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Panicking And Being Unable To Do Thing

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Does that happen to you guys too? When you panic and doing anything in your day is like trying to go on slow motion? I am having huge trouble right now. I am at the end of a trip that ended up kinda stressful overall...Tonight I have to pack and I have like...6 hours or less to do it, as I travel too early to pack in the morning.
It's plenty of time, but I am feeling panicky and stopping myself from doing stuff. It makes it really hard to get ready. Nothing is wrong right now, but being in a rush is kind of a trigger for me, and I think all the stress of the last days is adding fuel to the fire. And now I feel completely frozen. Not sure what to do and I can;t keep taking meds this often...This is not good...
Any advice?
 
Take a minute to sit down and just breathe. Count in your head as you breathe. Joey taught me a method of a count of 4 in, hold for 4, out for 4, hold for 4, then repeat. It works insanely well at calming the panic. I do it in 5's when I am in a stressful situation, just to regulate my breathing and avoid panic.
Give it a try eh? *hugs*
 
Take a minute to sit down and just breathe. Count in your head as you breathe. Joey taught me a method...
Thanks! I am still trying to use it. I thank fully packed, kind of by accident. There was a person from my family over, and they are part of the stress of the trip, so while talking to them I was so much trying to be calm and not panick or speak angrily to them for rushing me, that I threw all things in my luggage in a haze.
Can panic make you fainty? I haven't had such feeling since twice in my childhood, but now, while packing and talking while being really angry and panicked...while I was standing and talking for a moment everything got black. It almost felt like my heart/head can't handle the stress. I felt like I was going to faint. Thankfully it was a split second only, but it never happened to me before....is that odd?
So now I am packed, but I feel I was rushing too much and going through so many emotions while packing, that now I feel a bit in shock. I feel a bit distant of everything, sleepy, and all...weak. So I've been trying to breathe in this way as much as I can, to off-set some of this now, and curled up with a blanket. May be I should just take the night off.
May be it's not such a bad thing, to just let go for the night and get sleep. I need to wake up before 6AM, in freezing cold and be out and ready to travel, and that too is kind of a trigger. Ok, I am starting to hyperventilate again, I need to breathe and calm down...
 
SeekingAfrica- Yes, I totally experience this. When I feel panicky it is difficult to do things. It's like being deer in the headlight frozen. And yes, I do feel dizzy and faint. I think this comes from racing heart and shallow breathing when panicky. The advice about counted breathing is excellent- but difficult to remember in the heat of the moment.
 
Oh, and when I'm anxious I'm also prone to "ear worms"- you know, when you get a song or part of a song playing over and over in your mind. Bad enough for a few minutes, but very disturbing when it lasts for hours.

Do you experience this by any chance? I've found no way to combat this phenomena.
 
Oh, and when I'm anxious I'm also prone to "ear worms"- you know, when you get a song or part o...
Yes, sometimes...usually when I'm anxious before sleep, I get a part of song replaying in my head over and over very vividly...then each time I wake up I have it in my head, and finally I wake in the morning, very underslept, and with that same song still playing over:/.
I watched a video that said the way to get a song out of your head would be to either play another song, or actually listen to the song and listen to it completely to the very end...it's a mental trick. Not sure if it works, cause thankfully recently I haven't had that issue, but may be you should try it.

Uh, I have really gathered a lot of stress over that trip though. I managed traveling back, and for a moment I felt better and excited to be back. ...but now all emotions I didn't have time for during the trip are coming after me. I need extreme emotional detox:P. I'm currently having one of those days where you feel like crying because you have to go out and do ...anything....
 
SeekingAfrica-

I'll try that about "curing" the ear worm. What's odd is that it's always a song I like- it just gets old hour after hour!

My heart goes out to you having "one of those days." So often I find myself crying over the slightest thing- even a sappy TV commercial can get me going. I wish the crying felt cathartic- to use your words, like "an emotional detox," but my mind seems to be an endless supply of sadness and anger. It's like a solar powered electrical outlet. The feelings are there all the time. All you have to do is plug something in. Again, in your words, "anything."
 
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