Our daughter is plagued with panic attacks lately. Some times several in one day. Is this common with PDP......she’s under some stress with her job which she will be quitting the first of June. I’m praying that will relieve some stress and she’ll be more calm. Her regular doctor gave her some Lexapro today and she is already taking Klonipin and has been taking that almost from the beginning of her diagnosis 5 years ago.
Just wondering if there is something to do to help besides relieve of the stress.
Help!
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Williemom
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PWP experience stress more accutely. Also, to PWP "stress" includes anything that adds to what our brains are expected to process. For example, I can no longer watch a car chase scene in a movie, or even a heated argument for that matter.
The metaphore I use is this: imagine that you have a bucket in your brain that water (stress) drips into. If the bucket overflows, the water will cause short circuts in your brain (a panic attack). Fortunately, most people can turn a spicket to drain the bucket from time to time by relaxing in various ways. But we PWP have buckets that are always almost overflowing and faucets that barely work.
Many of us practice meditation, exercise, Qi Gong (all of fwhich helps a little).Encourage her to try these things in order to find what works for her. Walking as fast as I can calms me, for example. Cleaning up her diet might help (eating only healthy, unprocessed food and more veggies, for example).
But keep in mind that these things only help a little bit. She will begin to recognize sources of stress that will oveflow her bucket. Help her by recognizing them too. This is definitely not the time to practice tough love, for example. In this case, the old addage is wrong: experiencing stress may not kill us, but neither will it make us stronger.
I encourage you to work with her to reduce stress naturally whenever possible.This might be a personal bias, but except for one medication that improves dopamine levels in my brain, I take very few other prescription meds and then only when absolutely necessary. Having said that, though, some supplements are usefull. You may want to look into HDT (high dose thiamine). Many, including myself, have found that it calms us somewhat and reduces some of the other symptoms. Search for it on this forum; it's quite popular here, although most neurologists have yet to hear about it.
Thank you for the suggestions. She has already started a “clean” diet and taking vitamin b supplements along wi5 a few others. I hate for her to have to take klonipin or lexapro, the doctor also suggested the breathing techniques and walking. We talk about what causes the stress and try not to worry about what you can’t change. She has been clean and sober since 2000, so I remind her of the sayings from AA.....accept the things I cannot change and change the things I can......maybe I’m not helping but ready for all advice. I come home from that experience and “fall apart” myself plus I have a husband that is in bad health too with bad back spasms and daily migraine type headaches. I need a “clone”......
I do app reactivate this website and all the help .....thanks so much!
You yourself are in a very stressful situation. Do not forget to take care of yourself! Give yourself time and space to destress – by keeping yourself in good shape you will stay in shape to help your family.
Thanks... I pray every nite I can stay healthy to help take care of others.
I try to exercise use but not very good at it right now but as the weather gets better my daughter and I are going to walk each day and I told her I could go to the boxing class too!
"Change the things I can." This won't directly help your daughter, but it might help your husband. My wife had terrible migrains, but this advice has helped her quite a bit. I like this web site, and it's a good place to search for answers. Everything is based on scientific studies and completely free: nutritionfacts.org/2017/06/...
My husband was extremely anxious to the point of being suicidal over last Christmas and under the psych ward of the hospital and the anti anxiety drugs the psychologist gave home seemed to make him worse. He started taking Hardy’s inositol and daily essential nutrients and within 3 days his mood completely came back to normal and he has been calm ever since ( several months) and nothing seems to upset him now. It may be worth ringing their help line and talking to a product specialist and trying their products as it has been the thing that has worked the best for him. Look at their videos on their webpage and it explains their products. It may help your daughter too. It is certainly worth a try.
Simple things like working on our taxes, going to a busy family party, or traveling on a plane can cause great distress to my husband. He continually obsesses over a stomach ache that is from stress. The brain seems to do horrible things to the PD patient. He takes a 0.5 dose of Lorazapam ,no more than once a day when it happens and it calms him down. Lately he has been having fewer attacks by getting more oxygen to his brain and relaxing his body with a machine i have called the Exerciser 2000.He hasn't had an attack for 2 days now.
The main thing seems to be how to handle the panic. Everyone recommends breathing exercises. It short circuits the panic. He also takes a cold shower when it is really bad and it snaps him out of it.
Don't know if this will work for your daughter, but when I first became afflicted with Parkinson symptoms, I began having panic attacks and I immediately attributed it to some nutritional deficiency. So I quickly remedied this by preparing nutrient-intense smoothies every day (twice a day at first). I made them with apples, bananas, a teaspoon each of alfalfa powder, kelp powder, turmeric powder, ginger powder, cinnamon powder, and others that I came across which seemed to be indicated at the time.
I began doing this about 12 years ago, and I have ever had a panic attack since! There are a number of herbal powders that may be more specifically applicable for calming and anxiety, but my focus was to rebuild my overall health with vitamins, minerals, amino acids, etc. that I might have been lacking in my diet at the time (something in which few medical doctors have had training). These powders are all available on line, and possibly at your local Walmart, as well.
Thanks very much. I’ve already been trying to get her to do some herbal smoothies. I think I’m going to have to go over in the a.m. and make some for her to drink during day. She forgets to eat and says she doesn’t feel like eating so has no energy and is “skin and bone” which worries me a lot.
We’re getting on the nutrient, herbal, supplement band wagon so maybe these things will help soon.
Hopefully, once she gets some decent nutrition, and off those meds, her attitude will improve, ad she'll take greater interest in her own well-being. Until then all may depend on you. Just make sure at the beginning, at least, that those smoothies are irresistibly delicious, as well as nutritious
Hi Williemom. You don't mention what Pd medications your daughter is on. I agree that stress could be a contributory to the panic attacks but all medication is toxic and no Pd medication does anything to make her Pd better.
If you are interested to find out what DOES help to slow down the progression of Pd or even reverse it. then look at y website - reverseparkinsons.net and contact me. I willl help your daughter to start getting better AT NO COST TO ANYBODY!
Our daughter takes sinemet every 3 hours now to not have so much “off” time. Also klonipin for the anxiety and was just put on lexapro to help the panic attacks.
She has started eating clean and taking supplements along with the sinemet. I think, and I’m no doctor, that the sinemet is not helping. When she stops working in June I think she will have the time to exercise more and concentrate on getting better. We’ve checked out a boxing class which her Naturalist doctor highly recommends and we plan to walk several days a week. She needs some weight so that’s why I’ve been trying to get her to do smoothies. Eating regular yogurt, Avocado, almond butter, apples, bananas, fresh veggies, salmon, et
Is trying some CBD tablets .......
I’ll ask her about contacting you and thank you very much for the offer.
I wear a bracelet everyday that says....whatever it takes to beat Parkinson’s.....
Hi Williemom. It is difficult without being a qualified doctor to give useful tips to Pd patients.
There are however, many tips that are common knowledge and common sense.
The first is that levodopa and protein should NEVER be in the gut at the same time because they combine and form another chemical and the levodopa does not get to the brain to form dopamine. That means that if she takes her levodopa medication within at least 90 minutes of eating protein she will get less benefit and need more levodopa.
I don't know how long it takes to get away from the 'Off' effect of the levodopa. It might be hours or it might be days but it is not weeks. Once off the effects of the levodopa she will be better off. Only she can do that, nobody else.
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Perhaps advice? Heart broken. Baring my soul.
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