Anxiety attacks, can you advise me please?

Aura

fluffnutter wrote: »

I always do. I don't enjoy them in the least. So I've stopped going. Problem solved

I love going to Newquay, sea's in my blood but I'm not going to let one man ruin it for me.


Does your GP's practice have a website where each doctor's specialities are listed?


Not sure, how do I find out please?

dancingfairy

Can you spend the day or part of the day doing something else whilst your parents go to this arcade (if it's important to them)?
Also this person might have left the arcade, or be on holiday, or have a day off etc so you might not run into them anyway.
In terms of panic attacks, have you found anything particularly triggers them? Have a look online, I'm sure there will be support out there to help you manage them.
Regards
df

Aura

I'll probably do my photography while they are in there. he usually has a day off on Sunday until Thursday, but the other staff might tell him that I was in or something.

fluffnutter

Aura wrote: »

I love going to Newquay, sea's in my blood but I'm not going to let one man ruin it for me.


Does your GP's practice have a website where each doctor's specialities are listed?


Not sure, how do I find out please?

GPs don't tend to specialise. Or rather, being a general practitioner is their speciality.

marisco_2

You come across as a lovely person OP who is always careful to be considerate of other peoples feelings and to treat them well. I cant add to the good advice already given, but couldn't read and run. I know how awful it is to suffer from anxiety and panic attacks. I hope that you will find a way forward that helps you to feel more at ease and happy with life again.

Aura

marisco wrote: »

You come across as a lovely person OP who is always careful to be considerate of other peoples feelings and to treat them well. I cant add to the good advice already given, but couldn't read and run. I know how awful it is to suffer from anxiety and panic attacks. I hope that you will find a way forward that helps you to feel more at ease and happy with life again.

Thanks that's very kind of you

onlyroz

I've found this site to be helpful:

http://www.anxietycoach.com/overcoming-panic-attacks.html

System

Anxiety attacks are horrible things, i don't have them as often as i used to be i still get them from time to time. However i've gotten better at recognizing the signs and most of the time can calm myself down and prevent it from going full blown. I find if i can calm my breathing down, it starts to subside a bit. Sorry you're doctor didn't seem very helpful, i'd go back and see another doctor if you can and ask to be referred to the Improving Access to Psychological Theapies (known as IAPT) team, i believe most can offer cbt and i think some offer an online form of CBT called FearFighter that you can access online at home.

z.n

Hi OP
Just wanted to say that CBT is great for managing the physical effects of anxiety attacks. There is probably a lot you can do to find out more through the sites mentioned by posters above. I have found it very useful as an everyday practical tool.

The basic idea is to try to identify what triggers an attack and then be aware of your earliest reaction to that trigger so you can feel an attack coming on. Before the anxiety gets out of control, you list the different reasons why you are anxious and then think of ways in which that reason can be minimised. eg if it is fear of needles then one reason might be that having a needle blood test is painful- but it is a lot less painful than stubbing your toe and that is not scary,just annoying. With practice challenging your anxious thoughts becomes automatic and you can catch an anxiety attack before it takes over most of the time.

I still get caught by surprise sometimes and miss a trigger and suddenly find I am anxious. Most times I can identify the trigger and the process of working out the cause can calm me down because it makes me feel more in control. Relaxation techniques like slow breathing can also help. Even when I cannot identify the trigger I have learned that an anxiety attack will pass without disaster- so I just have to wait it out which is unpleasant and exhausting. But I know there is little I can do about it until the chemicals calm down. A bit like feeling drunk but knowing you will be back to normal once the alcohol clears your system.

I have been on beta-blockers and antidepressants and both help when the problem is raging out of control. If you go 0 to 100 in the blink of an eye you need some help slowing down the process so you can identify your triggers and have time to learn to control it using CBT.

When thinking of the arguments to challenge my anxious thoughts I generally imagine what a non-anxious person might say about the trigger. Or indeed what I might say to a friend worrying about that same trigger. It is surprising how well this can work to calm me down.

onlyroz

z.n wrote: »

I still get caught by surprise sometimes and miss a trigger and suddenly find I am anxious. Most times I can identify the trigger and the process of working out the cause can calm me down because it makes me feel more in control. Relaxation techniques like slow breathing can also help. Even when I cannot identify the trigger I have learned that an anxiety attack will pass without disaster- so I just have to wait it out which is unpleasant and exhausting. But I know there is little I can do about it until the chemicals calm down. A bit like feeling drunk but knowing you will be back to normal once the alcohol clears your system.

I think this is important. I get anxious over certain behaviour of people in close proximity - I overreact to their annoying quirks (e.g. things like noisy eating or knuckle cracking will make me feel anxious with increased heart rate, nausea etc). But when it happens I find that it helps to tell myself "this is as bad as I'm going to feel" - so that I teach myself that whatever is happening is not going to cause the world to end, and I can cope better the next time it happens.

It can also help to expose yourself to small doses of whatever triggers an anxiety attack in a controlled manner. If you have a specific phobia then putting yourself in a situation which triggers the phobia and employing the usual breathing techniques, and repeating helpful mantras, can help teach you again that the world is not going to end whenever the thing happens.