Question:
I get a lot of PA's at the moment.
How do I stop them happening? How do I control them when they do happen?
How do I ensure that they are as small as possible? How does everyone cope
with them and what do you do to overcome them?
Answer:
I find yoga techniques of breathing really help when experiencing pa's. If
you can find the time to practice some of these (even 10mins twice a day)
then I'm sure it'll help when the pa's start. Learning control of your
breath when you are calm, makes it easier to control your breathing when
feeling not so calm. Your mind causes your body to hyperventilate when you
have a pa, so claming your body with these breathing techniques helps to
calm your mind.
Here are the basics:
Gently push your abdomen out as you inhale through your nose.
Pull it gently in as you exhale through your nose.
Let your inhalation and exhalation be even.
You may want to count as you
inhale 1- 2- 3- and as you exhale 1- 2- 3.
Try to slow down and deepen the rate of breathing,
Perhaps allowing a pause after you inhale and after you exhale.
This page is a good start for some more advanced breathing exercises:
http://www.mv.com/ipusers/howell/ejh/HTML/breathing01.htm - don't worry
about the positions - sitting in a straight backed chair with the hands on
the knees is fine - the important thing to be is comfortable and relaxed.
Another technique not mentioned here is to try and exhale a little further
than normal - this may feel weird at first and you may feel a bit short of
breath (I did) but the idea is to get more old air out of your lungs and
therefore get more in on the next breath.
Dont know much about yoga and meditation but I'd imagine it'd help. Hypnosis
(although it's expensive) is really good for PA's
If your'e looking for those quick fix pills, try asking the quack for
Propranolol, I've used it for PA's and it worked a treat.
I've told my doc about them but he doesn't take me seriously. He just drew
me a graph of some sort and insulted me for not being able to cope better.
It didn't seem to matter to him that sometimes I've got nothing to panic
about but they happen anyway - like something gets triggered off in my brain
or something.
I'm going to see him again soon so that will be his final chance
before I try and change docs.
This is my major remaining symptom after my depression.
My psychiatrist now treats it as the most worrying condition I have - since
many people suffer depression and live through it.
In the short term, tranquillisers are the best cure for chronic anxiety.
In acute situations, there is no reasonable cure and hospital admission is
necessary, relaxing and a good way to overcome the fear.
In general though, panic attacks are the body's way of worrying that your
condition is improving too well.
I can just about cope with the little ones but when it goes beyond that and
I have a bigger one I just get so scared and I loose all concentration and
everything starts going wrong which is when I stop thinking about my
breathing and start hyperventilating.
I'll give the counting and the focusing a try and hopefully I'll start to
learn how to deal with them better!!
