Anxiety Attacks

tdko

tdko

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So recently I've been having full blown anxiety/panic attacks, one of which I was hospitalized for. I've suffered from anxiety my whole life, and recently it's gotten so much worse, due to huge amounts of stress at work, getting sober from opiates, and having bills and responsibilities stacking up, all while Living a life in which I have no control over....so i came to a breaking point and now I don't know what to do. It terrifies me, I get them while I'm driving, when I have to stop in the store for things, and even around family and friends. They get so bad my arms and legs go numb, I can't catch my breathe, and 2ce now I've fainted. I've actually been out of work for a week now since I was hospitalized for one(my heart rate was 198/100 and I was breathing 42 times a minute and I fainted and hit my head) and since then I've become a shell.....The docs prescribed me Valium, and while it helps, I really don't want to become addicted to another substance. Just wanted to know if anyone else suffers from them and any tips you all could share. Thanks.
 
tdko said:
So recently I've been having full blown anxiety/panic attacks, one of which I was hospitalized for. I've suffered from anxiety my whole life, and recently it's gotten so much worse, due to huge amounts of stress at work, getting sober from opiates, and having bills and responsibilities stacking up, all while Living a life in which I have no control over....so i came to a breaking point and now I don't know what to do. It terrifies me, I get them while I'm driving, when I have to stop in the store for things, and even around family and friends. They get so bad my arms and legs go numb, I can't catch my breathe, and 2ce now I've fainted. I've actually been out of work for a week now since I was hospitalized for one(my heart rate was 198/100 and I was breathing 42 times a minute and I fainted and hit my head) and since then I've become a shell.....The docs prescribed me Valium, and while it helps, I really don't want to become addicted to another substance. Just wanted to know if anyone else suffers from them and any tips you all could share. Thanks.
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Doctors are going to know better than anyone on this forum. Just tell the doctor you don't want to be on valium and if he can recommend anything else. Maybe look into therapy?
 
Misfit23 said:
Doctors are going to know better than anyone on this forum. Just tell the doctor you don't want to be on valium and if he can recommend anything else. Maybe look into therapy?
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Of course the docs will know better, but I just wanted to know if anyone on here has suffered from panic attacks and what helps them get through them.
 
I quit drinking 6 years ago and never really dove head first into the AA program. I have been around them enough to remember some of the catch phrases though. I have had panic attacks for maybe 10 years and they tapered off to near nothing after I got 100% sober.

The two most valuable things I can say is "Take it one day at a time" and "god grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

What that means to me, and may help you, is that you literally don't need control over anything. The world is a crazy place and there is nothing any of us can do to control it. Give up and let things happen naturally. I've lost huge jobs, been unemployed for a year, had death in my family, etc. And the most comforting thing was knowing that, Ok this is probably the worst it will get, and there is nothing I can do to change this. All I (you) can do is work on myself, and be constuctrive towards building a better life.

I'm not religious, but this is usually where you are supposed to give up trying to run the show and let god take over. Even without god, I can still have hope that the future will be better tomorrow, and faith falls somewhere in between.
 
ToxicShocker said:
I quit drinking 6 years ago and never really dove head first into the AA program. I have been around them enough to remember some of the catch phrases though. I have had panic attacks for maybe 10 years and they tapered off to near nothing after I got 100% sober.

The two most valuable things I can say is "Take it one day at a time" and "god grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

What that means to me, and may help you, is that you literally don't need control over anything. The world is a crazy place and there is nothing any of us can do to control it. Give up and let things happen naturally. I've lost huge jobs, been unemployed for a year, had death in my family, etc. And the most comforting thing was knowing that, Ok this is probably the worst it will get, and there is nothing I can do to change this. All I (you) can do is work on myself, and be constuctrive towards building a better life.

I'm not religious, but this is usually where you are supposed to give up trying to run the show and let god take over. Even without god, I can still have hope that the future will be better tomorrow, and faith falls somewhere in between.
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It's also about reminding yourself you've learned techniques to try and overcome these attacks, techniques like the one mentioned above (and others, like grounding, mindfulness, etc) and being able to preform them in the moment, like a boxer who has trained for a high pressure situation, you must remember how to preform under pressure.

When you're not feeling anxious and feel like working on it, you could say:

"Okay, when I feel an anxiety attack, I feel like this and so I could try this" and then in moment try that out and keep going until something works.

