Anxiety and panic attacks - Need advice on what to do

[anxietygotme]

I have always been a highly anxious person and I was diagnosed with OCD just after the pandemic, was offered some CBT but it didn't really help.

I've gone through a lot this year and my anxiety is at an all time high. I struggle to breath properly (started weeks ago), and constantly worry something will happen to my DC or DH.

I'm due to fly in a month and I cannot face it; I'm suddenly terrified of boarding a plane, I've convinced myself it will crash in a horrible way. I'm being irrational and I know that. I'm thinking of taking a bus instead (3 days journey). I cannot think of anything else.

My GP surgery is almost useless, cannot even get an appointment. Is there any other resources, or treatments that could help?

You might need antidepressants. When I had a phase of fear of flying I took beta blockers just before getting on the plane. They helped.
Persevere with trying to get a go appointment.

Have a look at EFT Tapping.
Have you considered hypnosis?

Anxiety is an emotion. It's purpose is to draw your attention to things that are important, in the same way that fear keeps you away from things that are dangerous. But like excessive fear can turn into a phobia, excessive anxiety can result in panic attacks and stress related illnesses due to the 'fight or flight' reaction being consistently triggered - this is what's causing your breathing problems (for more information, have a look at this video about the parasympathetic nervous system - )

When we worry about events that haven't happened yet we are imagining. In children we call it pretending. Nothing has actually happened, there is no evidence that the thing you are thinking of is going to happen but you start with a thought and expand it into a chain of events which get more lurid and farfetched until it ends in disaster. Your mind can do all this while you are sitting in a chair, doing nothing. But you can stop it. Therapy, mindfulness, hypnosis can all help by stopping the thought patterns developing in the first place. Medication, either short term or regular can also alleviate it. To help yourself right now, try writing your thoughts down - the sequence of events that are consuming you. Seeing them in black and white might help you realise how unlikely (ridiculous?) they actually are. Then write down the exact opposite - in your case you could write about how much you are going to enjoy the holiday, what you want to do/see/eat and how much quicker it will be to fly rather than be on a sweaty, noisy bus for a good chunk of your precious holiday allowance.