Please help.2 important issues about panic attacks

[christinaKountoura]

It's been over a year since I had my first panic attack. It's not that I can't cope, I'm seeing a therapist and I'm trying to be positive and believe I will make it. My problems are two. 1. I believe my panic comes from a fear of God. not God as God, I feel I'm so sinful that God will punish me. I think he'll "make me die" so that I'll go to hell to pay for my sins. I know how extremely stupid that sounds but it's inside my head and I can't get rid of it. Every time I have sex, I can't sleep, I get a panic attack.
2. Yesterday I figured that I cannot sleep without music. Every night, I listen to music till I fall asleep. Yesterday, I didn't have battery on my phone and I decided to try to sleep without music. It was impossible. I couldn't breathe, I guess it was a panic attack. Then, I played one song I like a couple of times and I fell asleep. has anyone else ever felt like this? Please answer me and tell me your opinion.

[Nat2015]

What you describe is not stupid at all :hugs: There has been a direct link between guilt, blame and shame and the panics I have experienced. I would go as far as to say it was the driving force behind the fear in many ways. I am in the process of making these feelings conscious and then challenging them. I am also working on finding out where the original guilt/shame comes from and then correcting it at the source.

With regards to the music I would say its simply a current symptom of your particular panic cycle atm and a safety behaviour. I have gone through many phases where I "had" to have something in a specific way and still have many I am trying to get rid of. At one stage I would only take my medication exactly at 8pm on the dot or else something bad might happen. I knew intellectually that I had been very casual with the time I took medication in the previous years but at that time I honestly felt I would die if I didn't take it at exactly 8pm and I mean exactly!! :wacko:. You can imagine the fun I had when the clocks changed :D

To get out of these habits I have had to challenge the thoughts and counter them with rational evidence over and over until my brain and body believed it!

Safety behaviours keep the fear cycle going so its a good idea to work towards stamping them out if possible. I'm still working on some of mine! :winks:

[Ditapage]

You're not crazy, you're very brave for speaking up and seeing as you believe in God, I want you to rest-assured that God loves you and doesn't punish sinners, but unrepentant sinners. The fact you are afraid God will punish you means you acknowledge him, acknowledge his righteous standards, and recognise you are a sinner (as we all are) and Jesus died for our sins and we have a clean standing before God if we say a simple prayer: "Dear Lord Jesus, I come to you knowing i am a sinner and I thank you that you saved me from my sins, by dying on the cross and I accept you as my saviour today." There's nothing you could do to separate you from his love. "God loves you" keeps coming to me so I will post it again. God loves you. Hell is for people who choose not to be with him by rejecting him in this life. God has done amazing things in my life - if you are a believer, know that he really does care for you.

Also read this http://www.goodnewsarticles.com/feb00-1.htm particularly the paragraph on fear because anytime you are feeling scared that is not God. God is love, not fear. Fear is a lie and God is not a liar. You don't have to feel this way. Once again, God loves you. Talk to him in prayer and say aloud that you cast out the fear in Jesus' name because it's not something your Heavenly Father wants you to feel. God desires to punish nobody. Anxiety convinces us of a lot of things but they're not true, tell those thoughts to get lost. They have no power over the word of God that says "Do not be afraid" 365 times.

Fear and everything it makes us think and feel is a bully, and a boogeyman, don't let it tell you lies about God who wants you to have a full, enjoyable fear-free life. Don't keep fearing punishment: Jesus keeps believers out of hell, and gives them eternal life. If you are a believer you have nothing to fear. There is no sin that can't be forgiven if you ask for forgiveness. If you believe in God, instead of fearing his power, pray to see it in your life, read the Bible and come to know that God is loving and patient and kind and tells us to throw our anxieties on him. Never let anxiety tell you differently. Read the gospel accounts in the Bible of Jesus who is God in the flesh, and see how Jesus healed the sick, performed amazing miracles, loved people, because that is God. There's nothing to fear.