I woke up about an hour ago and I just felt so anxious. My mind was racing and I felt like I was losing my grip. It's such a horrible feeling. I can deal with the heart racing and the shortness of breath, but the genuine feeling of thinking I'm going crazy just ruins me.
Sleep seems very far off right now :/
LittleMissAlone
02-04-16, 05:54
You're not going crazy! It's very common and it always passes. Your brain isn't processing information properly at the moment, but it can heal with various methods (meds, mindfulness, etc). All is not lost!
Thank you :) I finally got to sleep at about 7am. I feel better now. Still slightly off like you tend to be after having a bad one. I haven't suffered from a panic attack for ages so it scared me.
They do pass but are horrible at the time. I have a big panic attack every morning, anxious, tense, sweating, upset etc and little ones in between. I use an app that I found which I put on a previous post helpful. It talks you through a panic attack. Also talking it through with someone if you can and breathing exercise. I hate the and they are so debilitating. My tension does last most if the day but i try to distract myself....have taken up knitting..lol. I'm on meds too. Are you on meds? I also see a counsellor. x
Yes I'm on meds. Citalopram and propranolol 180mg slow release. I see a counselor as well. I've been doing pretty well for a while now, so this happening really upset me and now I have that tell tale horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach. I'm trying to decipher what's causing it, but that's almost making it worse because when I run through the things going on in my life recently I keep thinking "Jesus, who wouldn't be depressed?" which isn't something I like to do. I file it under 'can't be changed' and move on. Which is why I suffer from anx and depression in the first place.
I'm even wondering if it's an upped and slightly changed dose of another med I'm taking for nerve pain. It's one of the side effects, but I'd previously been taking it for a while, just a slightly lower dose: see this thread I started if interested >> http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?p=1539489#post1539489 I'd be interested if anyone has had this with a medication or if I'm just looking for something to blame lol
I'm due to see my counselor on Tuesday so maybe that'll help. :/
What thoughts from your racing mind? Xx
The thoughts that race through my mind mid panic attack don't really make any sense and it's mostly 'I'm losing my mind' lol
Yeah, that's all very common stuff for panic attacks. Have you read any books by Dr. Claire Weekes?
I haven't, no. It's not good really, considering I've suffered with anxiety and depression since I was 18. I tend to just take medication and pretend it doesn't exist. I have to stop doing that because it's that exact reason why it always blind sides me.
Are they helpful?
I would argue they are the single most important books ever written about panic attacks and anxiety. Claire Weekes was a doctor from Australia who also suffered from panic attacks. So she had the unique position of being both medically trained, but also having experienced panic first had. She wrote her books in the 60's and a lot of her idea's pre-dated Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which is the standard for panic/anxiety therapy. Order her book "Hope and Help for Your Nerves." The first time I read it, I cried. No one has ever laid out EXACTLY what we feel like the way she does, and she is the only one that has ever really given me hope. It's a must read, and I feel like you'd feel a million times more at peace after reading.
gonna have to get that :D
MyNameIsTerry
03-04-16, 06:54
I would argue they are the single most important books ever written about panic attacks and anxiety. Claire Weekes was a doctor from Australia who also suffered from panic attacks. So she had the unique position of being both medically trained, but also having experienced panic first had. She wrote her books in the 60's and a lot of her idea's pre-dated Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which is the standard for panic/anxiety therapy. Order her book "Hope and Help for Your Nerves." The first time I read it, I cried. No one has ever laid out EXACTLY what we feel like the way she does, and she is the only one that has ever really given me hope. It's a must read, and I feel like you'd feel a million times more at peace after reading.
History[edit]
Philosophical roots[edit]
Precursors of certain fundamental aspects of CBT have been identified in various ancient philosophical traditions, particularly Stoicism.[106] Stoic philosophers, particularly Epictetus, believed logic could be used to identify and discard false beliefs that lead to destructive emotions, which has influenced the way modern cognitive-behavioral therapists identify cognitive distortions that contribute to depression and anxiety.[107] For example, Aaron T. Beck's original treatment manual for depression states, "The philosophical origins of cognitive therapy can be traced back to the Stoic philosophers".[108] Another example of Stoic influence on cognitive theorists is Epictetus on Albert Ellis.[109] A key philosophical figure who also influenced the development of CBT was John Stuart Mill.[110]
Behavior therapy roots[edit]
The modern roots of CBT can be traced to the development of behavior therapy in the early 20th century, the development of cognitive therapy in the 1960s, and the subsequent merging of the two. Groundbreaking work of behaviorism began with Watson's and Rayner's studies of conditioning in 1920.[111] Behaviorally-centered therapeutic approaches appeared as early as 1924[112] with Mary Cover Jones' work dedicated to the unlearning of fears in children.[113] These were the antecedents of the development of Joseph Wolpe's behavioral therapy in the 1950s.[111] It was the work of Wolpe and Watson, which was based on Ivan Pavlov's work on learning and conditioning, that influenced Hans Eysenck and Arnold Lazarus to develop new behavioral therapy techniques based on classical conditioning.[111][114] One of Eysenck's colleagues, Glenn Wilson showed that classical fear conditioning in humans could be controlled by verbally induced cognitive expectations,[115] thus opening a field of research that supports the rationale of cognitive behaviorial therapy.
