from ever starting. I am not sure why doctors prefer newer and fancier drugs over older and proven drugs like beta blockers.

You can’t have beta blockers if you already have low blood pressure, asthma, and a few other relatively common conditions, or if you’re already on certain other drugs, particularly if they compete for the same metabolic pathway. And they just don’t play well with some people. I got to try them for the first time today, and discovered they give me the whirlies/grayouts when I stand up, and a croupy cough. It wasn’t severe enough to hike back to urgent care for albuterol, but some of my many jobs involve having to sing, dance, and project dialogue on stage. I was prescribed half of the smallest tablets they make, so propranolol is apparently just a no-go for me.

They are also prescribed off-label for migraine, if you happen to have high blood pressure as a trigger. Mine are triggered when my blood pressure crashes through the floor, and I suspect if I’d had a larger dose I’d have been curled up on the sofa, coughing and nursing a debilitating headache as well. Also no good.

[TokyoBayer]

@SpoilerVirgin

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.

I just purchased a copy of Learned Optimism and it’s an eye opener. Wow. As I said, I’ve had a rough time for a while and although I knew I had a lot of despair, it was a shock to see the numbers in the quiz.

I’m only part way through the book. What was your experience with it? You’ve recommended it, so you obviously liked it, but were you pessimistic and did this help you to become more optimistic?

[Little_Pig]

Klonopin. Long half life. Worked for me. Avoid Xanax.

[Wesley_Clark]

@Shagnasty

I had debilitating anxiety attacks for years that interfered with my quality of life and prevented me from doing some common activities let alone things like public speaking. I sought treatment for it over and over and went through every fancy drug the doctors could come up with but it only made things worse.

Then, two things happened. I read an article about magnesium deficiency and its symptoms. I had all of the symptoms for a moderate to severe magnesium deficiency. I asked my doctor to test me for it and it came back as severely deficient (most people are somewhat magnesium deficient but mine was really bad). I bought some reputable magnesium citrate supplements and started taking those. They helped right away but the full benefits didn’t kick in for a few weeks but they were big ones. I still got some panic symptoms like a racing heart and really sweaty hands during any stressful situation but things were normal other than that.

I described the problem again to my doctor and he prescribed a medium dose of a common beta blocker. That has been a godsend and what I should have been prescribed all along. A beta blocker makes it almost physically impossible to react strongly to any stressful or fearful situation and that is just what I needed. I wasn’t ever scared of anything in particular. I was scared by the threat of fear itself going into an uncontrollable feedback loop and the beta blocker stops that loop from ever starting. I am not sure why doctors prefer newer and fancier drugs over older and proven drugs like beta blockers. No one solution will work for everyone because the root causes can be very different but you can push you doctor(s) to try something else when the current strategy isn’t working. The dirty little secret is that they are mostly just guessing what will work for you and you have to tell them when it isn’t.

I had a dream about you a couple of nights ago. I don’t know if it was related to this post or something else.

I was at your house and you were about 50 years old, but you looked terrible. Like a homeless person who just happened to have a house. We were talking about anxiety and beta blockers and we both realized we were on metoprolol for anxiety and we fist bumped. Thats all I remember.

FWIW, other classes of anti-adrenergic drugs are also used for anxiety and PTSD. Alpha blockers and alpha 2 agonists are also helpful. However they have different side effects compared to beta blockers.

[TennisMenace]

@JVDaly

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.

My wife had them and here is what helped her through them:

1. Went to a psychiatrist, who began by prescribing Xanax to help calm you when it occurs. But it is addictive so this is just a bandaid. Counseling helped turn negative mindset to a positive one.

2. The Anxiety and Phobia workbook- they helped her understand this “enemy” and give her strTegies to overcome the beast. Must get thinking right.

[SpoilerVirgin]

@TokyoBayer

I just purchased a copy of Learned Optimism and it’s an eye opener. Wow. As I said, I’ve had a rough time for a while and although I knew I had a lot of despair, it was a shock to see the numbers in the quiz.

I’m only part way through the book. What was your experience with it? You’ve recommended it, so you obviously liked it, but were you pessimistic and did this help you to become more optimistic?

I’m sorry I didn’t see this earlier, but since the thread has been bumped I’m going to respond now.

I don’t think of myself as having been pessimistic: I have never suffered from depression, and I generally have a positive outlook on life. What I am is severely risk averse, almost to the point of phobia. Basically, if I had to make a choice, I believed that I would make the wrong choice with disastrous consequences (now that I have written that, it does sound like a form of pessimism). Naturally, that led to paralyzing fear and anxiety attacks whenever I had to make a decision. The techniques outlined in Learned Optimism helped me to rationally evaluate choices and potential consequences. They are the only thing that have worked to remove the physical symptoms of my anxiety, like stomachaches and sweaty palms. Over time, I modified the techniques to fit my own needs and personality, but I definitely credit that book with helping me to understand the basic idea that my fear is coming from within me, rather than from external causes, and that by changing my thoughts I really can change my emotions and remove some of the anxiety.

I read Learned Optimism based on the recommendation of my therapist, and working with her, along with the techniques in the book, have made a tremendous improvement in my life. Anxiety attacks are now an occasional thing rather than a constant threat, and I’m not all that afraid of them since I know how to deal with them. For me the change has been less from pessimist to optimist, and more from Cowardly Lion to person who can make decisions without falling apart.