Hello Everyone!

[twister]

Hi everyone I am new here. I am 26 years old and first started suffering from panic attacks and general anxiety about a year ago. I was prescribed Cipralex and they worked amazingly (after a dodgy start) returning me to 100% normality. I finished my 6 month course of these in April this year and was still fine. I thought I was cured.

Unfortunately over the summer I had some hard events to deal with - someone in my partners family died which was very traumatic and then less than a week later we were attacked by a neighbour. He was eventually sectioned under the mental illness act but not until a couple of months of living in fear of him and him threatening to kill us. As you can imagine this was very traumatic and we ended up moving as even though he was in hospital we didn't feel safe there anymore. I was then trapped underground on the tube during the london power strike for 45 mins and thats when the panic attacks started happening again.

I am currently off work as I found myself unable to get on the tube to get there. I have been signed off for three weeks and have been put back on Cipralex and so am waiting for them to work again.

This site looks great and I look forward to getting to know you all.

Emily

[kate]

Hi Emily, wow you have been through it lately! I'm not really surprised that the anxiety has reurned, I bet quite a few people who were trapped on the train and have never suffered before, have been affected also. I am sure that in time the bad memories of it will fade and as the drugs worked so well for you before there is no reason to think that they will not again.Its such a shame that you have to get the tube to work, is there no other way for you to get there? The one thing that I have really forced myself to do is to carry on working as it gives some structure to the day and gives you a reason to go out of the house. Well, stick with the pills and I'm sure you will see some improvement soon, take care Kate

[Meg]

Hi Emily,

That's the trouble with anti anxiety / anti depressants. They are mood altering but do not change anything within you longterm.
I had prozac and thought I was sorted until I came off them and the cycle started again.

A very popular combination is antidepressants and CBT , thus making it easier for you to make changes in your life so that you're stronger and better able to cope once you're off them.

As soon as I heard about the London power strike my heart absolutely went out to anyone who was trapped and was vunerable to panic attacks. I've been down to London since and tried to put myself in your shoes......It's not fun. I used to tube it everyday when I lived there and I remember having concerns about stuck tubes BUT the difference was that I didn't hold onto the thought - it came and then drifted off- I didn't analyse every possible permutation as we do when we're anxious and looking for any potential danger sign.

Get your GP to refer you for CBT asap as it sometimes has a hefty waiting list.

The only way to overcome the fear is to expose yourself slowly.
Go to the tubestation one day
Go into the ticket office only - several times a day or on subseqent days
Take someone with you if needs be and just go down to the platform and return up
Do that till you can do it alone
Then take someone if that feels better and get on and go one stop only and walk back
Do it again and again till you can di it alone.
Don't try to jump and do several steps at once - slowly does it and gain confidence

Then elaborate as necessary.

It will feel ok to terrible - but still do it. If you have a panic attack - do not leave - stay there for at least 10mins. You need to train your body that this is an acceptable thing to do and not to warn you each time. Take a walkman if it helps, certainly take a magazine to stare intently at.
When you feel terrible tell yourself that you are Ok to feel that way and over repetition is will get better.

I vomited and cried and paniced my way up and down the M1 and M6 for weeks. It was all in my thoughts.




Meg

Watch your thoughts, they become your words...
Watch your words, they become your actions... Watch your actions, they become your habits... Watch your habits, they become your character... Watch your character, it becomes your destiny...

[twister]

thanks for this, it's really helpful. I'm proud to say I managed to take my first tube journey for a while tonight. I panicked at first when the doors closed but I took my boyfriend with me and to take my mind off of it I took him through all the stuff I'd been doing on my Psychology course (not sure the thing was fun for him either!).

[Meg]

Emily - You're way ahead of where you led us to believe you were first of all.
Well done.

You did exactly the right thing.
A) took someone with you to start with
b) did something to take your minds focus off the issue in hand.
c) felt bad but did it anyway

Keep at it - step by step - daily.

Well done,now reward yourself for that big step forward


Meg

Watch your thoughts, they become your words...
Watch your words, they become your actions... Watch your actions, they become your habits... Watch your habits, they become your character... Watch your character, it becomes your destiny...

[nomorepanic]

Hi Emily

So glad to see that you faced the fear and went back on tube. We all know how hard it is to face the one thing that makes us panic but you did the right thing in getting back on the tube.

Good to see you in the Chat room last night as well :-)

Nicola