Question About Claire Weeke's Approach

[moose123]

Hello all,

I am currently suffering from panic and anxiety attacks and I am trying to employ Dr. Claire Weeke's strategy of facing, accepting, floating and letting time pass. The thing is, my symptoms are much less physical than emotional and psychological, and I'm curious to know if others have had the same and had luck with Dr. Weeke's approach.

For example, when I have an attack, I experience not a palpitating heart or upset stomach, but overwhelming waves of fear and - most frightening - a truly horrifying sense of what I can only describe as despair and depression.

And even though I try to relax and accept the fact that it's only an anxiety attack, these attacks tend to last and can last for hours and really knock me sideways. I always read that panic/anxiety attacks tend to last from 5 to 20 minutes and then subside. The other night, my attack started at 4am (I get them when I'm asleep) and lasted until 7am when I finally took a sedative and was able to sleep, also from pure exhaustion.

When I wake up with the beginnings of an attack, I believe that my "second fear" - the fear of "I am going insane and what if this never ends?" - is at the forefront of my mind before I even notice it. So how should I handle this second fear once the cat is out of the bag? I know that it's this fear that is prolonging my attacks and making them so powerful.

Should I try to increase this frightening symptom as a means of 'facing the fire?', as Dr. Weeke's suggests. I am hopeful but confused because my symptoms are not physical and they tend to be very long lasting.

I am really struggling and I truly appreciate any suggestions anyone might have. :)

Thanks again
Moose

[decca]

Hi Moose,
I'm very sorry to hear you are going through a bad patch, such feelings and thoughts are very frightening I know.
It would be helpful if you could you give us some more information please , such as any medications you are taking and any whether or not you have sought medical help and if so what they have said to you.
We all appreciate that some members prefer to keep some things private and that is always respected.
Best wishes
Decca.

[mtatum4496]

Moose, I am also someone who tends to have more of the emotional and psychological phenomena associated with panic attacks than the rapid heart beating, sweats, etc. Fortunately, I have not yet experienced a panic attack upon waking. My anxiety seems to kick in once I have gotten up.

This worried me for a long time, as I did not recognize my episodes of feeling as if I were losing control of my sanity as being anxiety compounded with a panic attack. It took spending time with a knowledgable and sympathetic doctor to begin understanding better.

I am not familiar with Dr. Weeke's approach. Based on your post, it appears the technique is more aimed at recognizing and managing physical manifestations, but there may be more to it than that. For me, medication and use of EFT from time to time has been helpful.

Also, and this may seem strange, but light exercise seems to help me for some reason. Doing toe touches and some jumping jacks seem to provide me with a short period where those feelings of approaching insanity lessen. I sometimes use them just after taking my medication, as they help me through the roughly 15 to 20 minutes it takes for the drug to begin working.

If you havven't already, please discuss what you are experiencing with your doctor. He or she may have dealt with similar situations and have some excellent suggestions for what you can do.

One other thought that may help - someone told me awhile back that as long as I was experiencing a fear of going insane, I was on fairly safe ground. People who actually cross that line don't recognize there is anything wrong with them - it is everybody else who can't see what is so obvious that has the problem. I am not sure how medically sound that is, but the thought does provide me with some comfort.

[Tom_M]

Hi Moose,

It seems like your panic attacks are being fuelled more by depression than anything else. It could be that your feelings of despair and desperation are actually triggering the severe anxiety, which in turn, is worsening your depression. Usually this type of panic responds well to antidepressants. Are you on any medication?

Allso, don't forget that when you are depressed you feel that you will never get better which causes people anxiety, but of course you do get better.

[popsy]

I agree with Tom, i think you may well have an underlying depression which is causing the anxiety rather than the other way round. I would definitely see your doctor, anti depressents could really help you out of this rut and let you move forward. I really hope you can get some help and things get better for you. Keep posting and letting us know. Have you considered using www.livinglifetothefull.com (http://www.livinglifetothefull.com) which is great for depression and anxiety and uses a CBT appproach? I think it is an excellent free therapy site.
Good Luck, HUGS xxxx

[moose123]

Thanks everyone for all the thoughtful responses.

Decca, I am in the process of finding a therapist now and as for medication, I take Klonpopin on an as-needed basis for the attacks. I should also add that I usually only have about 6 or 8 of these attacks a year. They're not something that happen on a weekly basis or anything.

