lior
25-11-15, 23:05
I had a panic attack today. First in ages.
Trigger was my mum's friend hugging me and saying something like 'you're welcome here any time' - just as I was desperately trying to leave because I was terrified my mum was going to turn up to their house. My mum's friend's mum just died, they're having visitors just turn up. Death - fear of seeing mum who I haven't seen in a year - someone actually being motherly to me - I got into a spin.
Symptoms: uncontrollable gasped breathing, racing anxiety, sobbing, for a while after I got out the door and was walking to the station.
What did I do to get it under control?
- 'This is a panic attack.'
- Figured out why I was panicking.
- 'This is not a current situation. Mum is not here. I have successfully avoided seeing her.'
- 'Don't think about people being motherly right now. You can talk about that in therapy tomorrow.'
- Ate a biscuit. Made my breathing better temporarily.
- When self harm thoughts came up, I thought 'thoughts are not actions - you can choose to not act on these thoughts'.
- Played a game on my phone to distract myself all the way home.
- Shushed myself when I started to get more anxious and not distracted by the game.
- Sang quietly to myself to soothe myself. (Maybe that's crazy to do it in public, but it works.)
Stopped having to soothe myself once I got home in bed with Ben & Jerry's and a film.
Do you do something similar to get your panic attacks under control?
Trigger was my mum's friend hugging me and saying something like 'you're welcome here any time' - just as I was desperately trying to leave because I was terrified my mum was going to turn up to their house. My mum's friend's mum just died, they're having visitors just turn up. Death - fear of seeing mum who I haven't seen in a year - someone actually being motherly to me - I got into a spin.
Symptoms: uncontrollable gasped breathing, racing anxiety, sobbing, for a while after I got out the door and was walking to the station.
What did I do to get it under control?
- 'This is a panic attack.'
- Figured out why I was panicking.
- 'This is not a current situation. Mum is not here. I have successfully avoided seeing her.'
- 'Don't think about people being motherly right now. You can talk about that in therapy tomorrow.'
- Ate a biscuit. Made my breathing better temporarily.
- When self harm thoughts came up, I thought 'thoughts are not actions - you can choose to not act on these thoughts'.
- Played a game on my phone to distract myself all the way home.
- Shushed myself when I started to get more anxious and not distracted by the game.
- Sang quietly to myself to soothe myself. (Maybe that's crazy to do it in public, but it works.)
Stopped having to soothe myself once I got home in bed with Ben & Jerry's and a film.
Do you do something similar to get your panic attacks under control?