View Full Version : Trying to keep busy to avoid a panic attack
When I wake up have breakfast I feel terrible and delicate, I get that small feeling just before a panic attack, so I go around the house quickly and try to do work to try and ignore it, but when I do that, I feel horrible I get dry eyes throbbing in my face behind my eyes weird vision, heavy heart beat, I wonder if any body else had similar?
Don't ignore it FORGET it. Make it just another thought passing through. Your symptoms are your fear of it because you're thinking about it.
Your thoughts are full of junk all day long just passing through. The panic thought is always going to pass through your head. In ten years time it may be just in the form of post traumatic stress in simply remembering panic attacks, a sensation, any trigger.
But by learning to use your thoughts to, change subject and forget, you take its power away and treat it with little importance like the rest of the junk passing through.
So don't try to ignore it as much as forget it. Success at forgetting it really is a damaging blow to its power over you. It becomes a habit. It's not as hard as you think it is. When you succeed at it you've developed a tool that panic attacks just cannot do anything about. It's now just another thought without power.
It has no power because you have confidence you can go "oh whatever" and jump a thought away, then another, (you're forgetting) then another.
"Need to make that shopping list"
"What present am I going to buy..."
It dissipates, it's gone. You know you did it and feel a new control over it.
The next time it's power is even less.
Agoraphobic housebound panics when goes out. Her child falls ill and ambulance is called. She's terrified something serious is wrong with the child. Ambulance comes and rushes them to hospital. Until the child is announced ok she doesn't even think about the fact she's outside. Only when she thinks about it does she worry.
"I can't believe I did that" she says.
She had momentarily forgotten about her fear. Her focus was on something else entirely and she had forgotten.
Your mind is your own. You choose what you focus on. Whilst fully on something else you can't be thinking about panic.
Panic has a natural automatic dampening effect.
When a friend jumps out on you, that's panic. The surprise makes you jump. But it's instantly dampened.
That's how we all start out.
It comes sometimes naturally, it's dampened.
It comes sometimes naturally, it's dampened.
Put that dampening effect back.
It prevents it's escalation.
Confidence you're in control of your focus, change subject, forget.
Of course there can be physiological reasons why you have panic attacks. But that's up to a doctor to decide.
Don't ignore it FORGET it. Make it just another thought passing through. Your symptoms are your fear of it because you're thinking about it.
Your thoughts are full of junk all day long just passing through. The panic thought is always going to pass through your head. In ten years time it may be just in the form of post traumatic stress in simply remembering panic attacks, a sensation, any trigger.
But by learning to use your thoughts to, change subject and forget, you take its power away and treat it with little importance like the rest of the junk passing through.
So don't try to ignore it as much as forget it. Success at forgetting it really is a damaging blow to its power over you. It becomes a habit. It's not as hard as you think it is. When you succeed at it you've developed a tool that panic attacks just cannot do anything about. It's now just another thought without power.
It has no power because you have confidence you can go "oh whatever" and jump a thought away, then another, (you're forgetting) then another. Hang on does that mean if there a ph
"Need to make that shopping list"
"What present am I going to buy..."
It dissipates, it's gone. You know you did it and feel a new control over it.
The next time it's power is even less.
Agoraphobic housebound panics when goes out. Her child falls ill and ambulance is called. She's terrified something serious is wrong with the child. Ambulance comes and rushes them to hospital. Until the child is announced ok she doesn't even think about the fact she's outside. Only when she thinks about it does she worry.
"I can't believe I did that" she says.
She had momentarily forgotten about her fear. Her focus was on something else entirely and she had forgotten.
Your mind is your own. You choose what you focus on. Whilst fully on something else you can't be thinking about panic.
Panic has a natural automatic dampening effect.
When a friend jumps out on you, that's panic. The surprise makes you jump. But it's instantly dampened.
That's how we all start out.
It comes sometimes naturally, it's dampened.
It comes sometimes naturally, it's dampened.
Put that dampening effect back.
It prevents it's escalation.
Confidence you're in control of your focus, change subject, forget.
Of course there can be physiological reasons why you have panic attacks. But that's up to a doctor to decide.
So does that men if there. Physiological reason for. Her panic that its can be treat same way x
cloudbusting
04-04-14, 10:40
Hi Trish
Yes, you can definitely 'treat' panic that has a physiological cause in the same way as psychological panic / anxiety ... and I only found this out fairly recently.
The sensations are the same and your aim is to stop it from escalating into a full blown panic or whatever your particular 'poison' is :) I was reading about it on a menopause forum, I shall try and find the link for you and post it up here
Lisa x
I'm not a doctor but I wouldn't have thought so no.
I think if there's a physiological reason for the onset of panic attacks, like menopause, hormones, overtraining or god knows what else, thinking your way out of it probably won't do much for the physiological reason it's happening. But I don't know that, I'm not a doctor.
I suffered from panic attacks twenty years ago. The above is just really what helped me. It's also based on much that I've learned from different sources since that, for me, show me that I was on the right track.
I know what it feels like to obsess and look for answers. It bothers me when I see people confused and searching.