During the 1950s and 1960s, behavioral therapy became widely utilized by researchers in the United States, the United Kingdom, and South Africa, who were inspired by the behaviorist learning theory of Ivan Pavlov, John B. Watson, and Clark L. Hull.[112] In Britain, Joseph Wolpe, who applied the findings of animal experiments to his method of systematic desensitization,[111] applied behavioral research to the treatment of neurotic disorders. Wolpe's therapeutic efforts were precursors to today's fear reduction techniques.[112] British psychologist Hans Eysenck presented behavior therapy as a constructive alternative.[112][116]
At the same time of Eysenck's work, B.F. Skinner and his associates were beginning to have an impact with their work on operant conditioning.[111][114] Skinner's work was referred to as radical behaviorism and avoided anything related to cognition.[111] However, Julian Rotter, in 1954, and Albert Bandura, in 1969, contributed behavior therapy with their respective work on social learning theory, by demonstrating the effects of cognition on learning and behavior modification.[111][114]
The emphasis on behavioral factors constituted the "first wave" of CBT.[117]
Cognitive therapy roots[edit]
One of the first therapists to address cognition in psychotherapy was Alfred Adler with his notion of basic mistakes and how they contributed to creation of unhealthy or useless behavioral and life goals.[118] Adler's work influenced the work of Albert Ellis,[118] who developed one of the earliest cognitive-based psychotherapies, known today as Rational emotive behavior therapy, or REBT.[119]
Around the same time that rational emotive therapy, as it was known then, was being developed, Aaron T. Beck was conducting free association sessions in his psychoanalytic practice.[120] During these sessions, Beck noticed that thoughts were not as unconscious as Freud had previously theorized, and that certain types of thinking may be the culprits of emotional distress.[120] It was from this hypothesis that Beck developed cognitive therapy, and called these thoughts "automatic thoughts".[120]
It was these two therapies, rational emotive therapy and cognitive therapy, that started the "second wave" of CBT, which was the emphasis on cognitive factors.[117]
Behavior and cognitive therapies merge[edit]
Although the early behavioral approaches were successful in many of the neurotic disorders, they had little success in treating depression.[111][112][121] Behaviorism was also losing in popularity due to the so-called "cognitive revolution". The therapeutic approaches of Albert Ellis and Aaron T. Beck gained popularity among behavior therapists, despite the earlier behaviorist rejection of "mentalistic" concepts like thoughts and cognitions.[111] Both of these systems included behavioral elements and interventions and primarily concentrated on problems in the present.
In initial studies, cognitive therapy was often contrasted with behavioral treatments to see which was most effective. During the 1980s and 1990s, cognitive and behavioral techniques were merged into cognitive behavioral therapy. Pivotal to this merging was the successful development of treatments for panic disorder by David M. Clark in the UK and David H. Barlow in the US.[112]
Over time, cognitive behavior therapy became to be known not only as a therapy, but as an umbrella term for all cognitive-based psychotherapies.[111] These therapies include, but are not limited to, rational emotive therapy, cognitive therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, dialectical behavior therapy, reality therapy/choice theory, cognitive processing therapy, EMDR, and multimodal therapy.[111] All of these therapies are a blending of cognitive- and behavior-based elements.
This blending of theoretical and technical foundations from both behavior and cognitive therapies constitute the "third wave" of CBT,[117] which is the current wave.[117] The most prominent therapies of this third wave are dialectical behavior therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy.[117]
Ellis started his work in the 1950's and continued until his death in 2007.
I think it's also likely that at least some of Weekes' ideas predate her a long way. The idea of facing fears and continuing in your life will easily have been around for many centuries since mankind have been facing fears for a very long time. Acceptance of pain will easily go back into religious teaching, ancient philosophy, common knowledge, etc. Floating seems to bare some resemblance to Mindfulness when in meditative form from what I can tell from people who describe it when compared to my meditation. As you can see above, the same can be said for CBT and it's precursors since Epictetus gets a mention (AD55-135)
The history of therapy often gets seen as starting with CBT. In truth, many of CBT's concepts predate it a long way e.g. ERP which is based around Pavlovian Extinction, that's Ivan Pavlov who died in 1936.
So, I don't think it is what I have seen stated by some but more someone filling in a gap between us sufferers and the people we couldn't access in therapy at a time when it was the preserve of the rich. She filled a gap and did a lot of her own research but translated it into language for us, not therapists. That's very good in my opinion, just a different kind of pioneer, I just don't believe she so much created things as put them together for something specific.
As an OCD sufferer, her work won't be enough for me as OCD has changed a lot over the last few decades, but I can see how her concepts could be very useful in the case of GAD and panic. So, I wouldn't dismiss it at all, I just think there is often a romanticized view when comparing to CBT yet the origins of CBT tend to get missed out.
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