Can you stop anxiety attack?

SeekingAfrica

Diamond Member
I've had panic attacks but I take meds or wait it out and it's awful but it's gone.
I've had anxiety attacks that are milder but longer and again I take meds or epdistract myself or something...

It's been 3 hours since I'm home and I can't make my chest release. I've taken the usual amount of panic meds in the morning. Tried distracting and nothing. I managed 1 errand barely and still can't change my outside clothes, I'm laying on the couch with my heart racing. There is a job I can do on my tablet. Better to start now but it feels like an envil is on my chest. Tried breathing exercise, nothing. Reluctant to take more meds but I'm taking a long breath maybe every 5 counts or so.

Please help....
At my worst it's usually been intense but short, this is is new....
 
you are going through new chapters and experiences, seeki. of course there will be new side effects.

the only thing i know to do about sustained stress is to keep my head down and keep on stepping. the quickest way out is straight on through.

may i share one of my favorite songs to sing while going through hell?

steadying support while you walk.
 
Mastering breath control, specifically, for panic attacks. With practice, I got to the point where I could prevent panic attacks from hitting their high.

Slowing, deep breathing forces the sympathetic nervous system to switch off, and things like heart rate have to return to normal.

In the meantime? Exercise that forces regulated breathing, like walking, jogging, swimming…or singing!
 
@Friday what's the difference between a panic attack and an anxiety attack? My baseline is so high I only notice when I'm not anxious or hypervigilant?

@SeekingAfrica I've had many times I can only describe it as I feel like I am going to explode, or lose control of bodily functions in the way of throwing up or fainting (or I do). I hope you can start with pulling your thoughts down to ground- perspective. Much gentleness and deep breathers sent your way. You can only do the best you can and no one is going to die here. You will get through this. 🫂
 
@Friday what's the difference between a panic attack and an anxiety attack? My baseline is so high I only notice when I'm not anxious or hypervigilant?
Panic attacks are sudden/sharp/fast/powerful. Most people mistake them for heart attacks, or sudden-violent-psychosis, when they’re new to them. Even if your anxiety is running hot? A panic attack will either drop you, or launch you, between one second and the next. They are a sudden and MASSIVE adrenaline response; vision goes, heart rate doubles or triples, everything goes numb/excrutiating, hearing warbles (whomph, whomph), and your entire being is filled with rage or terror. That. Wasn’t. There. A. Second. Ago. No matter how anxious/afraid/angry, the second before, a panic attack is xZillion.

Anxiety attacks, meanwhile, are like “normal” anxiety… with legs AND “no” rhyme/reason. (Yes, with PTSD, there’s reason, and it’s usually stress) Oozing creeping fear about even the most normal of things… making things like brushing your teeth or getting the mail or talking? Im-f*cking-possible. Snakes in your belly. Fear bordering on terror. Cold-cold-cold. Shivery, jittery, panicky, nauseating, despairing. Sort of like that moment when you know you’re about to throw up. (Also often including throwing up; anxiety puking is part of the void-process, and can mean puking, pissing, or shitting yourself, all of which are “normal” in anxiety attacks). It’s a loooooong, sloooooow, drawn out adrenaline response. That attaches itself to EVERYTHING. As such? Making almost anything impossible. Thoughts/feelings/actions all just as hijacked as if you are suddenly about to puke and have to run to the loo. Everything “pauses” during an anxiety attack, at best, or becomes a shaking/crying/gasping/infuriating/flailing mess at worst. Rendering anything normal? Again, virtually impossible.

Panic attacks can last seconds, minutes, or hours. Recovering from them can last seconds, minutes, hours, or days.

Anxiety attacks? Can last for days/weeks/months. Recovering, though, tends to be pretty instantaneous. As they tend to melt away with no “hangover” whatsoever. Even if they’ve been running for months.

The biggest difference between them? Is the time frame and violence. Long and slow time frame, with distorted awareness = anxiety attack. Sudden violent drop you -or attacking others- meanwhile, with little to no awareness = panic attack.

***

My very first panic attack was in a laundry room, of all places. Probably? A lid had banged down. The next thing I knew my sgt was talking to me, as he was sitting next to me, his body locked hard against mine, his hands holdin my face to his forehead, just repeating over and over and over “Everything is temporary. Everything is temporary. Breathe. You’ve got this. I’ve got you. Everything is temporary. Everything is temporary. Breathe.” I have noooooo idea how long we’d been there, before I “woke up” and saw/heard/felt him there. Oh. Hello. WTF just happened?!? <<< I was super lucky. He just laughed, asked me if this was my first one, grinned and told me to prepare for a whole helluva lot more. And there were. Both the on-purpose ones that we triggered (with a few other blokes, over a long weekend) so I could learn how to snatch back control & recover on the fly, and the unintentional ones that cropped up in daily life (after having learned how to snatch back control).
 
