How can work support my panic attacks?

[Z1178]

Hi everyone!

I'm new to this forum stuff but I've just started a new job which I really love and keep having panic attacks while I'm at work. It got so bad that last friday I had to go to the hospital because I'd been hyperventilating for four hours!! I just couldn't control it and nothing I did seemed to work. It was the scariest attack I've ever had. Work are saying they want me to stay off this week until they've found a way of supporting me and I'm really scared I'm going to lose my job over it. I really do love my work and it's heartbreaking to have to take time off. I just wondered if anyone had any ideas as to how the company could support me so I have something to offer them as a solution as opposed to just letting them get rid of me?

Any help you can offer would be much appreciated! Thanks!

Z.

[Jordans_mommy06]

i am having thes ame problem. i keep having panic attacks at work. i have learned that people that have not experienced panic attacks do not understand the severity of them. Just try to explain to them what is going on. Maybe even print off some facts about panic attacks so they can get a feel about what your going through. i had to do that for my mom.

[mandie]

Hi

Thats nice that your work want to support you.

I have the opposite problem. I have been off work since June with panic attacks and anxiety and work have been awful to me.

Are u going to have any counselling?

love mandie x

[Mattathome]

Hi!

I first started having panic attacks in May of this year, I'm 38 and have never experienced anything like this before. I was initially diagnosed with Labrynthitis (an infection of the inner ear which affects balance) and only after two months of seeing specialists and having numerous tests did I self diagnose myself with Panic Attacks and went back to the doctor.

I looked at all the symptoms on this site, what they were and what caused them and what your body went through and cut and pasted the ones that affected me. I then took these to work and showed my boss who was really appreciative. It helped me by him knowing exactly what I was going through and how this affected me. I think that most people who don't know about panic think that it is not as 'deep' as it really is.

My Doctor said that I could three things to help, 1. Nothing - hope that it would go away on its own 2. Medication and 3. Councelling. I am doing all three. I take natural remedies such as 'Kalms' and St Johns Wort and on bad days prescribed medicine.

I have also found that if you try and imagine three tubes running up your spine, the central one for panic, one either side for heat and cold. When you feel a panic attack coming on imagine one of the tubes is rising faster than the others, breath out but 'downwards' and as you do this push the 'levels' in the tubes down so they get lower and equal. This takes a lot of imagination but it works for me.

Another trick that I have found that works but don't know if you are allowed / can access, is by doing something that takes a lot of concentration such as solitaire or minesweeper on a computer.

I don't know what type or size of industry you are in, but if you don't know what is triggering your attacks, other than worrying about them happening at work you are in a vicous circle and need to break it. Do you have someone you can talk to or phone when you feel an attack starting?

Hope this helps. Let me know if I can help some more.

Matt