Exposure therapy anyone?

The jury is out on me just now, but even so I am not going to hold back from telling you that behavioural therapy is one of the most successful treatments for anxiety conditions. Your discomfort is your way out. Let it in, feel it, embrace it, accept it, and you will learn to have a different perspective. This is how to recover, by accepting anxiety as a normal part of your life and not fighting it or trying to make it go away. You will succeed with CBT, believe this with all of your might and in those crappy moments you will be able to find the strength forge ahead. Do not hide from anxiety because it will come looking for you. Seek it out and shake its hand.

You're welcome. It's perfectly normal to reject CBT, most of us have done it - myself included - because it is inherently a terrifying process, in fact that is essentially its purpose! So don't feel as if you are reacting worse than anyone else, we are all equally frightened of it and we all hear the same part of our mind shouting "NO!" And then we try to ignore our mind, so our body kicks in and puts its foot down!

It is essentially a spoiled child that will have a tantrum until you pay attention and do what it wants. If it helps, you can imagine this. If you took a toddler to lunch and they didn't want to be there - what do they do? Kick and scream and shout. And there is only one reaction from you that has any shot at permanently preventing this child from engaging in this behaviour again. And that is not to argue with it. Let the baby have its tantrum and go on with your figurative lunch. Eventually it will learn that this bad behaviour does not get the desired results. I hope you understand the point I'm trying to get across with this slightly clumsy analogy!

The process of learning to accept panic attacks is a relatively lengthy one, its unlikely that your next panic attack you will suddenly "get it" and let it happen. But what you can do, is take little steps towards this eventuality, and you will notice that although the attacks will not stop immediately, you will begin to take off the severity in layers. It won't be a quick fix, but it will be a lasting one. Please don't expect from yourself a sudden epiphany and a sudden recovery, because it just doesn't work like this. Be patient and kind in your recovery, allow the mistakes and the bad decisions - because they are just as big a part as the times you make good decisions. You must fail in order to succeed.

The next time you have a panic attack or you start to feel physically uncomfortable, just consider the idea for a moment. Stop first, and think, what if I accepted this just now and just let it in, what would happen? And if you are able to go along that route for the first time, then great, but if not, you have already made progress by considering it. You will learn, you are capable of it I believe it wholeheartedly

You are right, baby steps. You will know that you're making progress when you can say you had on average more good days this month than you did last month. Be patient, be understanding with yourself and above all don't be afraid for yourself. You are experiencing discomfort, not danger.

Have you thought about engaging with the hyperventilation? For example, perhaps you could go out of your way to learn the physical and biological processes involved with this bodily function, and it might give you the chance to be more objective the next time it happens. I used to do this sometimes, I would feel the crushing sensation in my chest and I would then think "Ok, I feel as if I am about to panic. My body has been fooled in to releasing adrenalin in to my system, and the following things are about to happen..." I both did this, and I also used to stop everything I was doing and start writing down exactly what I was feeling. There are worksheets available for this exact purpose, so you can gain some emotional distance and record the panic attack (or hyperventilation) as if you are a spectator instead of a participant.

If you would like any other tips at any time, I would be more than happy to offer you suggestions of things that have worked for me. Bear in mind that you are not "an anxious person" this is not who you are or your identity, it is just a temporary condition and you will overcome it if you give yourself space to do so

Park. My hyperventilating sister. I agree, it is so hard to get past the breathing!! I think you are doing a great job and I think you are really, really brave for doing he exposure therapy❤️

Just met a new ocd therapist today, she gave me some 'homework; and a book to read but now shes jet setting off to singapore till the end of december? I'm not sure what exactly i'm supposed to be doing or not doing (more likely). ill read my "homework", and let you know how it goes.
I know the general idea is eventually if you don't feed it, the fear goes away. So by doing the opposite of avoiding something scary, the fear stops. I have panic while driving and drove to see her today, so really i guess i was doing it already. It makes sense logically.. it's just about overriding those emotions until the brain rewires itself. Good luck and may the force be with you.