Based on @Friday 's description, mine are almost always anxiety attacks, though I can't say I really tend to differentiate. Over time, I learned to calm myself down. At first, I started to resist the urge to stop or control it, instead letting it run it's course. If I was in public, I'd go somewhere private. Then I would need to submerge myself into something, really focus to reground myself and take my mind off of it. Later on, I started identifying that "it wasn't my responsibility", by that I mean, I get triggered anytime someone has unrealistic expectations of me, when I can't seem to do what they expect of me. Years ago this would really take me over, I'm talking a good while of shaking and crying. But now? Five minutes or so. I had one at a work training for the first time in three and a half years. It was frustrating me, because the trainers said I had a script that I didn't have (this was over zoom). I looked and I looked but didn't have it. Then they wanted us to do mock calls using the script. I told them I was pretty sure I didn't have it, they told me to ask my manager, so I did, but she was like "we don't have that, we use this and you read the screen for that" I did my mock calls last, trying to copy my classmates. I stumbled through, guessing what to say, and the trainers told me no not like that, etc. I told them what my manager said and showed them what scripts I had and they got me a copy. I told them I needed a break, went cameras off since I was starting to cry and panic. But I told myself they were dumb, not me, everyone else had the script that I should have had. I can't follow a script I don't have, etc. Went to the bathroom and was calm pretty fast like five minutes, so much that it was undetectable to me manager when I passed her on the way back. She asked if I had what I needed and I said no. I needed one titled *_______* and she was like huh.... What does it say? And I was like I don't know, I don't have it.

Same thing happened the next day but before we really got into it with the mock calls I said I didn't have it and I got it before the mock calls so no anxiety attack:) so for me and my triggers, foreseeing them and fixing them before they come up.

So there's a certain amount of letting it run it's course that has to happen. A good amount of being able to recognize your triggers and change it's course, and a good amount of changing those *core beliefs* like in my case "if they're not happy with me, it's my fault" and "everything is my responsibility" rewiring that to "well, no, their feelings are their responsibility, and the fact that I look weak and like an idiot right now is because they didn't give me what I need to do this".
 
Thank you very much @Friday . That is very clear. Helps to know there is little or no awareness with the panic attacks. Mine are all anxiety attacks, and you describe them perfectly. I've had heart-like symptoms, or rare times it feels everything is shrinking in on me, Idk what to call it? It's like losing cabin pressure? But they are rare. A few times I've I bolted but I remember I did, even if I wasn't sure how or where I eventually arrived, then I notice which joints are hurting. I don't think I would have noticed hearing anything. But again I'm sure those were just anxiety. More like feeling like I was on fire in terms of urgency, very reactive.

Panic attacks sound very brutal. I've always assumed them to be. Good to know with practice these be predicted and managed to some degree.

Except for Valium I would say the only thing that takes it down a tiny bit for me is to some degree knowing I have help (if I do), or thinking, "F*ck it, I can't deal with it anymore. I'll do the best I can and it's out of my hands" and trying to stay focused and talk to someone who brings me centered down (as in down in a good way).

Thank you.
 
I've had panic attacks but I take meds or wait it out and it's awful but it's gone.
I've had anxiety attacks that are milder but longer and again I take meds or epdistract myself or something...

It's been 3 hours since I'm home and I can't make my chest release. I've taken the usual amount of panic meds in the morning. Tried distracting and nothing. I managed 1 errand barely and still can't change my outside clothes, I'm laying on the couch with my heart racing. There is a job I can do on my tablet. Better to start now but it feels like an envil is on my chest. Tried breathing exercise, nothing. Reluctant to take more meds but I'm taking a long breath maybe every 5 counts or so.

Please help....
At my worst it's usually been intense but short, this is is new...My

My T and I are just exploring this so can't swear by it. But it has helped me. It has to do with the vagus nerve. It runs thru the entire body. I put a cold pack on my chest on the nerve and lay down. Still exploring if it only works at the early onset or if it would work if it was a full blown anxiety or panic attack.
 
I'm assuming it's the extra stress but this is new to me. I got used to panic attacks, even anxiety but still shorter(about an hour) so I just ...wait it out. Today is the second day I have taken my pan8c attacks meds, I've taken a break an yet the anxiety persists for hours until it has scrambled my thinking.

@Friday And your description of both? Spot on. And as we all know my moving and work are time sensitive, which feeds the anxiety so it's not great....

Not sure what to do now. Trying the same old meditations and breathing etc. Doesn't seem like enough... will try ice.
 
It’s a helluva lot easier for me to stop a panic attack than an anxiety attack. As anxiety attacks are so much subtler? They creep. And ooze. And have 8 arms into my -everything- before I’m even aware they’re there. But? Yes. Much the same way, just on a protracted timeline.
Absolutely! A panic attack takes like half an hour, an anxiety attack can last a week
 

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