What can I do about my constant panic attacks?
Friday, February 26th, 2010 at
8:19 am
I have social anxiety disorder which causes me anxiety and panic attacks on a daily basis. Lately they’ve become so overpowering and frequent that I can’t even leave my apartment (for work, to go to the store, etc). I have tried antidepressants in the past, but they made me suicidal.
I am scheduled to see a psychiatrist but where I live it usually takes weeks of waiting to get in. What can I do?
Filed under: Panic Attacks
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AGORAPHOBIA often occurs as a result of having had a panic attack in a public place, and not wanting to repeat that experience outside of a place where someone feels safe, which is usually at home, in a place where they feel exposed, and unable to get help quickly. Most people are suggestible, to some degree, so you could either seek professional hypnotherapy, or more alternatives along such lines are on page 1, at 8m.com, below, about agoraphobia. At the first sign of one, employ an ANTI PANIC ATTACK breathing technique. Advice from a clinical psychologist is to breathe in to the count of 3: (one thousand one; one thousand two; one thousand three) each takes around a second to say to yourself, in your mind, and out to the count of 3. Read: "Power Over Panic", by Bronwyn Fox, from your bookstore, or enter "panic attacks" in the searchbar at Amazon.com for more media.
View http://deeplyrelax.com & http://www.deepsloweasy.com/html/intro.htm Note: the controlled breathing only helps with the symptoms, as do medications/herbal remedies. Address the underlying cause, which requires some form of therapy; see your-mental-health.8m.com, below, re anxiety, on pages H, & I. Social anxiety; see pages 1, and E. Imagine that the cause of your panic; your anxieties, fears, your self doubts, self recriminations, all the agonizing "I’m-so-Stupids"; every painful "I-can’t-do-it" are huge raging, hurtful bulls snorting and charging at you. You see them coming at you and you hold out your red matador’s cape at arms length and simply let them charge right by. Every time they come at you, hold out your arm with the red cape and let them rage and snort and go right on past. Some people recommend nettle tea, with a little honey. Others use Lavender tea, Lemon Balm, Chamomile, but use no milk or cream with herbal teas, or Valerian (caution: use it for 3 weeks at most!). Know how these affect you before driving, or doing anything dangerous, and it is far better to use the treatments, rather than relying on herbal remedies. Free online PANIC COURSE – http://www.panic-attacks.co.uk also available by email. See the section on panic attacks at http://www.mind.org.uk also Ebooklet form. They recommend letting a panic attack run its course, without doing anything to treat it, so you KNOW you will survive it. The usual maximum is 30 minutes, until symptoms begin to subside.
For faster emergency services, go to the hospital Emergency Room. Another way, is to go to your family Dr and explain your problem. He is able to prescribe medications, and with a phone call or two, may be able to get you in to see a psychiatrist sooner.
Where the difficulty lies in gaining an initial appointment with a psychiatrist, is that most of his appointments will be 15 or 30 minutes long, but for a patient’s first appointment it is necessary to book a time of an hour or longer. It is hard to have that much of a time block open very often.
Oh…I feel for you! I used to experience panic attacks all the time. I used an at-home program, called attacking anxiety..you should look into it. Google it, I think the website is stresscenter.com, anyways it’s the Midwest Centers program. It helped me TONS! I don’t get anxiety anymore
GOOD LUCK!!!!!!
dont smoke weed, itll make it worse
just relax, be confident
I know what your going through. The same thing happened to me after I had my son. I didn’t want to go anywhere or do anything. I was spiraling down a road of constant sadness and depression. I tried all different kinds of medication but really and truly they only worked for a couple weeks at a time and some didn’t work at all. I almost ended up losing my life over this. One of ,my friends from a support group told me to join this website that gives you free techniques on how to cope with daily stress and to be quite honest I didn’t think it would even work, but I’m happy to say they did help me control my stress and I hardly have attacks anymore. Feel free to check it out and I wish you luck.
You should see a hormone expert instead of a shrink, or both………..hormones are at the root cause of panic attacks, many times adrenal glands……..
If noone has tested your thyroid (also a hormone and regulator of hormones) then do that , also
A regular doctor can get a blood test for thyroid, sex,adrenal,cortisol,DHEAS levels and you can take the results to an expert
hormones are at the basis of most mental illnesses……here are some hormone experts like what you need………..
and a free healing method until he retires in march
First of all, I have the same disorder as you do, along with general anxiety and depression. It sucks being afraid. But, I am able to go outside. Just not often. I would even skip school to get away.
What you can do with your panic attacks is relax. I know its hard, but even just deep breathing helps. What I do is recoginize my psychical feelings, and take deep breaths. If you have verbal thoughts of things being bad, ignore them. Simply stop yourself from thinking them. It takes time to get use to it, but it can happen. If you don’t, then do the breathing, even sit down for a second. Focus on something other than your body and just breath. Ignore your surroundings. It helps.
Yoga also helps. I can’t say how or why it does, it just does. Maybe not for you or me, but with some, it does.
Certain medicine can help, like If you have insomnia with this(I know I do), getting good sleep is best. It puts you in a better mood overall. Sometimes sleeping pills need to be used. Also, certain pills for anxiety attacks work well too.
I hope this helps you, and I hope you get better!