thanks Kit, Cat and everyone :):).
What really helped me was something that is going to sound weird. I adopted the "fake it till you make it" philosophy. With panic disorders, it's hard to believe that when your heart is racing that you are not actually having a heart attack - but after having had this happen so many times I knew full-well when I was "just" having a panic attack (i say "just" because I know they're the most AWFUL things ever).
I have a mentally handicapped uncle who I knew had suffered from panic attacks before and i asked him how he fixed it and he said, "you gotta get angry."
One night i was laying on the couch watching TV and my heart started to race out of nowhere. I wasn't thinking about
anything that scared me, the show i was watching wasn't stressful, i just started panicking for no reason at all. I got really angry. My anxiety was terrible on a day-to-day basis and the attacks were like the poison icing on top of the rotten proverbial cake from hell. This was a huge turning point for me but I was not cured from that moment on...but I did not have one more panic attack. That was about
two years ago and I still haven't to this day, and i never will again.
I got up and went for a walk and decided that not matter how i felt i was going to ignore this terrible anxiety feeling. I wasn't going to look illnesses up on the internet, I wasn't going to let it stop me from doing anything, I was just going to pretend (as hard as it was) that it wasn't happening anymore.
People with this problem know that the brain is a very powerful thing. But one thing I didn't really know was that YOU are not your brain. it is a part of you - and though it seems funny or crazy- you can trick it. That is basically what I did. When i felt nervous i pretended I didn't feel nervous. When I thought my heart was racing I took a deep breath and pretended I was doing yoga (not trying to calm myself down) I even got on a plane (WHICH WAS TERRIFYING) and read a magazine and chatted with the people beside me as if it were no big deal.
My brain did not catch up immediately. It was a slow process. My anxiety started to lessen and lessen the more I pretended it wasn't there at all and eventually my brain followed suit.
it's hard to actually put this into practice because the results are slow and it's hard - when you're in a panicked or anxious moment - to just go on as if it isn't happening- but it is possible and it worked SO WELL for me.
dark chocolate makes me happy too, 3doorsdown haha
anxious annie - keep it up. I know how you feel, but as long as you're trying (which you are even when you feel like you've given up) you'll get better. It's a slow process which is part of the reason why it's so hard...but things can and will get better.
Precious Gem- I cut caffeine out of my diet too for quite a while and i found that it helped as well. At this point I can have it again though with no problems! I didn't drink or eat anything with caffeine in it for a year at least, but now I can eat/drink anything! (besides energy drinks those things make me crazy)
Post Edited (alwayslove) : 4/4/2011 8:26:39 PM (GMT-6)