i suffered from severe anxiety to the point of a few years back being afraid to leave the house or be more than 5mi from a hospital...
i wont take ssri's and have had the same bottle of klonopin for 4yrs, only take a little when no other choice...
1. Realize the attack wont kill you, it just feels like it... learn to ride it like a wave, it will pass.
2. Breathing exercises: 10sec in, hold 10sec, 10 sec out. slow, controlled, prevents hyperventilating and calms you... think of a personal mantra to help you focus. weather it be a prayer or an affirmation. "everyday in every way im getting better and better", "im happy and healthy and i will survive this" etc etc etc
3. Identify your X factor: I suffer from PTSD and had to overcome that hurdle... sometimes just talking to someone will help unload some of the stress from your mind, weather it be a therapist or someone else with an open ear. Another factor for me was my wife who was bipolar and made my life a living hell... signing divorce papers and putting her on a plane to the other side of the country was a huge improvement of my symptoms over night. Identify what is bringing this out of you... and squash it.
4. You are not alone.
Most informal post thus far, appreciate it.
I have learned to tell myself everything will be fine b/c this has happened probably thousands of times now.
When I was first getting them and they were at their worst I would go hang out in the waiting room at the ER just for some peace of mind but hell did anyone see the video of the lady in an ER room for over 24 hours that died recently and no one helped her? People should be jailed for that shit.
As far as the X factor, this is where my panic attacks diverge from the norm. When they first came on, I was stressed to the max, working 60-70 hours/week, went to the strip club, woke up in jail with last memory being titties in my face, 2 grand missing that was suppossed to be to pay the taxes on my new car, didnt even know what I was charged with, was scared I might have fucking ran someone over or something, new car impounded, new car wrecked and bills mounting left and right.
Well that was the situational anxiety as one of the docs put it, it was suppossed to go away when the situation got better. I quit my job, moved to train with some of my friends, sold the car I shouldnt have tried to afford and lived off savings to enjoy life for a few months.
Didnt fucking work.
Still had attacks several times a day, ate xanax like it was candy, not to get high mind you but to be able to not damn near go into convulsions from the fear.
The fear of another attack would bring on an attack, I was
convinced I had heart problems and all my doctors were just fucking stupid. I still have trouble watching movies or shows where people are having a heart attack. I suppose the fear from the anxiety attacks has manifested itself into a new fear of a rapid heart rate, especially at night. I think I am literally going to have a heart attack and that is my only X factor.
Constant anxiety raised my BP but might have just been "white coat syndrom" and I was put on propronolol awhile back. I really dont know whether or not it helped but I felt better knowing I was taking something that more closely resembled what I thought the problem was, my heart.
I used to have the "I'm going to die" type of anxiety attacks, until they happened so often and I didnt die that I just rolled with it when it happened. Unfortunately, I had unrelenting anxiety for so long that it morphed into an anxiety disorder I.E. ocd. When I say unrelenting, I mean anxiety that felt like a continual panic attack that never ended 24-7-365. Its under control now though.
This is where I was but still have attacks a few times a week. Have anxiety that is controllable daily but its managable.
For those telling me to stay away from benzos, trust me I try and that is what the purpose of this thread is but if I hadnt found benzos I have no idea how I could have made it this far and be a productive member of society. Its funny too because when I was younger I used to think that there was no way in hell "bars" had any legitimate medical purpose. Funny how quickly my perspective changed.
Thank you everyone for your input and if anyone else has anything thats related to the topic feel free to post up!