so I have was going strong for 4 to 5 days without any panic attacks..
it's my birthday today and I guess the days coming up to it, for somereason I was worrying of death on my birthday.. don't ask me why that was going through my head, I guess it was the anxiety..
so I had a bit of a panic earlier but I was able to manage it, but now I have these worrying thoughts all relating to my heart.. specifically a heart attack!! I had chest pains not too long ago aswell, so I think that's what brought it up..
I've been to doctors and been reassured my heart is fine..
why does this have to happen, regardless of all the reassurance the anxiety somehow will still manifest it self in physical pain or somehow find a way to creep into your thoughts..
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ngyyyisex
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Yeah, what can we say about this horrible thing. It just takes over our lives. I too was going ok for nearly two weeks and just now had a mild to moderate attack. I'm pretty sure I could feel it coming on too, as my breathing was getting shallower, and I was becoming tense.
I pace up and down the lounge room, trying to breath calmly and calling myself an idiot, ie: you know it's a panic attack, wake up to yourself. But that simply doesn't pull you out of it, because it is a physical, as well as mental condition. Once that trigger has been pulled and the bullet has left the gun, it's just gotta travel to the target. Eventually it passes, thankfully.
I was just watching a documentary on it and a lot of the talk was about the type of person you are. Basically in a short form, it means you're a really nice, caring guy! Oh well, gotta be something good in this hell!
Two hours later after your post, I hope you're feeling better.
These fears happen because your mind isn't able to dismiss irrational thoughts. If you can think back to a time before you ever had panic issues, I bet you'd be able to remember times where you felt weird stuff going on in your body, but you were able to ignore it. Once we have something to latch onto, for some reason, it consumes our minds. It really is as simple as that, and some people (those with panic problems) but can't break focus from these things. They end up spiraling out of control because they block out all the other, 'real' things going on around us.
The only things i've had success with is to surround myself with distractions to not allow the panic focusing thoughts to take hold. I don't always succeed, but it's the only thing that has every worked. And don't feel bad about having attacks on your birthday, believe me it's happened to me on EVERY birthday.
You're so right, you keep telling yourself this is irrational, I'm ok, I won't get on the ride. But this is subconcious too, and manifests itself physically with the symptoms. Once you start getting shaky, or breathing shallow, there it is, you're on the roller coaster and the only way off is to hang on until the ride's over. And luckily like most modern roller coasters, the ride DOES come back into the station!
I remember when I was younger. There were things that went wrong, but you just dealt with it, went to the doctor's or whatever.... no panic attack. Or I coped well with stress at work. Now, I think the main trigger for my panic attacks is thinking too far ahead regarding work, but I'm not sure that if I left, the panic attacks would magically go away. I think it goes beyond that. That's too simple, if I KNEW that would would work, I would do it in a heartbeat. Pardon the pun.
Knowing now, that the attacks aren't as worse as they were a few weeks ago, because I do have some sort of handle on it, helps. Hopefully I can turn it around and, using the roller coaster metaphor, start with snowballing good things instead of bad.
But the physical things do take their toll, the poor breathing, the poor sleep, the poor eating. You have to get past that to get through this. And after recovering from an attack, I'm exhausted.
I concur on all counts. This has been a huge part of my CBT that I am doing right now. My therapist basically told me that the constantly tiredness I feel, the lack of energy, every can be caused by panic. Plus, when you began trying to actively NOT panic, it zaps your energy on even deeper levels.
Just think, if anxiety has been hurting your sleep for months or years, you are probably chronically sleep deprived, you might be having nightmares, plus your body basically goes into shock during attacks, your heart races, and it's like you just did sprints. it's ALL very painful and tiring for your body.
Then, what happens is that even if you're NOT panicking, you feel the residual effects of the attacks physical manifestations long after the attack has gone. The symptoms begin to build on themselves in layer... day after day... until you're totally without focus and energy.
Hi, There's some interesting stuff on the web about accepting how you feel (my therapist pointed it out). Basically when I used to start to panic, I'd starting panicking about feeling panic (huge spiral!!). Now I try to think "It's okay to feel a bit yuk sometimes and it will pass like it has before". I wouldn't say I'm ever going to get over how I am because I'm a compulsive worrier, but I try to make sure that when I start worrying that I go through my worry checklist (also from my therapist) which helps me to put the worry in perspective rather than winding myself up about it.
Funnily enough I get exhausted too, and yet once I manage to take my mind off it, I can feel significantly better.
Ngyyyisex hope you're feeling better now. I had chest pains for 3 years after a bout of bulling at work. Just storing all the anxiety/tension up can make your chest hurt.
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