My sister just had her first anxiety attack

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I was just on my way to my anxiety self-help group when my sister called and said she had her first anxiety attack this weekend (more evidence that the tendency to anxiety is genetic). I talked with her about it a bit, and then I brought her to the meeting and gave her all my books and tapes on anxiety. I’m hoping with such a quick intervention before she develops the habits of anxiety and insecurity she won’t have to deal with this for 14 years like I did.

I wouldn’t wish anxiety on anyone; I’m just so glad that I’m able to help her with it.

2

Huzzah!

Too often people with anxiety problems are told to basically get over it or to deal with it, and it [like depression] isnt something they can just deal with…I have confidence that you will be a huge help to her=)

3

I feel terrible for her. I had about ten full-blown panic attacks over the course of two years and they were some of the most horrible things I ever experienced. The quote: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” fits. Damn straight. I was constantly on edge fearing that another one could strike at any time. That certainly didn’t help matters any. They are gone now but I don’t like thinking about them at all.

There are some new medications that are supposed to be pretty effective for some people. Anxiety/panic disorders suck.

4

Just to be fair, that’s not evidence of anything.

5

That is evidence. It is just not a scientific proof.

6

er, ok…but then isn’t it also equally evidence of nurture vs. nature?

I don’t know, were they both brought up in the same enviroment?

7

She’s not saying her sister’s attack is the evidence that anxiety is genetic.

She’s referencing scientific studies that seem to indicate a genetic component.

8

Yeah, anxiety attacks are total hell - I went undiagnosed with generalised anxiety disorder {and clinical depression} for years, so I know where you’re coming from {my sister suffers from it too} - I’m not sure which is worse, wondering when and where the next attack is going to strike, or going crazy wondering if you’re going crazy, so to speak.

I’m glad your sister has you for support, since you know what she’s experiencing: it’s terrible when nobody around you understands what’s happening to you and why you can’t go out and get on that train for fear it’ll bring it on again - one more thing to worry about, and so it goes on, while those around you are telling you to “snap out of it”.

Thankfully I got diagnosed by an understanding doctor, and after a lot of trial and error found some good meds - although they do make my posts a little erratic at times - and CBT and a supportive partner helped a lot: actually, the lovely Missus Case helped more than I can ever say, and is probably the main reason I’m still here to post this.

Just let your sister know that with some courage, a bit of therapy, some meds if necessary, and most of all a lot of support and understanding, she will get through this. All my best wishes to you and her.

                                                  Rob
9

Please describe an anxiety attack or a panic attack, for those of us unfamiliar with the particulars.

10

Yeah, my sister first started having panic attacks a few months ago. I’ve had them for years, although medication keeps them to minimal amounts. My brother also has had a couple. I do think it’s genetic, or at least a predisposition is genetic.

When I talked to her, she was having a panic attack, and I started crying because I knew just what she was going through. It’s so terrible.

11

An anxiety or panic attack is an adrenaline rush* caused by an extreme feeling that you are in danger or are having a heart attack, or stroke, or going crazy, or losing control of your body and/or your mind. It can manifest in any number of symptoms - shaking hands, sweaty palms, cold hands and feet, shallow, rapid breathing, dizziness, feelings of unreality, clenched stomach, numbness, eye twitches, headaches, choking sensation - pretty much any symptom you can dream up can be involved in a panic attack.
*not the traditional kind we think of caused by skiing or something exciting, but the negative kind caused by scaring yourself and invoking your body’s “fight or flight” response.

Rooves, was there a point to your comment?

12

There’s also this terrible feeling of uncontrollable dread, like you have to escape from wherever you are right now and go and curl up in a ball somewhere before you lose what’s left of your mind - sadly, this is seldom possible, as they’re often triggered or exacerbated by confined spaces or large crowds: I had them on packed Japanese trains a number of times, which was pure hell.

You can train yourself to function through them, with the help of breathing exercises and relaxation techniques - this is where CBT, or Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, comes in: the thing is, they feel like the world is crashing down around your ears, but apart {hah!} from the physical and mental symptoms that make you feel like you’re about to fall to the floor, choke to death, or your heart is going to burst, they’re not actually physically harmful, and once you’ve experienced a few and realised this on a mental level, you can recognise the onset and take steps to minimise them.

