Avoidance Or Coping?

[Zemi]

I was reading something that suggested that doing things like talking to someone you trusted or going to somewhere you felt "safe" during a panic attack was a way of avoiding rather than coping? and that, it didn't help you really to learn how to manage and get to the other side of an attack. Just wondered what others though; especially since lately each time I've experienced a panic attack I've pretty much ran to a safe person online. :unsure:

 

[Srain]

I think this is a great question. I haven't thought about it before.

I think panic attacks are something I'm learning learning mindful techniques to work through them with, but unless I've got the tools I need and depending on the situation, I use whatever I can to get through them.

I also think that there is nothing wrong with a safe place or calling a friend to or going online. I would do that, however I might also be thinking about adding other techniques in case those were not available and start working towards gaining a toolbox of options, but that's just me. They are horrible and I hate them, I'm trying to gain on them and not let them control me. Good luck.

Peace,
Rain

 

[Grim]

OK this is a technique I use when I can - sometimes I can't as the panic and fear is to great - and sometimes I'm not somewhere I can try this ....

However, when I can, I try to stay with the fear and not dissociate, or try and distract myself. By staying with the fear and trying to both rationalise and beat the sence of panic I am hopefully desensitising myself to the fear and the trigger.

I think I wrote somewhere before that it was like going on a roller-coaster ride, time after time, till you are so used to the ride that it's become boring.

 

[Nase]

Lately I don't go anywhere without my carer (hubby). If I have to go to my T or Dr. alone then I have an item; can be anything; that I keep in my hand and it calms me. Like that movie Inception...it keeps me "present". This gives me the choice to either cope through the event or choose to engage in exposure therapy; which is what it sounds like Grim is describing. Forgive me if I read it incorrectly Grim. Avoidance in my opinion would be just completely isolating one's self from any experience. Again...opinion. Choices are what we need most. Trauma put some of us somewhere that we don't believe we have choices anymore.

 

[Vet]

In the spring I went to the gym a few times. The gym is really bad for me, not because I am out of shape, it is because I have flashbacks/ panic attacks with no thought of anything.

I went to the gym and I would run. Once my heart rate was up like it gets in a panic attack, I would walk and do beathing tech. It was hard, but I knew the only thing that could compare to my panic attacks was that.

I still get it bad, I want to die, I feel like crawling out of my body, running away, I can not be in a confined space, but doing this helped a little so I could have some control without meds or anti anxiety meds.

Good luck, do what works for you. Bondage can sometimes be a choice. You do not have a choice to feel bad (lack of a better word), but you can choose where you feel like hell, and how you want to manage that hell.

 

[Vet]

Lately I don't go anywhere without my carer (hubby). If I have to go to my T or Dr. alone then I have an item; can be anything; that I keep in my hand and it calms me. Like that movie Inception...it keeps me "present". This gives me the choice to either cope through the event or choose to engage in exposure therapy; which is what it sounds like Grim is describing. Forgive me if I read it incorrectly Grim. Avoidance in my opinion would be just completely isolating one's self from any experience. Again...opinion. Choices are what we need most. Trauma put some of us somewhere that we don't believe we have choices anymore.

Having my husband with me at all times to be home, and to take me places is still a factor in my life. It comes and go's sometimes. For YEARS I followed hime around the house like a puppy/dog. I only stopped because he could not take it anymore. I will try the iteam idea. Never thought of that. You are not alone.

 

[Nase]

Thanks Vet, and welcome to the forum btw. I just wanted to share what my item is; it is in the context of religion, but can be expanded within any persons life. It's a prayer shawl that I secretly cover myself with and pray-meditate (whatever you need to do) during positive times in life as well as times I need to hide. When I need to hide I get under my shawl-sukkot-tent; it's very comforting. So when I venture out it just looks like a cute scarf that I have draped around me, and luckily it's kinda the style right now. I feel myself enveloped by my own prayers not anything religious, because I am also a sufferer of religious abuse, so this has even become my tactic to overcome those wounds.

 

[Grim]

This gives me the choice to either cope through the event or choose to engage in exposure therapy; which is what it sounds like Grim is describing. Forgive me if I read it incorrectly Grim.

Yes - your correct I am talking about exposure therapy.

 

[Jacquie]

For me, when that CRUNCH feeling comes, that GET OUT feeling. Its for a reason. And the reason has no intentions of changing how he does things. So to me, staying there would be the epitome of stoopid. Leaving and accepting the consequences of that decision seems far more sensible.

I cant change what someone else does. I can only make the decision to be the victim..or not.