It sounds easy to people who have never experienced an anxiety attack but this is extremely hard, lonely work - nobody will ever give you commensurate credit or recognize how hard it was for you to get to the place where you can use techniques to calm your anxiety disorder in specific moments, except you, so give yourself credit for it if and when it starts working.
 
I suggest, caffeine, coke, and marijuana.
 
Meditation.

Stick with it long enough to give it a chance.
 
tdko said:
Of course the docs will know better, but I just wanted to know if anyone on here has suffered from panic attacks and what helps them get through them.
Click to expand...

Antidepressants. Worked like a charm. Also working out helps.
 
tdko said:
So recently I've been having full blown anxiety/panic attacks, one of which I was hospitalized for. I've suffered from anxiety my whole life, and recently it's gotten so much worse, due to huge amounts of stress at work, getting sober from opiates, and having bills and responsibilities stacking up, all while Living a life in which I have no control over....so i came to a breaking point and now I don't know what to do. It terrifies me, I get them while I'm driving, when I have to stop in the store for things, and even around family and friends. They get so bad my arms and legs go numb, I can't catch my breathe, and 2ce now I've fainted. I've actually been out of work for a week now since I was hospitalized for one(my heart rate was 198/100 and I was breathing 42 times a minute and I fainted and hit my head) and since then I've become a shell.....The docs prescribed me Valium, and while it helps, I really don't want to become addicted to another substance. Just wanted to know if anyone else suffers from them and any tips you all could share. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Valium is horrible to be used/addicted to... but sadly there are no easy answers. My lady friend is sort of there with you. She hasn't gone to the hospital, but she has woken me up several times in the middle of the night being barely able to breathe. I wish I had better advice, but I've just Xanaxed her up (not that different from Valium unfortunately) and it works to fight the symptoms but not the cause. So the best I've got is use the Valium as you personally feel needed and stay as tough as you can.
 
Magnesium Citrate
Cod liver oil

It wont take all your anxiety issues away but it will help.

I would enroll in some yoga classes as well if possible.
 
Meditation, exercise and breathing techniques.

My partner gets pretty bad panic attacks, so I know how hard they can be to deal with.

In our experience, prevention is better than treatment. Of course, easier said than done, and sometimes they're unavoidable, but making sure you're as healthy as you can possibly be in almost sure to help.
 
I'm waving voodoo fingers at you OP, you're now under my curse. I hope that isn't freaking you ooooouuuuut.
 
michal001 said:
pot
meditation
yoga
pot
Click to expand...
Sadly, I've had to quit smoking weed. It just makes me go directly into a panic attack nowadays. And this is coming from someone who would regularly smoke 2/3 blunts a day. It's a shame but I had to give it up.
 
Get a bj from a girl and let her suck the anxiety out of you



if you've recently gone sober from alcohol and drugs then more than likely you're going through post acute withdrawals, which can last up to 2 years after going sober. Uh, and also just focus on the present, stop giving a shit. When your brain goes through enough mental stress, you simply stop giving a shit about the dumb things.
 
Processing your stress is healthy and vital. Find a therapist to talk about things, write your emotions and stress in your diary, meditate, tell yourself it's going to be ok, this will pass.

Think of panic attacks as tunnel vision, where you're so focused on your stressor that you can't see the world outside of it. This is when increasing your peripheral awareness is useful. Noticing what you can see out of the far side of your eyes helps reduce the stress by having something else to focus on.

Coming back into your body and noticing your breathing can help too. But it's helpful to work to quiet the critical voice inside that's telling you how bad everything is.
 
Anxiety leads to action: Kierkegaard wrote that "the most common form of despair occurs when one does not choose or 'will' to be oneself--when a person is 'another than himself.' The opposite of despair is 'to will to be that self which one truly is.' That's the experience with anxiety. It is choosing life in the face of death; it is the experience of thought becoming action, reflection becoming behavior, and theory becoming practice. Anxiety is pure energy."
Anxiety makes you a grown up: "Anxiety is the experience of growth itself. In any endeavor, how do you feel when you go from one stage to the next? The answer: You feel anxious. Anxiety that is denied makes us ill; anxiety that is fully confronted and fully lived through converts itself into joy, security, strength, centeredness, and character. The practical formula: Go where the pain is."
 
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