13

Very well put, Case. I forgot about the dread and the “I’ve gotta get out of here RIGHT NOW!”

I would go even further and say that with CBT and truly believing that they won’t hurt you, you don’t even try to minimize them - you just look them right in the eye and say “C’mon! Give me your best shot!”, and the fear just disappears.

14

Yeah, they’re weird like that: part of your mind is gibbering and frothing and screaming and flailing and trying to drag the rest of you along with it, and another part of your mind is standing sternly with hands on hips saying “Is that all you got? Cut it out! Now!” until the gibbering bit comes meekly to heel. Takes practice, though.

15

It certainly does. And patience. Oh lord, how I’ve learned the lesson of patience.

16

Yes

17

Oh damn… That sucks…

For those who don’t know. I’d say the best possible way to describe an anxiety attack is like when you smoke a lot of weed and freak out. Except when you have smoked weed, you know why you are feaking out because of the weed, which kind of negates the vicious circle. But when you are totally sober and you start to freak out like with weed its really bad, because you think you are going crazy, etc.

For the record, I used to have panic attacks. I haven’t had one in a couple of years. One thing that stopped them was my going abroad. I dont’ know why, but I was all of a sudden in a new environment where things were different. I’ve had mini attacks or things that would be the onset of an attack but nothing really scary.

The scary thing about a panic attack is that once you know that is the diagnosis, you don’t know how to stop it. You know it is totally going on in your head, but you have no way to stop it. Its like a software glitch, seemingly not some kind of hardware problem.

I was lucky. I managed to get rid of the panic attacks by myself. I noticed that mine were less severe. So I somehow conviced myself in some kind of pshychological judo that since they were getting better there was nothing to worry about because they would eventually go away. And they did. They occured less frequently and less severly until they went away.

Again, I’m not an expert and I can only go by my hypothesis, but I think that in my case it was beneficial to not talk about it to anyone because they were getting better, and it didn’t become part of who I was. I think if I had taken drugs or joined support groups that it would have become a thing that stuck with me

But don’t get me wrong, I understand just how horrible they are. I would certainly not say that someone is wrong for doing that.

But in the end, I think i’ve had the best resolution of mine and I’m lucky. I wish I could teach it to anyone else who has them, but again its such a personal thing and its also very, very strange. I mean its totally in your mind. The problem is that there is no conscious control of it.

But if I were to advise someone completely new to panic attacks, I would tell them that its just a slight malfuncion of the brain (imbalance of chemicals, etc) that is no different than the effects of drugs. That would obviously make it less scary I think. I have no idea if this is true or not, but who cares, as long as they go away? It can make you very superstitious about certain situations, and feelings.

I’ll tell you what some of my triggers were, and somtimes still a little bit. I never have a panic attack, but once in a few months I’ll think about it, and then I’ll remember…“Well, I dont get them anymore, and if I did, it wouldn’t be a problem, because they will always be progressively less of a problem.” This sort of mind voodoo is what helped me, but again I suppose I was lucky. But I can remember the days when I’d have multiple panic attacks and its awful

Its like having to consciously experiencing your mind going haywire, and the more it freaks you out, the less rational you become.

But anyways, I hope your sis manages it okay. I know how shitty it is. It would be nice if people could understand why these things happen.

18

It sounds like you more or less gave yourself CBT, Merkwurd. Panic attacks and anxiety linger or grow worse when people fight them and scare themselves by fearing them. If people with panic or anxiety didn’t do that, it probably wouldn’t develop into a disorder. Everyone has anxiety - it’s a normal human emotion. I think people can even have panic attacks under stress and not develop a disorder, if they don’t fight against them and fear them.

It’s hard not to fear something that feels that scary, though, and most people have a panic attack and tell themselves that they’ll die or go crazy if they have another one, so they focus all their energy on not having another one, which is exactly the wrong thing to be telling yourself.

19

Oh, yeah. Lots of patience. I don’t normally do this, but consider yourself hugged.