At some point I realised, don't search, obsess, ruminate, FORGET.
When your mind is elsewhere you're free.
Starts with hours, then days, then weeks, months.
Oh look, it's been three years since I had a panic attack. I don't think about it anymore. If I remember, I FORGET.
But you can wake up feeling awful for all sorts of reasons.
In a period of my life I'd wake up panicking at remembering who and where I was and the sheer terror at the loneliness I was experiencing. I'd wake up with my heart pounding. You can't think that away. What cures that is bringing people into your life. So you wake and remember them and your spirits lift.
You can wake feeling terrible because you drank alcohol, ate sugar and rubbish the day before or that you ate late and your body was digesting all night.
People can have sleep conditions where they don't get proper rest. I don't see anyone "thinking" their way out of that one.
Simply remembering you have anxiety and fearing the attacks can be enough to wake feeling terrible. Get into the habit of waking and thinking of the positive, productive things that took place the day before and your excitement at your future if you continue with more positive and productive actions today.
Build them like a little mountain. The more they pile up, the more room for optimism and high spirits when you wake.
---------- Post added at 11:14 ---------- Previous post was at 11:12 ----------
Hi Trish
Yes, you can definitely 'treat' panic that has a physiological cause in the same way as psychological panic / anxiety ... and I only found this out fairly recently.
The sensations are the same and your aim is to stop it from escalating into a full blown panic or whatever your particular 'poison' is :) I was reading about it on a menopause forum, I shall try and find the link for you and post it up here
Lisa x
Oh well there you go. That sounds good to me, makes sense.
cloudbusting
04-04-14, 11:34
Hi Oosh
Your suggestion to 'forget' is bang on the money ... I can't do it yet but I am trying !
MLC - some protein to eat when you get up is good for stabilising those horrible 'early morning' feelings, try and eat something within an hour of waking if you can ... and starting the day with positive thoughts as Oosh says can make a massive difference to your mindset.
Thanks guys after fifty odd yes of suffering I try anything
How do you know if you're ignoring, or forgetting. I feel like forgetting is almost impossible with the symptoms. Ignoring SEEMS to be easy, but then by trying to ignore, you really aren't. Such a struggle.
Well ignoring is -
"Oh no I had a panic thought again and felt panic escalate. Just ignore it like it's not there" (knowing full well that it is so never actually returning to a normal relaxed, unworried state)
Forgetting is
"This programmes good
Oh god I've just remembered that trigger thought
STOP
Dont let it even form fully in your mind.
Quickly bury it with other normal thoughts like you were before it popped into your head.
Your goal is to resume where you left off before it's appearance.
"I'll go to the toilet, make a cup of tea, what do I have going on at the moment, tomorrow is the day I do this, is it ready, open that window it's warm in here, have I taken my vitamins, I wonder if blah blah is ok after her blah blah (the trigger thought that TRIED to take shape in your mind is already looking like its in the past. )
Put as much distance between you and it and it'll fail to take hold, fail to alter your state.
Your goal is to busy your mind so that you actually do forget you had the trigger thought in the first place.
By doing this you're returning yourself to the state you were in when you were outside of yourself watching TV in a relatively relaxed state.
THATS not going to happen if you let it form and start to think about it.
Imagine its a person.
They walk up and stand behind you.
You think "I know they're there but I'm going to ignore them (I'm aware they're there)
Or you can say
I'm going to take my book out and read and think only of the book and completely forget they're there. They'll quickly get bored and leave once they realise I've forgotten they're even there.
Later in the day you get a brief flashback of the event and think "oh yeh, they were there weren't they. I'd completely forgotten. They must have got bored and left.
Break it up before it forms.
Replace it instantly with your normal thoughts.
Put distance between you and it.
Forget it.
Literally, because there is nothing gained in entertaining that trigger thought.
Don't live in a world feeling like you're ignoring panic triggers hoping they don't get you.
Forget about them.
If they pop up, forget.
Anxious thoughts are like being trapped in a cycle, forgetting is like escape.
As for symptoms, I'm assuming they were brought on by your thoughts ?
So I assume if you can actually forget and fill your mind with everyday thoughts of external things your thoughts shouldn't be triggering panic symptoms.
Control over your focus like this breeds confidence which takes the power out of the panic thoughts when they appear because the fear is that youre not in control.
TooMuchToLiveFor
05-04-14, 16:59
Well ignoring is -
"Oh no I had a panic thought again and felt panic escalate. Just ignore it like it's not there" (knowing full well that it is so never actually returning to a normal relaxed, unworried state)
Forgetting is
"This programmes good
Oh god I've just remembered that trigger thought
STOP
Dont let it even form fully in your mind.
Quickly bury it with other normal thoughts like you were before it popped into your head.
Your goal is to resume where you left off before it's appearance.
"I'll go to the toilet, make a cup of tea, what do I have going on at the moment, tomorrow is the day I do this, is it ready, open that window it's warm in here, have I taken my vitamins, I wonder if blah blah is ok after her blah blah (the trigger thought that TRIED to take shape in your mind is already looking like its in the past. )
Put as much distance between you and it and it'll fail to take hold, fail to alter your state.
