treatment for panic attacks?

"i feel like no amount of medicine or talking it out will help me" - you may well be correct in this, but see page M, at Weebly, below, about cognitive distortions; "fortune telling" in particular.

At the first sign of one, employ an ANTI PANIC ATTACK breathing technique. Advice from a clinical psychologist is to breathe in to the count of 3: (one thousand one; one thousand two; one thousand three) each takes around a second to say to yourself, in your mind, and out to the count of 3.

View http://deeplyrelax.com & http://www.deepsloweasy.com/html/intro.htm Note: the controlled breathing only helps with the symptoms, as do medications/herbal remedies. Address the underlying cause, which requires some form of therapy; see http://your-mental-health.weebly.com/ re anxiety, & pages H, & I. Imagine that the cause of your panic; your anxieties, fears, your self doubts, self recriminations, all the agonizing "I’m-so-Stupids"; every painful "I-can’t-do-it" are huge raging, hurtful bulls snorting and charging at you. You see them coming at you and you hold out your red matador’s cape at arms length and simply let them charge right by. Every time they come at you, hold out your arm with the red cape and let them rage and snort and go right on past. Some people recommend nettle tea, with a little honey. Others use Lavender tea, Lemon Balm, Chamomile, but use no milk or cream with herbal teas, or Valerian (caution: use it for 3 weeks at most!). Know how these affect you before driving, or doing anything dangerous, and it is far better to use the treatments, rather than relying on herbal remedies. Free online PANIC COURSE - http://www.panic-attacks.co.uk also available by email. See the section on panic attacks at http://www.mind.org.uk also Ebooklet form. They recommend letting a panic attack run its course, without doing anything to treat it, so you KNOW you will survive it. The usual maximum is 30 minutes, until symptoms begin to subside.

Also see http://www.anxietypanic.com/signs.html
and http://www.onestepatatime.com (chatroom, and one free email is allowed to their resident expert on joining [free] - more if a paid up member) and http://www.medicinenet.com/panic_disorder/artic… and http://www.squidoo.com/controlpanicattack/modul… and http://panic-attack-over.com and http://www.anxietynetwork.com Practice a relaxation method, daily, and when needed, such as http://www.drcoxconsulting.com/managing-stress.html or http://altmedicine.about.com/cs/mindbody/a/Meditation.htm or http://www.wikihow.com/Meditate or Yoga Nidra, (a series of easy mental exercises only; no flexibility required) at http://your-mental-health.weebly.com/l.html Most people are suggestible, to some degree, so you could either seek professional hypnotherapy, or more alternatives along such lines are on page 1, at Weebly, about panic.
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Yes I suffered for many many years with anxiety and panic attacks, but I am pleased to say that I now do live a ‘normal’ life without panic attacks, of course I still get the usual amount of anxiety that everyone feels from time to time when they are stressed, but I am not always anxious like I was before.

I am sorry to hear that you’ve been having panic attacks - anyone who has suffered with them will know that they are truly horrible, I wouldn’t wish them on my worst enemy. The fact that you say you feel anxious all the time means that you are stressed and are struggling to find ways of dealing with it - hence the bodies response of anxiety.

Speaking from experience I found that the key to reducing the amount of times you have a panic attack is to learn what triggers them and deal with the root of the problem. In your case your trigger is something to do with what happened during the history class when you first had an attack. What was going on?

For me, I was suffering with panic attacks all the time and finding my triggers was a difficult and sometimes painful process of delving back in to my past to discover what my ‘issues’ were and then learning to deal with them. I did by going to see a trained professional who does Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). This worked for me and has had a lasting effect. The success of CBT can largely depend on the training and skills of the counsellor, so research the appropriate qualifications and if in doubt ask your GP to recommend a good therapist in your area.

As for stopping an attack once you are in the midst of one the physical sensations you get are caused by a rush on adrenalin because you have gone in to ‘flight or fight’ mode, and until your body uses up that adrenalin you will feel shaky. However I learnt a few practical things when I did CBT that worked for me:

1 - Try to take control of the situation. Keep reminding yourself that you are not actually in any ‘real’ danger - you are not under any physical threat, as unpleasant as your symptoms are, you are not dying. Also keep reminding yourself that time passes and this too shall pass.

2- Breathing correctly is also very important as it will slow your heart rate, use up the excess adrenalin and stop you from hyperventilating and passing out. Focus on your breathing, and breath slowly and purposefully, taking longer to breath out than to breath in. Around 5 or 6 seconds on the in breath and 7 to 9 on the out breath is about right if you can manage it.

3 - Move your body. When we go in to flight or fight mode the body is prepared to run away or stay and fight - either way it is ready for action, so move around and use up some of the adrenalin. If you are in class perhaps ask your teacher to be excused to go to the toilet, then take a brisk walk there and back again. Go in to a cubicle and do some stretching - it might sound silly but it does help.

4 - Distract yourself. When you are panicking don’t focus on your symptoms or the situation you are in, try to distract your mind and engross yourself in doing something else, this sends different messages to the brain and stops the rush of adrenalin.

I really would suggest you seek some counselling to help you deal with your anxiety, you need support and encouragement. Please do find some one to confide in about what is going on and how you feel, whether this be a parent, sibling, family member, friend, teacher - whoever you feel you can open up to. If you can’t think of anyone then join an online support group, there are plenty out there if you google.

If you see your GP and they try to give you medication, just think long and hard about this and perhaps try some counselling first. Personally I wanted to avoid medication as panic attacks are being triggered by a mental stimulus, there is probably nothing physically wrong with you. The drugs can have horrible side effects and don’t actually treat the cause of the problem, just mask the symptoms until you come off them. They also can be addictive as every time you try to come off them you start getting panic attacks again so you go back on them - it’s a vicious circle.

I’m sure you can beat this anxiety issue, I did! If you have any more questions, need some help finding some one in your area, or just want a few friendly words of support you can email me at kelly.acupuncture@yahoo.co.uk. Good luck!
(I’m sorry for the long message).
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Personal experience and now work in health care