Tom and Popsy, if I am actually depressed it would certainly have to be - as you suggest - underlying because I am just not a depressed person normally. I will say that when I have an attack, one of my "what ifs" is "what if this never ends?" and it is precisely at this point that this wave of a feeling of depair/depression hits. On the rare occasion that I don't do this particular "what if," I don't get that reaction. I will certainly bring that up with my doctor once I fix on one.

The general idea behing Dr. Weeke's approach is that once you accept and allow your symptoms to exists and stop resisting them - as opposed to fighting them constantly - they eventually lose their power and your mind becomes desensitized to the thoughts that trigger panic. The idea is to drain the power of panic by letting it pass through you because panic feeds on and exists on your resistance to it. Once you stop feeding it, it dies. Many many people swear by her approach as a means of ridding panic completely, not just managing it.

So thanks again for the response. I'll let you know how I do.

Moose

[Gryphoenix]

I don't actually have her book but I've used that approach from other help and I can say that it DOES work, at least for me and my type of panic. I had very physical symptoms and that's what frightened me, the racing heart and the whole shebang. But the thoughts you mentioned--the 'what if this never ends' also came with it, certainly, especially right in the middle of an attack when I think 'it's not stopping' and guess what--that feeds my panic even further. I've totally done that marathon panic, where I'll get panicky, calm down after a few minutes, think about 'what if what if' it happens again, then I panic again.

So what I did is simply accept it--accept the racing heart, accept the fact that I wasn't going to die because of it, accept the fact that these are just FEELINGS and they couldn't hurt me no matter how strong they felt. I guess basically what Claire Weekes says is that if you go through the 'worst' and come out the other end fine, if it happens again, so what? You'll be a little tired, it's not fun, but neither is a cold. I now think of these attacks as a 'cold' or some such complaint. It's not gonna kill you, it sucks and it doesn't feel great but you'll be okay in the end. So basically if I think 'what if I panic again' even though I already panicked, I now think--who cares, whatever. At least this is the approach that worked for me and I can vouch for Claire Weeke's approach. Knock on wood, but I haven't had even a limited symptom attack in months!

[never2late]

The work of Dr. Claire Weekes has been a blessing to me as well. For myself, I can't say that it has cured me -- but it certainly has provided enough understanding to apply better management and coping skills. I do not have full-blown panic attacks that frequently, but I do have mild to moderate anxiety (and its physical symptoms) more commonly. As with just about everything, there are good periods and not so good ones. Like many others, I've had stretches of symptom-free life for several years. Then, like a long lost friend, it shows up at the door once again with bags packed. Dr. Weekes' methods allows me to live with those periods, while resorting to medication on an as-needed basis. When a full-blown panic attack does occur (and I've had only one so far in May, thank goodness), it doesn't have the impact that it did when younger (I'm 52 years old now). However, her methods do seem to be centered on the physical sensations of anxiety and panic, which you do not seem to have difficulty with. But you may find you could apply the principles to your own situation. Her books and audio lectures certainly wouldn't be waste of time regardless. Best of luck.

[moose123]

Gryphoenix & never2late,

Thank you SO much for your responses. It's exactly what I need to hear, especially about Gryphoenix's "marathon" attacks. It's so reassuring to know others have dealt with the same thing I am.

I slept fairly well last night, which was great, but I did feel very jittery, anxious and brain foggy after I got up. On my way to work, I faced and accepted and relaxed into these feelings as much as possible, and even tried to conciously increase them, as Dr. Weeke's suggests. When I did this, the symptoms just stayed the same and didn't get any worse. And when that "what if" voice started up, I just told it that it's ideas have no value anymore and to just shut up. :D

So I'm at work now, still feeling a bit on edge but better than I felt when I first got up. I know this thing takes practice, especially after having these attacks on and off now for 17 years.

I'm also curious what others take for medication and how they feel that works for them.

Anyway, thanks so much again for the feedback and encouragement.

Moose

[Gryphoenix]

Glad to help, I know how rotten this thing gets and feels! You're doing a great job with this and I'm so glad that you're doing better! Keep it up! :D :D :D

And I can completely sympathize with the on edge thing. I suppose it comes from our 'fight or flight' reaction, if there really was a monster or a tiger attacking us we'd be on edge afterwards just in case the danger came back. But of course, with us there's no danger so it's just a leftover body response. :D Like I said, we cough and have a runny nose during a cold, just like we feel jittery and brain foggy and have racing hearts, and we just must deal the uncomfortableness associated with them the same way.


But I haven't actually used medicine, so I can't help you there, sorry!