ive started having panic attacks

[desperateforaholiday]

I've never had a panic attack before and I'm absolutely terrified of having another.
My stomach is in bits, I can't eat or sleep, the slightest thing is panicking me.
I managed get to see the doc yesterday and he has prescribed some beta blockers but they don't seem to be working.
Does anybody else have panic attacks? How can I learn to cope, I have a family and a job and I'm just finding everything difficult at the moment.

poor you they can be very scary. Remember they will not harm you and you probably have experienced the worst you will. Relaxation will help and breathing in for 7 and out for 11. Quite often panic attacks are caused by hyperventilating so if you can reduce the amount of oxygen in the brain that will help. Will look up some of the books I have found helpful. Claire weeks are good, Also helpline called no panic, and I think it is the anxiety alliance that i got some really helpful books from.

What symptoms do you get?

Thanks for replying, I feel a bit calmer now.
The symptoms I had yesterday were, knotty stomach, being sick, heart seemed to be going extra fast, both my hands seized up and I couldn't move my fingers, or bend my arms and I just felt scared.
My stomach is stil churney but thankfully I don't feel like I'm going to be imprisoned or that the world is ending.
Ive had a lot going on lately and I think it all just got to me

Yes they are all horrid symptoms. the trick is to learn to recognise stress and what is doing to your body BEFORE it all just gets to you.

There is a phrase in Dr Claire weeks book 'float through it' if you feel awful symptoms coming on we tense up to try and hold on , but if we could learn to let go and float we relax our bodies so the symptoms subside quicker and we don't add fear to the sensations.
If we can truly have the symptoms without the fear they will not bother us and will end sooner.
I have the agoraphobics workbook from The anxiety alliance and it explains the feelings and what causes them very well.
Try and explore this a bit more before it comes again(It may never happen again if you are not afraid of it) and you will be more able to cope.

Can you do anything to lessen your stress so you can be more aware of what is going on in your body?x

Hiya desperate

sorry you've been going through a hard time. I had a few sessions with a counsellor who explained what physically happens in the brain when someone is suffering anxiety and panic attacks - basically all of the brain activity goes to the 'feelings' part of your brain. Your thoughts wander to something you have to do/something that happened/is happening and your emotions start to fly/anxiety goes up. Enough of this and your brain kind of goes into a repeat mode - it gets used to flying into anxiety and the effect accumulates.

But when your 'thinking' brain is active you feel calmer and logical. There are some things that keep your brain activity at the thinking part - reading is one, and writing is another. He recommended writing as a calming activity. Concentrating on just one thing at a time helps too. I found reading DS his bedtime story calmed me down if I just concentrated on that time with him rather than planning out what else I had to do afterwards. Counsellor said this was because my thoughts were all at the front of my brain during this time. Anything works - when showering concentrate on washing each part of your body, when cooking/preparing food concentrate only on that. It's all about keeping your brain from flying all over the place. Your brain then gets used to being in the calm place and you have more control. What I like about the examples I gave was that you have to do those things anyway and you can't do anything else while you're doing them so you may as well take the time to concentrate on you...iyswim?

I hope I haven't come across as massively patronising. I've had terrible anxiety, being afraid to leave the house for months, panic attacks when I forced myself. Sometimes people give well meaning advice and they have no idea what you're going through. I hope you feel better soon.

Thank you for the brilliant advice, I can actually understand what is going on now.
I think my tablets have started to kick in now as my stomach isn't as bad, ive decided to see a counsellor and hopefully start to be able overcome this fear ive got that its going to happen again, as that is playing on my mind.

Hi there.
Sorry to hear about panic attacks, they are not pleasant and really scary. There's a really good website suppirted by nhs scotland called living life to the full. It's changed a bit recently but it has some good self help resources, there's one audio file I found really good called anxiety control training. You listen to it regularly and it helps teach you to relax and calm down. There are other modules yo work through on anxiety.
Hope you feel better soon

glad you feel a bit better, think the counselling could be really helpful to you. I'd also recommend get some reading about it as well, maybe wait to see what dr or counsellor suggests as there is a lot of rubbish out there!!!