Your goal is to busy your mind so that you actually do forget you had the trigger thought in the first place.
By doing this you're returning yourself to the state you were in when you were outside of yourself watching TV in a relatively relaxed state.
THATS not going to happen if you let it form and start to think about it.
Imagine its a person.
They walk up and stand behind you.
You think "I know they're there but I'm going to ignore them (I'm aware they're there)
Or you can say
I'm going to take my book out and read and think only of the book and completely forget they're there. They'll quickly get bored and leave once they realise I've forgotten they're even there.
Later in the day you get a brief flashback of the event and think "oh yeh, they were there weren't they. I'd completely forgotten. They must have got bored and left.
Break it up before it forms.
Replace it instantly with your normal thoughts.
Put distance between you and it.
Forget it.
Literally, because there is nothing gained in entertaining that trigger thought.
Don't live in a world feeling like you're ignoring panic triggers hoping they don't get you.
Forget about them.
If they pop up, forget.
Anxious thoughts are like being trapped in a cycle, forgetting is like escape.
As for symptoms, I'm assuming they were brought on by your thoughts ?
So I assume if you can actually forget and fill your mind with everyday thoughts of external things your thoughts shouldn't be triggering panic symptoms.
Control over your focus like this breeds confidence which takes the power out of the panic thoughts when they appear because the fear is that youre not in control.
Oosh-
What an amazing reply!
Do you have any insight for those (like me) who have a pretty good handle on their thought life and mindset, but still have the many symptoms? I am in such a better place from "the dark days" where I started that I just take the symptoms with me, and as I like to say "give them a polite nod and carry on", but it is a bit of a drag to say the least. Mine often, actually most usually, do not seem to arise from thoughts…..you have such good input I thought I'd ask your opinion. :)
Anxiety kept waking me up at night, and I struggled. The thoughts only came after I was awake. The thoughts are hard to ignore because some of them revolve around health issues that haven't been resolved yet. Really nearly impossible to forget. So, I have to agree with the last post that mine seems to be more physical than thought induced
Wow thanks TooMuchToLiveFor !
As you can see I've had a life full of analysing things to death haha.
I'm afraid I have absolutely no idea of how to get rid of any remaining symptoms you have if your mental outlook is now very good. I'd have to study to become a psychologist, then a doctor and then experiment on you/ give you therapy for the next decade to genuinely have half a chance at understanding why you are currently like you are. And knowing how slow I am I think we'd all be dead by then anyway :-]
You could spend all day helping somebody to see with a more positive, empowering perspective only to find at a later date they're found to suffer from physiological condition A or be deficient in thingy B and with that corrected they're no longer prone to these symptoms.
Some people have more sensitive nervous systems. You can have your mind right but still be betrayed by your own nervous system. Your body is the hardware you live in and even with your mind right your body may react in certain ways whether you like it or not.
Don't know what symptoms you struggle with so very difficult to comment.
Sorry, I've tried to at least respond with some sort of reply there. Probably ends up reading like gobbledygook. Hope some of it makes sense.
---------- Post added at 18:07 ---------- Previous post was at 18:00 ----------
Anxiety kept waking me up at night, and I struggled. The thoughts only came after I was awake. The thoughts are hard to ignore because some of them revolve around health issues that haven't been resolved yet. Really nearly impossible to forget. So, I have to agree with the last post that mine seems to be more physical than thought induced
I agree with you 100%.
If you have some kind of physical symptom that you're really worried about it's not really logical to forget about it.
You're right, it needs resolving and THEN forgetting.
The mention of forgetting in this thread was really only because the original poster said they wake and try to ignore and I said don't ignore forget.
But at this point I'm kinda feeling like I'm advertising my new book named "Forget, the key to everlasting happiness" hehe.
I'm not selling a book honest.
TooMuchToLiveFor
05-04-14, 18:17
Hey Oosh-
Thanks so much for taking the time to reply- and your reply makes total sense. :)
For the most part I am just doing my best to not even try to figure it all out since I seem to be able to keep the panic attacks at bay for the most part. I think the following may have hit the nail on the head:
"Some people have more sensitive nervous systems. You can have your mind right but still be betrayed by your own nervous system. Your body is the hardware you live in and even with your mind right your body may react in certain ways whether you like it or not."
I think after a very crisis filled few years my body is just in "danger mode" even though the danger has all passed. Even in the midst of it my mindset was fairly good, but trauma leaves scars- and only time will tell if my body will wear them for the rest of my years, or if they will eventually fade away to only be a tiny reminder of a very, very hard season.
Either way- as my username states- I have "too much to live for", and will keep putting one foot in front of the other. May all of us continue to do so! :)
stillcraven
05-04-14, 22:06
It's common to have odd feelings before a panic attack. I feel that if a person rushes around it causes the attack to worsen. I find that if I distract myself by doing something normal (washing dishes etc.) soon the feeling of panic subsides:)
What a great thread and insight, Oosh, explaining it so eloquently about the nervous system, my mind too is sooooo much better but my body is slow to catch up. The forever changing symptoms can fool you/me. But trying not to fool the mind.
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