panic attacks. experience & help???

[mummylydz25]

Hi, I'm new to this so hope I'm posting in the right place!
I was on the depo injection & gained a stone in a month so didn't go back for another. That wore off 2 weeks ago!
Last month I had a nasty panic attack at night. I could hardly breathe, felt sick, I was hot, shaking etc it was awfull. Iv had 2 in a month. I went to the doctors and he gave me propanolol for anxiety I take 3 a day and they make u sleepy but I have to kick myself up the back side as I have 2 beautiful little girls.
Today in the supermarket I went hot and funny I thought one was coming. Maybe because I was worried one could happen because I was alone and out with the kids I don't know. It makes me on edge and upsets me. Iv had blood tests, I feel very fit and healthy etc and doctor does say it's anxiety and panic attacks. Has anyone experienced this? Please tell me I'm not alone :( xx

My 13 year old ds suffers from panic attacks - they are awful so you have my sympathies. Ask to be referred for CBT, if the wait for an appointment is too long, consider seeing someone privately if you can afford it. You may not need many sessions and it is really effective.

Ds' therapist said that the single most effective thing to do when you think you might have a panic attack is to breath deeply, from your stomach. Put your hand on your tummy and breath in deeply so that your hand moves. Repeat until you start to feel calmer. That really helps ds.

Another useful thing is to distract yourself, so after the deep breaths, put a favourite song on, or watch a DVD or something. Ds has a playlist of 'happy' songs on his phone to listen to when he is feeling stressed.

Mindfullness is great for reducing anxiety, there are lots of apps, ds has one called 'headspace' which he likes.

You are not alone, anxiety and panic attacks are increasingly common, and there is lots of help out there

EDMR therapy really helped my claustrophobia/feel of not getting out, which induced anxiety/panic

www.emdrassociation.org.uk/home/

I had a run of panic attacks a few years back. It's not a cure, but I found it really helpful to have something to fix on, so I had a song which was my thing to sing softly to myself if I could feel one coming on. Walking and singing softly but concentrating on that helped me recover/ not slip further. Everyone says you should focus on your breathing, but that made things worse for me as I was thinking too hard so it would spiral things iyswim. I hope you get through them soon. I will never forget how scary they were.