suewaksto
28-02-06, 20:25
Hi everyone. I saw an article in the Daily Mail about panic attacks with this website advertised, so here I am.
I am a dance teacher and have been having panic attacks since about 1993'ish, the first time it happened I was in a rehearsal and my heart-rate was just racing, I was so frightened I went up to casualty dept and they said it might be the fact that I had been drinking Coca Cola which contains aspartame an artificial sweetener and might be allergic to it. Anyway, I don't think that was totally it coz I've had a problem ever since, it seems to be when I'm stressed out about other things; my doctor said it was a bit like a pressure cooker simmering away, all is OK and then with just a tiny bit more heat everything boils over. I'm not on medication or anything and haven't had any medical tests or whatever.
As a dance teacher, I do use yoga breathing with sustained retraction, i.e. breath in slowly over say 4 beats, hold for 4 beats, exhale for 4 and then hold for 4, then repeat the whole thing again. It does help, especially when I feel I'm getting stressy. Also, for some reason, I find when I feel I'm starting an attack I find it helps to cough! perhaps this is something to do with the oxygen levels in the blood or whatever, I don't know, but yeah, it can help.
I find as a teacher I'm often standing up in front of people and that can be stressy; I've never actually had a panic attack in class but I did have one just beforehand, which was horrible coz I had to stand up in front of everyone and felt physically very strange, and that was hard, very hard.
I think panic attacks are more common than people realise coz when you get to talk to people they will often admit to it but won't do so until they know you're in the same boat as them.
People who know me would probably think I'm quite a "coping" sort of person and down to earth which is why they're usually quite surprised when they find out. I think people have this stereotype of people with "hysteria" as it used to be called, which is quite a negative stereotype.
Anyway, nice to meet all of you.
XXX
SWS
I am a dance teacher and have been having panic attacks since about 1993'ish, the first time it happened I was in a rehearsal and my heart-rate was just racing, I was so frightened I went up to casualty dept and they said it might be the fact that I had been drinking Coca Cola which contains aspartame an artificial sweetener and might be allergic to it. Anyway, I don't think that was totally it coz I've had a problem ever since, it seems to be when I'm stressed out about other things; my doctor said it was a bit like a pressure cooker simmering away, all is OK and then with just a tiny bit more heat everything boils over. I'm not on medication or anything and haven't had any medical tests or whatever.
As a dance teacher, I do use yoga breathing with sustained retraction, i.e. breath in slowly over say 4 beats, hold for 4 beats, exhale for 4 and then hold for 4, then repeat the whole thing again. It does help, especially when I feel I'm getting stressy. Also, for some reason, I find when I feel I'm starting an attack I find it helps to cough! perhaps this is something to do with the oxygen levels in the blood or whatever, I don't know, but yeah, it can help.
I find as a teacher I'm often standing up in front of people and that can be stressy; I've never actually had a panic attack in class but I did have one just beforehand, which was horrible coz I had to stand up in front of everyone and felt physically very strange, and that was hard, very hard.
I think panic attacks are more common than people realise coz when you get to talk to people they will often admit to it but won't do so until they know you're in the same boat as them.
People who know me would probably think I'm quite a "coping" sort of person and down to earth which is why they're usually quite surprised when they find out. I think people have this stereotype of people with "hysteria" as it used to be called, which is quite a negative stereotype.
Anyway, nice to meet all of you.
XXX
SWS