why does this happen?

[alexis]

Why is it that some days are really good with no incidents(although these are few and far between) and then like today, a beautiful sunny day, could stay in bed as long as I wanted ,no real plans,no hassle, I woke at 4am feeling really anxious and started to have a "Panic". I have been to town with my husband and felt like his helper, standing outside the shops, holding the bags while he went in because i "Couldnt do it". too warm I said.I feel as if I have been suffering from a heart attack all morning, I am not hyper ventilating like I do when its real bad but shallow breathing. I am trying all my usual things, breathing, relaxation, my music etc, but just on a bad day,

[seh1980]

hello Alexis,

What you are describing is very normal. Unfirtunately, if we have good days then we must also have bad days. There are times when I can't wait to go shopping and others when I feel too panicky to even go into one shop. All we can do is try to make the good days happen more often..

Sarah :D

[angieb]

Hi Alexis - nice to meet you[8D]

I know what you mean, it is a b!gxer when that happens. However try to remember that you are allowing this feeling today. I woke up this morning feeling the same way, a car slamed on it's breaks outside my house last night at 2.30am (avoiding a cat - it is a country lane so very rare to have traffic at night) and I awoke with a fright and banging heart. Got back to sleep after an hour but woke this morning, tired, tense and my shoulders, chest and arms felt like someone was squeezing them.

Normally this feeling would have led on to the sort of morning that you are describing but today I looked at the weather, my kids playing in the garden and thought NO WAY am I going to be down today. The symptoms are anxiety THAT IS ALL - so have got on with distracting myself. Cleaned the house, surfed a little and done all of the laundry and am planning on BBQ steak for tea (which I am even going to have to venture out to buy[:O]). My mood has lifted no end all because I have refused to let Mr A in to play today[:P]

Try to distract yourself, everytime you hear the slightest negative thought enter your brain say out loud NO - not letting you in today and think about something nice instead.

Plan something nice for tea, maybe a glas on wine in the garden later, andthen focus on looking forward to that.

Hope this helps a little, I promise you I felt the exact same way as you this morning but now feel 100% better, still have the aches, just accepting and ignoring them.

Take care hunny and have a good rest of this beautiful day.

Angie

[kairen]

hi alexis,
thanks for my reply,
sorry to hear you are having a bad day as well i think we all need a group hug, i'll catch you later hope your feeling a bit better now, P>S next time i go shopping will you come and carry my baggs they do get heavy LOL take care honey xx

kairen x

[nomorepanic]

Alexis

We all have bad days and sometimes we just accept they are bad days and write them off as that or we can try and turn it around like Angie did (well done on doing that Angie).

It gets easier in time - just don't let it take over ok - refuse to let it ruin the whole day. There is still the rest of the afternoon to go and then the evening so decide now that you are not going to let it spoil the whole day for you.

Get out in the garden for some fresh air and deep breaths.

Hope you feel better soon.

Nicola

[doddy]

alexis.

as you say its a bad day, not a bad week or month just a bad day....and it will pass, felt a little similar to this myself and ive been good for four weeks or so now, felt a little dp/dr, slight headache but refused to dwell, tried to put together some ikea furniture and thats enought to distract anyone.

the words of angie are great to hear, well done to you angie, thats the attitude that gets us through this.

rememebr alex there will be millions around the world today feeling far far worse than you.........a samll blessing i know but still a blessing.

right off to ruin another ikea chair!!

take care alex.

doddy

[mjh74]

Hi Alexis,

Really sorry to hear about your bad spell. You are describing how I've felt for the past 3 days. Luckily today I feel a bit better especially with the lovely sun being out! If someone had told me yesterday that today I'd feel "ok" I'd have not believed a word of it. So as tough as today may seem, just ride it out and look forward to the end of this *blip*!

Take care,

Mark.

[henri]

hi alexis,
i totally know what you mean - i thought i was past this whole thing when i'd had three good days in a row (THREE GOOD DAYS!!), only to discover that i was about to have four really awful days.

i think angie is right about the whole distraction thing (well done angie btw, i wish i had your strength sometimes). If i'm even feeling too dizzy to get up and do stuff, i either crochet or just try and count the number of books on the shelf, people walking past the window, whatever, anything to stop thinking about how i'm feeling.

sometimes the days that "should" be relaxing end up being the worst. my CBT therapist says this is because "should" thinking (i should be feeling better, i should be able to go out, i shouldn't be feeling panicky) is a distorted way of thinking which subconsciously puts pressure on you and therefore increases anxiety and makes you feel worse.

anyway, hope that makes sense (probably not!) and that you are feeling a bit better now. i'm sure tomorrow will be a better day for you.

henri x

[dizzyd]

Hi Alexis,
Sorry to hear you don't feel so good today. You could be describing my day completely. For the last 2 days I have pushed myself so far - shopping, Ten-Pin Bowling, Long walks (can't usually do those on my own) and today - Not good at all. This morning I had expectations that I would be as good as yesterday - and no - I am quite awful. Anxious, jittery, not confident enough even to make tea. I keep re-treating to lie on my bed for a rest. Then I hate that feeling of relaxing as I interpret it as 'collapsing' . Been on my meds for 12 days now and find it hard to accept a bad day after a couple of good ones. Hang on in there with me and we will get there - I know that for certain. I think it is so true that expecting too much of ourselves 'creates' anxiety. I also know how hard it is to accept and float through days like this. Take care and well done just for being able to 'help' with the shopping. Love Dawn x

[linjane]

Hi Alexis,
How are you feeling now? We all have bad days, but when you suffer with anxiety, like we all do, they just seem much worse, mainly because we allow ourselves to let them get worse.

Angies advice (as usual) was wonderful and if we could all learn to be like that, we would all be better. I am useless, I can give out advice, but can't take it for myself, but just try hard to do what Angie suggested, think positive, relax etc.. etc..

I hope that today has turned out ok for you and tomorrow will be a much better day.
Take care of yourself,
Love,
Linda.x

[alexis]

hi everybody, i would just like to say thank you all for your wonderful advice and support.Ive written yesterday off and started a new day today. Nothing I tried yesterday seemed to work, unfortunately I do get days like that, distraction just seemed to increasethe what ifs, i keep so busy when Im bad that at one stage i actually suffered exhaustion. Everyday I take 5 mins to think about all the people worse off than me and like you say there are millions but why is it, on a bad day my mind wanders more to the ones that are better off.
Henri, my councellor said the words should would and ought need to be banned from our vocabulary, lol.
anyway I cheered up in the chat room and forum pub.lol.
thanks again to you all and i hope you are all ok.xxx