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Quick solutions for panic attacks?

T

Turniverse29

Things are getting really bad for me. All of this had been bearable for a while, and then I suddenly began having panic attacks in public. This is only unusual because I have been able to ‘hold them off’ for lack of a better term until I was alone or at least at home. Now I’m scared to go anywhere in public, for fear of another attack, and that fear usually leading to one. I can’t find anything as far as something to help, a quick solution or just a way to calm down. It’s so bad I’ve been avoiding going in public, and I have a part time job that I have prescheduled, so it’s… not good. My family members are extremely frustrated by the sudden uptick in uncontrollable attacks, and I’m even more so. I don’t know if there‘s some trigger that I need to start avoiding, or if it’s something else entirely. I just know that this is killing me, and I need just some tips as far as just keeping a lid on everything when I start having an attack in public. If anyone knows any coping mechanisms they have, I’m open to anything.
 
Similar to being able to hold them off? One can also learn to kind of grab it by the back of the collar and yank it back dooooooown, to snap-stop.

It’s something I have to reteach myself every time I’ve had a significant break from them.

A few years without a panic attack? And a single one can f*ck me up for daaaaays. Get back in practice? Pfft. Seconds. Feel it starting, yank it back (instead of hold it off), and all anyone sees is a quick half breath, or pause in my step. Seconds. Compared to hours of riding the waves, and days to recover. Seconds. Quick snap.

The first time, it took a few hundred tries over a few days, to learn how to …grab on?… and snap myself out of it. Since then, though, it’s just a couple dozen to refresh.

It’s not something I can explain better than “practice”…

….& not being afraid OF them. The same way you wouldn’t be afraid of your heart racing and breath ragged and muscle shaking after just running, or having sex, or any other BIG physical activity… and then slowing both your breathing, heart rate, clearing your mind, stretching your body. It’s just the randomness, and emotions being swept up, that’s freaky. Your body was BUILT to be able to respond like this, in an emergency, or for fun. So? Set the fear aside, tell the panic to suck it, whilst you calm everything else down, and? The panic vanishes along with the physical response. As does the fear, feeding both the emotional and physical reaction.
 
I suddenly began having panic attacks in public.
During the phase of my recovery where my panic attacks peaked, I would go the full round. Light headed, dizzy, ready to pass out and…yep! Losing control of my bladder.

Classic panic attack. And very much a reason to loathe going out in public.

Breathing. Learning how to control your sympathetic nervous system through your breathing. It’s not easy to learn, but it works. It’s also extremely hard for anyone else to tell you’re doing it, it doesn’t have any side effects, and you can do it anywhere, anytime.

Forcing long, slow breaths right down into the belly, and taking longer to exhale than the inhale, forces the entire body to come out of that state. It changes your heart rate, the chemicals and hormones being released into your body, and normalises your physiology to prevent the panic attack.

Like I said, it’s not something you learn to do well overnight. And there’s lots of different ways to approach it. I still practice my breathing every single day (I do it when I go to bed, because I can now use my breath to help me get to sleep). But it’s the one thing that I do which actively stopped me having panic attacks. I haven’t had one anywhere near the scale they used to be in years, simply by using my breath.
 
Things are getting really bad for me. All of this had been bearable for a while, and then I suddenly began having panic attacks in public. This is only unusual because I have been able to ‘hold them off’ for lack of a better term until I was alone or at least at home. Now I’m scared to go anywhere in public, for fear of another attack, and that fear usually leading to one. I can’t find anything as far as something to help, a quick solution or just a way to calm down. It’s so bad I’ve been avoiding going in public, and I have a part time job that I have prescheduled, so it’s… not good. My family members are extremely frustrated by the sudden uptick in uncontrollable attacks, and I’m even more so. I don’t know if there‘s some trigger that I need to start avoiding, or if it’s something else entirely. I just know that this is killing me, and I need just some tips as far as just keeping a lid on everything when I start having an attack in public. If anyone knows any coping mechanisms they have, I’m open to anything.
I am not a therapist or a professional and you should definitely see one. BUT...

I dealt with as many coming attacks, depressive bouts, whatever, as possible, by masturbating. It never got ridiculous and it is definitely compulsive BUT - it wires something else in the brain, and that sidetracks the rest. Its probably terrible advice and dont kid yourself you need a professional, but that is a good last resort.
 
This is only unusual because I have been able to ‘hold them off’ for lack of a better term until I was alone or at least at home.
i find myself stunned at the thought of being able to hold off a panic attack. my own panic attacks hit with tsunami force. i can no more hold back a panic attack than i can hold back a tsunami. i can only find something to hold on to and breathe my way through the event. grounding tools often help me shake off the aftereffects.

however, i can often prevent them by doing a personal inventory before i enter a stressful situation. when the inventory shows that my anxieties are running high, bringing the roots of the current anxiety front and center allows me to ply radical acceptance and mindfulness. i've had unwelcome tons of practice with this technique since march 2020 when the whole world started looking like a surgical team, bringing my medical traumas and mask phobia into blinding ptsd focus.
 
If I can, I pull myself out of the situation I am in at the moment, wether it has started the attack or just fed into it a little, I need to get off the path I am going down and physically being somewhere else for as long as it takes is step one to getting past it. It is always (never say always) okay to say "sorry, I need to find a restroom, be back soon". I find an exit or a place to pull over, I hear something I need to investigate, I get distracted by a shiny metal object, I say"sorry, this call may be important, gotta take this one". Thats step one. After that I am winging it, hopefully able to get here and now, but step one is definitely finding a here and now without any requirements other than made it here and I can be here as long as I need to be.
 
It’s one thing to deal with, or try to prepare and deal with, known triggers. After 2 years with PTSD, I’ve somewhat learned to manage those. It’s the unexpected/new triggers that are making me lose hope. The list of triggers is getting longer … I don’t know if I’m making sense to anyone …
 
You are making sense. Somehow for me fresh grief and ptsd open up all kinds of shit. It seems like the grief just stacks up and more old grief joins it. It makes me feel very emotionally dysregulated. A hare trigger of something weird can do it.

I agree that breathing exercises help. Meditation and journaling help too , but not as much as I want them too. I over exercise so that my tired body will try to calm my mind. Good luck ❤️
 
Stop, safe, breathing. Stop, move away from whats triggered the attack. Think about controlling my breathing.

Don't keep going and thinking oh no not again. Move away from what ever the stressor that is bringing on the attack, Focus on breathing does two things - gives me internal focus, takes focus from external stimulus, helps control my breathing. Smooth and even, because in panic you want to run and your body gets ready to do that by hyperventilating, conscious control - takes the ability to continue the panic cycle away.
 
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