Hi there, panic attacks are fun aren't they? (sarcasim intended)
i go through them everyday and it plays a person out. But when you go to bed you cannot sleep because your mind is racing wondering about every ache and pain your having.
Just last night I woke up at 3:30am and was having anxiety/panic attack, thank god I have ativan to help calm me down or else I would have been up for the remainder of the night.
I have gone through tests at the hospital checking my heart and I am going to have my eyes tested to see if that is causing the daily headaches that I am having because the doctor said there are no signs of neurologic trauma. It is frustrating feeling like something is wrong but no one can find anything.
I hope that you are feeling better and get some rest.

Hi, am new to this forum, but instantly I see that there is a section for panic attacks or pa's as I call them!

I used to have pa's, since I was 18, I have not had a bad attack for just over a year now... Sounds too good to be true, but they can be overcome.

The fact that you, op are overweight has nothing to do with them.... As you may know, it's a state of your mental health....Doesn't mean you are insane/mentally unstable/or any other description. Everybody has the ability to panic...And it's just that in us, that ability goes into overdrive, produces huge amounts of adrenalin, which the body doesn't know what to do with, and then the symtoms appear....And the symptoms could be anything.... Mine were, severe nausea, gagging, shaking all over, pulling my hair, sweating, being unable to move from the place I was (usually in bed) coulcn't think of food...And to get over these episodes, I phoned, nhs24 who were most helpful, they first of all, got me through the attack, then put me in touch with a psychiatric nurse... Who then encouraged me to go to my doctor and get reffered to a pa clinic, where I attended a course for 6 weeks...Hey presto they are gone.... It wasn't magic, there were no needles or anything like that...It was simply an introduction to what your body was doing, and basically to be able to accept what was happening, and also accept that nothing bad would happen. They taught you breating excersizes, and how to relax.

I had one huge attack the night after it started, and again one biggish attack after the course ended..... And they tailed off after that. Now I don't get any...

I do still have some wee pills that my doctor gives me, and I keep them handy, but haven't had to use them.

Hope this helps.

J xx

Hi there,

I suffered from panic attacks for years. Luckily, they've gone away since I've gotten older. Aging isn't something you can do quickly so here's something else that always helped me: slow breathing.

This is probably not something that will solve the whole problem and change your life but it's very simple and will deal with the actual physical attack, and maybe more.

Everyone knows that they should breathe slowly and deeply when stressed or under anxiety. But doing it correctly and remembering to do it when you need it is important. It really works to calm you.

Not only that, but there's a specific technique that you can learn and do 15 minutes a day. Doing it regularly like this will actually affect you internally and will reduce the attacks and make you feel much better in general. Then you also use the technique to cope when a panic attack strikes.

This method is called Breatheasy and you do it with music. You can get free instructions with an online interactive demo at
http://www.control-your-blood-pressure.com /demo.html
It's completely free with no signup or any other catches involved.

Tenky, Julz's advice is really good. It sounds like what I learned in my cognitive training or cbt group. Try and join a group or read the book by sam obitz which teaches you the tea form exercise. We used this book in my group and learned the tea form exercise and it has become a staple in my life that helps me keep my anxiety at a minimum and I have not had a panic attack since the begining of my group and I was having them almost everyday when I joined my group. Once you learn to counter your thoughts in the tea form you will begin to make a lot of progress and they will not hold powert over you anymore and begin to vanish like Julz said.

Check out the panic disorder thread.

Panic attacks are scary as you well know. Logically though you know everything will be alright, keeping that thought in mind will help.

Cognitive therapy will help you deal with them. There is most likely a physical cause for the distress (not what is causing you the fear). Some people have been able to correlate cortisol levels with these attacks. Cortisol is produced in the adrenal glands.

Nutritional supplements have helped some people ie gaba, magnesium, vitamin c, l-theanine, omaga-3 oils.

The easiest thing to try is just a pinch of sea salt on your tongue and wash it down with 16 oz of water. Sounds to easy to even bother with, but it works. There is a theory that dehydration (chronic) may be at the root of these problems so drink more water 8 cups a day, stay away from caffeine, and eliminate sugar.

Good luck!
Smile God loves you
Let me know how things work out.

Tenky, give cbt a try. It is what helped me and I still do the tea form exercise from obitz's book nmearly everyday. It really does work if you work at it.

Tenky I hope you are giving some of our advice a try. Let me know if you jave any questions.

Are you still coming here Tenky? I would love to hear an update on what and how you are doing?

Still no word from tenky