Anxiety that leads to panic attacks.
Hi. If there is anyone here that is or used to deal with the same thing I am now, I would like some feedback and maybe tips to help. I have anxiety. A few times a week, my anxiety gets worse and I start having sudden fear of death ( me passing or anyone close to especially my fiancé. ). Then these thoughts lead to my uncontrollable panic attacks. The day after I had one, I am on edge and scared to have another one.
@Ahelms14 Anxiety and panic attacks can be very frightening. We (7 cups) have amazing tools that can help with anxiety, keep in mind everyone responds differently. The mindfulness exercises and self-help guides under the path tab can help. You can also message me anytime you need and when I am available I will respond. I have personal experience with anxiety and panic attacks.
@CaringTeresa Sorry to jump in here but were you able to stop your panic attacks? I've been having mine for so long I don't remember what it's like to not be like this. It's reassuring to hear of others' success stories.
@NeonOak30 I learned to cope with them. You can message me and if I am unavailable I will message you back asap. Just let me know you are from this thread and it is related to panic attacks :)
@Ahelms14 I absolutely understand how you're feeling. Several years ago, during my sophomore year of college, my anxiety was very high. It turned into severe hypochondria. Every little pain was terrifying, I always thought something was wrong with me, I was afraid to sleep. And if my boyfriend didn't text me back quickly enough, I would worry that he had been in an accident or something. I was a mess. It lasted for a long time. I remember once, during a snowstorm, the lights were flickering and I thought it was my vision. I was convinced that I was going blind. The way that I dealt with it was to watch anime or movies or whatever until the sun came up and then I felt safe enough to sleep. My anxiety is about at that level again but has focused in a different area. To be honest, I would prefer the health/death anxiety because I've experienced it before and now know how to handle it for the most part.
I know that it can be one of the scariest things to go through and it's not easy. I think that when you do have those feelings, it's best to just stop and remind yourself that it's only your anxiety and nothing bad is happening to you. Remind yourself that it's all in your head and that, while your fears feel real and valid in that moment, they aren't. It's your mind playing tricks on you. If you can, find a way to distract yourself until it passes. I absolutely, absolutely recommend seeing a therapist if you're able and aren't already. I didn't and I wish that I had. I'm hoping to start online therapy soon, because it's so long overdue for me. I was seeing one for a brief time a couple years ago, but had to stop because I no longer had a way to get there. It can be very helpful to have a professional to talk to who can help you find ways to manage your anxiety.
@sporkchop I am going for through the same thi.g. I feel like I'm constantly in a state of panic.
@itstime4change I understand. My anxiety is focused on my relationship right now instead of my health, so instead of thinking I'm dying, my irrational thoughts are more along the lines of "does my boyfriend love me" and "is he going to leave me" but I still have all the terrible physical symptoms. I lost almost four pounds this week from not being able to eat, so I'm hoping it lets up soon. I would really prefer the health anxiety because I've had a lot of experience with that but this is my first time going through relationship anxiety this bad. One big difference from the health anxiety I've noticed is that I tend to feel better at night and worse in the morning, whereas my health anxiety was always worse at night. I wonder why that is.
@Ahelms14
Hey Ahelms, thank you so much for sharing with us.
I think that a possible solution depends on what is causing the anxiety. For example, there was a time where I became extremely overwhelmed with my responsibilities and felt like things were falling apart. Things that work for others didn't really work for me. In my case, I tried to reason what I could do about this, as it started to affect my ability to sleep, concentrate, etc. Using breathing techniques and relieving some of the stress through exercise was helpful, but I also needed a more mental aspect to it too. I put together a to-do list and prioritized the most important things, got support from some people close to me, made an effort to turn the negative thoughts into positive ones and it has gotten a lot better.
I think some of the resources mentioned here can be helpful. If you want the links to the 7 cups related material, here are some of those links.https://www.7cups.com/anxiety-help/ ; https://www.7cups.com/exercises/mindfulness/?showlist=1
One other than that I found helpful was visual breathing exercises. It allows me to control my breathing, and to focus on the image I was looking at. If you want to check out what that's like, here's a link to one. https://beamindful.com/2014/12/01/visual-breathing-exercise/
I also recall someone mentioning that they carry around some playdo, and play with it to take their mind off of the feeling I thought this was a really interesting idea.
I hope you find some of these resources helpful Ahelms, I wish you the very best.
https://www.moodjuice.scot.nhs.uk/panic.asp This link if you copy and paste into your browser contains a self help guide on panic attacks and anxiety and ways to try and manage this. It may prove useful in trying to identify ways for anyone who suffers with panic attacks and anxiety to explore ways that benefit them to manage this