Panic/Anxiety Attacks: Support, Advice, Help, Treatment Options

[mindscape8088]

Wow! I have come to a thread that was started in 2006. Where did every one go?
Panic attack ? I had my first at age 7. Getting one at that age makes it real frightening. Unfortunately no one knew what was wrong which makes it more frightening. I think the definition today has long lost it's meaning. I went to a therapist who insisted a panic attack was nothing more than a surge of anxiety and all you do is relax and wait it out. Then she attempted to literally grill me by insisting I had to have certain symptoms. When I disagreed with her she would continue to persist. I am sorry but there is a great lack of understanding by the general mental health professionals about the difference between a real PANIC attack and an anxiety attack. Yes I have had an anxiety attack too and rode it out. Real panic attacks eventually lead to endless phobias. In my case each phobia came on when in a very stressful situation where I felt trapped. Which immediately brings back the memory of the panic attack. For 12 years most of my phobias were under control with the aid of a medication Ativan.Unfortunately over night that stopped working. So now i am in my own private prison with so many phobias i can barely get any where any more. What is making me real anxious now is this economy with huge nation wide cut backs on affordable mental health care. Our government is two faced. On one hand a new affordable health care package has come out but on the other hand there will be no where to get any services if you need mental health services. What does that tell you? If you have any physical problem don't worry. If you have a mental illness your not welcome here.

[PippySkiddles]

Originally Posted by mindscape8088

Wow! I have come to a thread that was started in 2006. Where did every one go?
Panic attack ? I had my first at age 7. Getting one at that age makes it real frightening. Unfortunately no one knew what was wrong which makes it more frightening. I think the definition today has long lost it's meaning. I went to a therapist who insisted a panic attack was nothing more than a surge of anxiety and all you do is relax and wait it out. Then she attempted to literally grill me by insisting I had to have certain symptoms. When I disagreed with her she would continue to persist. I am sorry but there is a great lack of understanding by the general mental health professionals about the difference between a real PANIC attack and an anxiety attack. Yes I have had an anxiety attack too and rode it out. Real panic attacks eventually lead to endless phobias. In my case each phobia came on when in a very stressful situation where I felt trapped. Which immediately brings back the memory of the panic attack. For 12 years most of my phobias were under control with the aid of a medication Ativan.Unfortunately over night that stopped working. So now i am in my own private prison with so many phobias i can barely get any where any more. What is making me real anxious now is this economy with huge nation wide cut backs on affordable mental health care. Our government is two faced. On one hand a new affordable health care package has come out but on the other hand there will be no where to get any services if you need mental health services. What does that tell you? If you have any physical problem don't worry. If you have a mental illness your not welcome here.

Those of us suffering with this are still here.
All Ativan did for me was make me hyperventilate. Xanax works for me without making me feel at all drugged or sleepy. I take .5mg 3x a day
Do you not have a doctor you can go to?

[MiamiRob]

Originally Posted by Pammyd

I am the queen of panic attacks..trust me on this one. I started getting these attacks back when I was about 35 or 36. I needed to have a baseline mammogram..no big reason just that my doctor thought it would be a good starting place. I got physically sick the first time I had to have one done and continue to freak out to this day and am 64 years old. I had to have one screening done over in all this time and consider myself blessed for that but it doesn't make it much easier for me.
Next: I am also white coat hypertensive. My normal blood pressure is 110/60 and about a month ago while visiting the Cardiologist, it was 178/96..he flipped out. Now, I have been taking my pressure for about a month and have to go back so he can see where I am on a daily basis with BP..no clue what happened this one time.
Here is the kicker...as tense as I get over the mammogram appointments or seeing the Cardiologist or even my regular doctor, when I found out I had an upper thoracic aneurysm that had to be fixed and was a VERY dangerous thing to have..I had all my testing, did what I was suppose to do and the day of surgery, got up, showered, and went to the hospital much like I was having my tonsils out. I was in surgery for 9 hours...woke up the next day and wanted to walk the halls, sit in a chair..felt great..sore but great.
SO??? what gives with the Mammogram..can anyone explain this phenomenon to me??? Why does it scare me so much after all this time.

What gives is your intense fear of breast Cancer or actually having to come to terms that you may lose your breast.
The reason you didn't "freak out" about your "thoracic aneurysm" is you didn't know you had that medical condition and it was tooken care of immediately. You didn't really have much time to think about it.
The things you worry about the most will trigger anxiety or panic attacks even though there is no basis for the phobia.
As for blood pressure? Monitor it if it's high! I was nervous as hell going to see my doc and I clocked in at 160/100 at the first initial reading. It dropped to 128/90 before I left and I'm not some old geezeer either!

[OhZone]

You all need to find a good NLP Trainer/practicioner. Watch this video and others like it.


How Your Brain Can Turn Anxiety into Calmness - YouTube

[lizzytish]

Mindscape - many mental health practitioners cause downright harm. Psychotherapy fads abound and the bottom line is you have to be your own best doctor. You don't necessarity need years of "talking" therapy to feel better, although a therapist will certainly push you toward whatever modality they practice. Sometimes drugs are necessary, especially if it
helps you get through the day without falling apart.

As far as the mental health field is concerned, read "Making Us Crazy" by Herb Kutchins. It will give you some real insight into the created "disorders" that people have. You already realize that your panic attacks occured in reaction to stressful situations.......and many people do have that sort of reaction. Unfortunately you had a therapist who didn't respect your feelings and probably made you more anxious, and then she tried labeling you by insisting that you had to have certain symtoms. That idiot thinks inside the box and doesn't really understand how to help people. Trust your gut instincts - if any "therapy" doesn't feel right, then it's wrong for you.