I thought I would drop back here as this place was a good resource back when I was suffering from panic attacks and eventually GAD, its coming up to 3 years now since I have recovered. Dare I say it as painful as it was literally going through what seemed to be death day after day I feel I have come out of it a better person in the end. I feel that the undercurrents that cause those symptoms have always been there in me it was just environmental factors that messed things up. I feel that now I can cope better with anything than I could before I went through those bad experiences. Being a quite introverted person I was quite impressed with myself when recently at a decent sized event I actually spent far long using the radio mic / on stage than any other member of staff which would have made be quite anxious even before the aforementioned experiences.
Whilst I wouldn't wish it on anyone I do think once you recover you come out of it a far stronger person. I'll leave you with a few thoughts that might help:
- I wouldn't recommend SSRI's, from what I have read whilst it can help seems people have more problem starting and ending the course (Don't stop if you've started already!!). I reacted badly to the first Citalopram pill I took so I never went on them.
- Betablockers work wonders at taking the edge off as a lot of the experience is adrenaline driven.
- Do as much exercise as you can! a) it keeps adrenaline levels down and b) it helps burn off dodgy other chemicals in your bloodstream (Ever notice how you feel like crap for 2 days after a panic attack?). Remember all emotions are chemical reactions which have waste products.
- If you think your heart is skipping beats / getting sharp chest pains. Firstly get checked out but in my case I found I was due to my hyperventilation (Keep an eye on that too!). I was doing the vast majority of my breathy fast / shallow and only with the upper part of my chest which happens when your panicing (Catch 22?). Once I had been doing it for a while I get twinges in my chest (Que heart attack thoughts) due to the fact the muscles were getting tiered. If you experience this try breathing without moving the top part of your chest, purely diaphragm-ic deep (slow!!) breathing if you can.
- If things ever get too much, just stay in the now. The past and the future are only virtual from our perspective and cannot hurt us and also time spent on them steals time from the now diminishing your experience.
- Don't be overly identified with that large lump of space dust you have borrowed and will eventually have to give back which you call you. But care for it and it will care for you, make sure you eat well lots of veg, multi mineral suppliments and cut any thing really refined if you can such as sugar, white bread etc. I used to really feel changes in my blood sugar and changes in diet can mess with you a bit in their own right. Admittedly I splurged a pack of ferrero rocher today due to the amount of exercise I've been through this week but don't spread that around
- I was always very introspective about my panic attacks as I had a small background in psychology and noticed that they were nearly always caused by thought loops. Your brain is a big circuit and it'll go into overload if put into a loop, break the loop and you stop it dead if its that type of panic attack.
- You'll not doubt have social pressures which you don't really need. Cue fight club introduction, your not your condo, your not your .. etc.
- (Tries not to sound hippy like) Many things in life are a choice between love and hate, it might just be your hate for the condition that is fuelling it. The brain seems to have limited capacity/energy for thoughts simultaneously and by not feeding it, it may just stop. If you have been suffering for a while (It was 1.5 years for me *sigh*) and have been checked out, if your having an attack just sit back and chill out - you might be in proverbial hell but have a laugh about it as its very very unlikely you'll drop dead on the spot even given the extra stress on your system (Second mention on being careful on identification..).
Anyhow if your suffering hope you recover asap.
*hugs*
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