Panic Attacks?

beachbeth

I used to have these quite badly. They would come on when I was in town, usually in the middle of a shop. I had them at work too though.

I read a book about panic attacks (I do wish I could remember what it was called) and it stopped my panic attacks! I have never had a book help me in this way before.

The main things it said was to remember that a panic attack is just a feeling and nothing more. You may feel as though you are about to faint or have a heart attack, but you won't. It also said not to fight the panic attack as this makes it worse. After reading this book I would think "Ok, Im having a panic attack. I'll try to breathe slowly and carry on with what Im doing until it passes".

The book explained it much better than this and it made a lot of sense. Perhaps you could go to your local library and look at the books on the subject there? If you look up Panic Attacks in the book section of Amazon they have reviews on different books too.

Ive looked on Amazon myself and it may have been this book:

Panic Attacks, What They are, Why They Happen and What You Can Do About Them - Christine Ingham.

timestar

I can understand what you are going through. Unless you have suffered a panic attack it is hard to explain to someone else exactly what it is like and how traumatic the experience can be. Personally I often find that a simple breathing exercise (in for 5 secs, hold 5 secs, our for 5) can help a lot, although it can take a while sometimes. I also find it useful to concentrate on a simple, repetitive task for a while to divert my brain until my body has calmed down. Trip to your GP might help, although they might try and fob you off with a prescription for anti-depressants. Exercise also helps me as if nothing else it means I am tired! There is a lot of work currently on using cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) and your GP may be able to refer you to someone.

anniewoo

I also suffer from panic attacks,I am a very anxious person anyway and am always worrying about something.

This is quite a good sitehttp://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/NMPcms.php?nmppage=default

alared

http://www.livinglifetothefull.com/index.php

Excellant site,sign up for free and get on with it NOW

Inkedkitten

Thank you all so much for replying, I have been to my GP and he has given me a prescription for a drug called paroxetine, although I am not sure I want to take this and am trying to arrange some counseling.

I only seem to have them in my place of work, a hospital, which I never had before only since I started my midwifery course, so I have tried to avoid the area in which I get my attacks. I am going to go back tomorrow though and try and just get on with it and see what happens. I can't put this off forever and I know if I don't go tomorrow I won't go all week. So once again thanks for all the advice and support, I hope that tomorrows cloud has a silver lining.

shaven-monkey

If the panic attacks are set off by a phobia (of crowds for example) then you may gain some benefit from finding an NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) practitioner.
A good one can pretty much cure phobias Even a fairly bad one can reduce the severity of a phobia.

Best to eliminate any organic causes for the panic attacks first by visiting your GP.

beachbeth

Paroxetine (might be better known as its brand name of Seroxat) is a similar drug to Prozak. If your doctor has given it to you I would definitely try it (especially as you are trying to cope with your attacks at work). I am on paroxetine too and it has certainly helped me and isn't addictive. I used to have very bad pms and I no longer get this now Im on paroxetine. Don't worry about taking an anti-D. They are much better nowadays than they used to be years ago and won't make you fuzzy headed or anything.

Sausagecat

I was off work for six weeks once in an awful state with panic attacks and a constant feeling of anxiety. I found help with the www.livinglifetothefull.com website too. Its CBT from the Scottish NHS if I remember correctly. Once I realised that there wasn't a magic wand that would take it away, I focused myself and put a lot of thought into my problems and the thought cycles that caused it. Going back to the cause of the panic (work) was hard but I got through it with a little help from my GP too. I have since had counselling from the NHS (its a long waiting list) and I have to say that I think the literature and courses on the livinglifetothefull website were better than the reallife counselling.

MsChazzer

I've had anxiety and panic attacks for years but Prozac controls them brilliantly, that's obviously a personal thing though. One thing that really helped me was a book called The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook. It's got a chapter all about what happens to your body when you have a panic attack and how you won't die/go crazy/all the other things you think will happen. Now I know those things it helps me to calm down quicker.

Sometimes you have to try a few different things before you find something that works for you, but keep trying!

o2brich

Breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth as a previous person said definitely also used to help me during a panic attack but what I found to be the most helpful was reading a book by Dr Claire Weeks called 'Self Help for Your Nerves'. I know everyone copes with panic attacks differently but something just clicked for me when I was reading the book and it was the beginning of me learning how to cope with them in a different way so I did not make them worse. I still now years later sometimes pick the book up and have a little read of it when I'm feeling a bit panicky.