'Tricks' to relieve a Panic Attack

[GlitterRose]

On 8/28/2018 at 7:59 AM, RabidMongoose said:

Your limbic system is what controls a panic attack.

You have your hippocampus which is responsible for learning, focus, memory, and is important in language. It is wired into your amygdala which is responsible for having emotions. And both these aspects of your limbic system are wired into your lungs, heart, and kidneys.

To begin with your hippocampus and amygdala share a see-saw relationship where the larger one becomes the smaller the other is. Problems with anxiety and panic are the result of a small hippocampus combined with a large amygdala. This most often arises as the result of experiencing adversity in life or trauma then spending your days obsessing about it.

The brain is an adaptive organ where the more you use one of its faculties the more it is strengthened. So your obsessing over what happened is what grew your amygdala and shrank your hippocampus. Treatment can take up to two years and involves:

1. Teaching you healthier thinking patterns (i.e. to stop obsessing)

2. Teaching you to control your emotions (i.e. stop having thoughts that triggers your emotions).

3. Teaching you to live healthy (getting plenty of sleep, drinking plenty of water, eating a well balanced diet, exercise, and breathing properly, all impact your anxiety levels).

When these are done together you grow your hippocampus and shrink your amygdala. After a couple of weeks your anxiety levels will be reduced and if you carry on it will take potentially up to two years (depending on the damage you have done to yourself) to get back to normal.

With the breathing I want you to try something - hold your breath until the panic sets in. That panic is the same panic in anxiety. It is caused by you holding your breath. Dont believe me? Next time you are highly anxiety just look at your breathing. There is none. Breath normally and keep doing so to dampen down that anxiety. It isn't immediate, you have to wait until the adrenaline has been cleared which can take a few minutes. Just keep breathing normally and wait.

It's more complicated than that. There are reasons some people obsess more about things, and they are perceiving normal stimuli as if they are dangers. 

Mood and anxiety disorders are characterized by a variety of neuroendocrine, neurotransmitter, and neuroanatomical disruptions. Identifying the most functionally relevant differences is complicated by the high degree of interconnectivity between neurotransmitter- and neuropeptide-containing circuits in limbic, brain stem, and higher cortical brain areas. Furthermore, a primary alteration in brain structure or function or in neurotransmitter signaling may result from environmental experiences and underlying genetic predisposition; such alterations can increase the risk for psychopathology.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3684250/

[GlitterRose]

5 hours ago, preacherman76 said:

Cut out caffeine.  

Caffeine certainly wouldn't help matters.

The underlying problem wouldn't go away, but at least it wouldn't be exacerbated.

Edited September 2, 2018 by GlitterRose

[preacherman76]

17 hours ago, GlitterRose said:

Caffeine certainly wouldn't help matters.

The underlying problem wouldn't go away, but at least it wouldn't be exacerbated.

Actually often times it does go away. If you are a heavy caffeine drinker. I watched my cousin go through these horrible panic attacks. 

After some research we figured out his all day coffee habit was actually causing his anxiety. He switched to decaf, and problem was solved. 

[Duke Wellington]

1 hour ago, preacherman76 said:

Actually often times it does go away. If you are a heavy caffeine drinker. I watched my cousin go through these horrible panic attacks. 

After some research we figured out his all day coffee habit was actually causing his anxiety. He switched to decaf, and problem was solved. 

I think most people dont realise the importance of a proper sleep routine and hydration.

[GlitterRose]

6 hours ago, preacherman76 said:

Actually often times it does go away. If you are a heavy caffeine drinker. I watched my cousin go through these horrible panic attacks. 

After some research we figured out his all day coffee habit was actually causing his anxiety. He switched to decaf, and problem was solved. 

Then he really didn't have anxiety.

His body just couldn't handle caffeine.

[preacherman76]

1 hour ago, GlitterRose said:

Then he really didn't have anxiety.

His body just couldn't handle caffeine.

No he did. It’s how we knew to cut the caffeine out. I read it in a medical journal. Over using caffeine can and does cause anxiety. 

If you saw him you’d know. It was classic anxiety. He’d be in a total panic, thinking he wasn’t breathing. Just freaking out. 

Im telling ya, caffeine can cause anxiety. 

[preacherman76]

In fact I figured all this out while he was in the middle of an attack. I was relieved we found information that would most likely be helpful. He wasn’t. I couldn’t get him down from the panic attack, but it was his last one. He cut the caffeine out right then

[Strangeling]

I'm not sure how long you've been having panic attacks but I'll share what happened to me and how I cope, without meds or psychiatric care. I've always been really, really anxious and timid probably due to verbal (and rarely physical) abuse as a child. I've experienced insomnia, hypnogogic hallucinations, night terrors, exploding brain syndrome, severe manic depression, and once when I was a child a crazy ass bout of capgras syndrome. All diagnosed by a professional at 9 years old. A panic attack was unfortunate but not unexpected. It happened one day after a pit-bull tried to take a chunk out of my cat but I jumped in the way and probably needed some stitches but had no money; so I just butterfly bandaged them. I explained all that bull**** so that you'd know you're situation might be hella different from mine.

TLDR; I have lots of sleep disorders and now a panic one after a dog attack

Anyways I would panic so hard that I would pass out and p issed myself. No kidding. I hyperventilated, my limbs would go numb and my heart would just pound so fast I literally thought I was having a heart attack. In those moments

1. I tried splashing myself with cold water

2. holding my breath and controlling my breathing

 3. pushing with my abdominal muscles like I had to use the bathroom. Those all slow your heart rate which helps the anxiety.

-Caffeine can cause panic attacks because it increases your heart rate and that tells your body something is wrong.

-That's why exercising also helps, in the long run it takes your heart rate down.

-A warm bath could also chill out your mind

 -Tetris for some reason helps people with PTSD and trauma so that's a thought if your anxiety was caused my an event.

I'd also recommend in the long run

a service dog

 deep pressure therapy

 temperature therapy

 drink lots of water during an episode it helps you get over it faster

 something mindless but relaxing and fun. I watched so many hours of simply nailogical after the dog attack

 I was lucky and my boyfriend would lay next to me and rub my back while I cried. That helped immensely. 

 

Best of luck to you!!

Edited September 4, 2018 by Strangeling
misspelling

[+Razman]

On ‎8‎/‎28‎/‎2018 at 6:06 AM, pallidin said:

Say, as an acute anxiety sufferer I often run-out of my "emergency meds" before the end of each month. That med is Ativan (lorazepam)

Wondering your opinion/experience of novel ways to "snap-out" of a panic attack.

I been through this. found out it runs in the family , missed a long time of work because of it. I take clonazepam (like it because it is longer lasting and mellows me), and Escitolapram  for this. the two work well together but I take very little of each. the adrenaline does not start it, the emotional fear starts the adrenaline, can make you feel like your gonna have a heart attack. one thing is Love cancels fear , so you can choose love(though this would be more of a long run situation). alcohol is ok but if you drink too much or too often it can make it worse. though these days I like popping a little clonazepam when I do drink , they go good together. The fear of death often plays a part in this kind of thing. I remember some thing I read that either Gene Siskel (spelling?) or Roger Ebert said ,(I think they both dead now), that made sense to me. Something like " why should I be afraid of death , I never had a problem before I was born , why would I have a problem after  I die ?" . rang a bell with me. In any case I understand the difficulty with this kind of thing. meditate on your deepest fears and call for a solution , it will come.