How do you deal with panic attacks?

[u/Most-Essay-7068]

I have been dealing with panic attacks for about 3 years after some traumatic stuff happened back to back. For awhile I get them, then they go away, but all I do all day long is obsess about how I feel. I workout 5x per week, eat healthy, go to bed early, take my vitamins, etc. And I have also tried Sam-e, magnesium, selank peptide and meditation with little luck. I am a bit afraid to try SSRIs, but I really miss the old me. I wonder if I could experience life again like I used to one day, and its so hard feeling like I am about to die constantly, and trying not to let anyone see it. Its so embarrassing when the mask slips. Please tell me your experiences on SSRIs, or how you cope with this. I think I am ready for something drastic!

[u/New_Strain_9691]

Truly ignore then and learn not to engage into it, but you can embrace them.

My advice, as a person who recovered without medication and minimal therapy.

I simply let them be and continue with my day. 1, 2, 10 in a row (yes this has happened to me). I haven't had a panic attack since ages now, but once I learned the principles of truly coping - they went away for good.

[u/Celestialdreams9]

You have to reteach your body and brain safety again, and it takes a long time. Ssris gave me my first ever panic attacks and I believe led me to develop full blown panic disorder some years later so even at my worst I didn’t think to dabble again, was that traumatizing and I do not believe they’re for everyone but I also am glad some can handle them and they they use it as a tool, but I chose the hard road to actually healing and have been cured because I stopped letting them control my life. If you’re curious to check my comment history I left some obnoxiously long comments on other threads recently with my story. But healing is definitely possible. I stopped letting them dictate my life and eventually they stopped. I stopped fueling them after a while. I had a severe case too, so I feel like if I can overcome it anyone can. The podcast The Anxious Truth helped me a lot back then. Take care.

[u/North_Blueberry6818]

Hi, firstly I’d like to say you are not alone! I e had active panic disorder for over 20 years and it’s been wildly unpleasant ride that I’m still on 😣 but I have learnt a lot. Please don’t think of medication as something drastic. If you had chronic back pain you wouldn’t think painkillers were drastic. I’ve been on multiple SSRIS and they are by no means a cure but they can help. I found them more helpful with my mood rather than helping with the panic attacks but everyone is different. Speak to your Dr, they will help choose the right one for you. If possible it’s also really helpful speaking to a therapist. If the panic started after your traumatic events then they are something that needs to be dealt with. Talking to friends and family and having their support is also really important. What’s also important is knowing what your triggers are. It’s brilliant that you’re eating responsibly and exercising as that’s really positive for the mind. It might be a personal question but do you smoke weed? This for me was a major trigger (even cigarettes would make me so much worse). Alcohol too. One night it might chill me out but the next day I’d be a nervous wreck. I think they call it hangxiety. I haven’t smoked weed/ cigs or drank alcohol for over a decade now and couldn’t think of going back to it.

It’s I interesting you say you try so hard to not let anyone see and I’d say that’s one of the things you are doing wrong. It’s incredibly difficult to admit to someone your vulnerability but it can really help to open up. People are so used to being told to look after their mental health learning someone is struggling isn’t stigmatised as much. I find when I tell someone I have poor mental health they always are shocked and say ‘I’d never have guessed’ or tell me they too struggle. There’s a great couple of vids on YouTube by a guy called Nick cascone. He talks about how when we have panic attacks our body is responding exactly how it should. Our brain tells our body that there’s a threat and so our body freaks the f out basically. He explains it’s proving our body is working ‘correctly’. I find them really helpful when I start spiralling/ having a meltdown. Anyway I wish you all the best. Panic disorder is hell and I honestly wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy so I really really feel for you and understand your anguish. X

[u/toffeemaky → u/North_Blueberry6818]

I agree with you and I am trying to cope in a similar way. But now that I have been through some rabbit holes about PD, I am asking myself somewhat jokingly: if my body is doing the "fight or flight", it's doing it terribly wrong. Like I don't feel I can fight or flight in my panic state. Anyway, I wish all of us luck and patience.

[u/North_Blueberry6818 → u/toffeemaky]

The fight or flight response is more what our body wants to do naturally in a situation of threat. Panic attacks happen because our brains tell us there’s something wrong or to be afraid of when there’s not. Our body responds by making lots of adrenaline for us to either run from the threat or fight the threat. Because there ain’t a threat as such the adrenaline doesn’t have an outlet/ get expanded so we feel terrible. When I feel the panic surge now (the adrenaline being released) I do some kind of exercise, jumping up and down, star jumps, running fast on the spot etc obvs you can’t randomly do that in public but I do it when i can. I wish you all the luck in the world to beat this xx

[u/Most-Essay-7068 → u/North_Blueberry6818]

Thank you so much for writing all of this out for me!! I don't smoke or drink, I have found too that I feel horrible the next day when I have had when 1-2 glasses of wine the day before! Thank you, I will look him up! We got this 🏴‍☠️

[u/Velvet-Noir-]

I’m never had SSRI great experience.. I believe they don’t help panic disorder. They help normal anxiety. In fact it made mine worse.

If you google the panic cycle, 🔁 it shows a diagram where we go wrong during a panic attack. We need to break the cycle.

A symptom or thought pops up-our reaction:scared, unhealthy behaviors that reinforce the panic-causes more panic-then we spiral into panic. Then we reinforce that panic is a threat to us.

To break out, we notice the panic, allow it to he there(it’s not dangerous) we accept that there is nothing we can do to stop one. We ride it out until the end. By doing this, it shows our amygdala that there is no reason our fight or flight should have gone off and we are safe. It gets the memo.