Confront it head on

[nomorepanic]

My advice about Panic Attacks is to confornt them head on and NEVER give in. Do not let them rule your life - you must take control. I am still a sufferer but I am getting there slowly :-)

[Joanne]

Good Advice. I hope you are getting better.

I get anxiety attacks, but not very often now. Usually I feel panic rising in social situations- where I suddenly feel ' magnified' or the centre of attention.
My worst fear ( and only fear- really) is at night. I hate going to bed. I panic about shadows/ things in the room! I am very rational- so I don't know where this fear comes from. It vanishes as soon as morning comes. Today- I bought Holland and Barrett Peaceful Night Herbal Tablets. Hopefully these will help me get a more restful sleep. Will post results. Ok, bye for now, Jo[:I]

p.s..... can u include an ' introduce yourselves' topic on the main page?

[nomorepanic]

Hi Joanne

Thanks for the posting. Sorry to hear that you suffer at night. I have never found that a problem though I do no sleep every well. I would be interested to hear how the tablets work, so please let me know.

Good idea about the introduce yourselves - I shall add the page now :-)

Nicola

[Andy]

Dear nomorepanic/Joanne,

Im 24 and have a panic desorder, 7 years ago my dad died and they started on that very day, my doctor gave me pills that didnt work and i didnt know what else to do.
When they first started I had one every other week, but recently I started to get them everytime I was in a surtain situation, which could be one every day.
I lost my job because I couldnt stay in the building at that point I was all out of ideas, until I started going to hypnotherapy.
Now im starting a new job and getting on with my life, I am happy you have started a web page for people to visit, and I hope this page will help people as much as it as helped me.

bye for now Andy

[Rachel]

Joanne - I also have Holland & Barrett Herbal Peaceful night so I know what you are going through! I bought them around the second week I started having panic attacks. Though I only did use them the once.
It's so true though about confronting your panic attacks straight away and the longer you leave it the worse they seem to get. At the moment I'm not suffering from massive attacks any more as I have learnt how to handle them. But when I do feel one coming on I deal with it straight away before it gets out of control. This website has helped me a great deal - I used to look at the symtoms page and when the symtoms that I was having were listed it made me feel very much at ease because it confirmed that I really was just having a panic attack. The more you worry and get scared the worse it gets- next time you feel one coming on - relax and think about something else (watch a comedy - talk to someone, try to laugh) I know it's easy to say but these simple things ended up being my cure. Hope you are all doing well. xx

[bruce]

i agree with everyone that confronting it is good, i started to think that i wanted to train my brain through some sort of therapy to "forget" about wehn i used drugs in one dredful day which gave me my first panic attack. then i really though about it more and decided no, i do not want to forget. if i were to then i may go back to using drugs again and have to go through this crap all over again then again if i remember it and deal with it and beat it then ti will bury the potential for these attacks to take over my life and in the future i will be a great coper with problems which actually ends problems. i go to cognitive behavioral therapy, i have done tests to make sure its not a physical problem, i take prescribed meds klonopin/clonezepam, and i read everything i can on the internet to educate myself on my problem. this really helps if you can then narrow down to what is exactly wrong with you. learning as much as you can eliminates symptoms or makes you laugh as they happen, "i M GETTING LIGHT HEADED, HA I HAVE BEEN THRU THIS BEFORE, NO BIG DEAL." what i am working on now is formulating relationships with people who i can trust. by that i mean people who i can explain my situation to an confide in, people who i can place in high positions and expect them to come thru for me. be this friends, a girlfriend or both. having people who will be there must inevitably help as when i came forward with this and sought help i did nothing but get better and better and better. now it is A VERY RARE OCCASION WHEN I GET A PANIC ATTACK, when it happens i feel so incredibly capable to deal with it. i dont think anyone could possibl understnad what we have gone thru unless they have gone thru it themselves and i think that we are all better people for beating this although i would not like to subscribe to the panic ever again, there was nothing i liked about it but i think that as i continue to feel myself i will learn to cherish life as it is fragile and what seems to be perfect is in fact potentially flawed and also what seems to be everlastingly bad is in fact never as horrendous as it seems. to all, beat anxiey into the grave by facing the problem as responsibly as possible, help does exist! for me the more i read about and learned about this the better i felt, the same will happen for you, bruce.

i am here as a result of my continuing efforts to lead an anxiety free life

[Chant]

I agree with you a 100 percent. It's very hard to face panic attacks but it seems to be the best solution. I'm working on it too. When I frist got panic attacks the world did'nt know what they were! Now here I am at 50 learning how to get rid of them!
Cahnt

[Chant]

I"m new here so I don't know if my frist reply went through. I just wanted to say that I agree with confronting panic attacks head on. I know it's hard.
Just think when I frist got panic attacks the world did'nt have any idea what they were. Today at fifty I am learning to face them and get better. One little step at a time!!
Chant

[marie1974]

hi and yes i totally agree, everything i have ever gotten over and recovered from is from facing it head on.

at times i have thought i was never gonna get there but you do. hugs everyone xxx

[ladybird64]

I didn't know where to post this so I thought I would tag it on to this thread.
I have just bought the Claire Weeks book and I'm a little confused. When I had my therapy last year I was told to "face the bully and not let it win." Even the title of this thread says to "confront it head on" which is what I thought I was trying to do but the books says to have "utter acceptance" which is a concept I'm struggling with straight away, is it really possible to really accept it? I have read further into the book but can't seem to come to terms with the acceptance bit as I'm fighting an inward battle with myself, I don't know if I can accept something that has affected my life for so long.
I guess that the fact that I'm fighting myself is futile but I have been fighting for so long in so many areas of my life I don't know any other way to deal with things.
Actually as I'm writing this, I have realised what the problem is..I'm scared to accept it and I'm angry that someone has even dared suggest that I should. (God, that was difficult for me to write )
I am an optimist and do believe that I can feel a little better in myself but if anyone here has any words of wisdom to get me past this first hurdle, I would appreciate it.

Thanks