Does Anyone Here Get Panic Attacks?

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And you get triggered by a sensory input - noise, smell, touch?

What do you do that helps?

Haven't had a full blown one in a while. Mood stabilizer and Valium (on an as needed basis) when I know I'm going to trigger areas.

I found when I change environments, like from a more closed in area, which I like, to a very open setting would set it off. Going form the outside into a grocery store or something like a Wal-Mart would almost always do it to some degree. It physically will make me stagger for a brief time, then it may go full blown and it may not. I think it was the feel of the change and the lights being different and people being close. I'm extremely sensitive to light. Just getting in a car was major for a long time, better about that and I was getting better before the Valium and the current stabilizer, which is about the only one that has ever worked. I still have anxiety attacks, but very brief, more like a brief feeling in the stomach and over really stupid non scary things. I'm talking like maybe a couple of seconds for those. My optical migraines can set off the full blown as well. Even though I know what they are now, I'm always freaking out it's a stroke. No pain to it, I just don't like it that I can't see, unless I look at what I want from the side.

I get triggered with my senses. I can't intake smell, sights, sounds and touch without going into very high states of anxiety. I am slowly going crazy with this - no one has been able to help and drugs only help take the immediate death sentence off. The *trauma* is still lying deep within my body and mind - and I can't shake it off, curse it off, live with it or make friends with it. It's clearly a life taker at the deepest of existential levels - and it's slowly killing me. I don't know what to do.

When the plane lands, the air stops flowing and people stand up, squished against each other, and they wait and wait to exit, that's when I'm in the most danger of a panic attack. The phobia from fearling the attack makes the plane ride miserable.

OOOOH BOY DO I! Yes, I get panic attacks, but fortunatly I have found great ways of dealing with them. For me, panic attacks always occur because of an overload of (usually negative) social stimulis that is then aggrivated by my other sensitivities (light). Fortuanatly, I always get anxious before hand, and can tell when I could be on the road to having one. The worst panic attack I have had was when I knew I was anxious, tried to get myself in a less anxious situation, and the person I was interacting with at the time wouldn't let me. He tried to be rational with me. When your brain is in that harse of a stress response, it is pretty much cut off from the logical part of your brain, so even though you can tell you are being irrational, you still have irrational fear and there is nothing you can do to change that. Pointing that out just causes more work in a direction that you can't procced in at this point. In the best case, I went to a quite, dark place and stimmed for a few hours until I was tired out. Stimming for me was rocking back and forth and pacing. I put my hands over my eyes when I stim, probably because of my light sensitivity. Doing repetative physical excersise is one eccelent way to combat feelings of anxiety. Also, I always get more anxious when I think too much when I am already anxious. Being anxoius is not your fault and not something you can control- only something you can live with. Knowing that I get anxious sometimes makes me a lot less upset when it happens and accepting it dulls the amount of fear I end up having. In other words- don't fear the fear itself. Fear happens. So sometimes I have to go into a dark room by myself and rock back and forth. It's not the end of the world.

I had panic attacks pretty bad for a while. Led to a fairly dark depression. Serzone worked for me. I used it long enough to grab a breather for several months. That allowed me to practice various coping techniques.

It's been many years since I was on medication. I occasionally get overwhelmed, and start to feel panic on the horizon. I recognize it for the hormonal imbalance it is and try to find something grounding or positive to focus on. I haven't had a full attack in about a decade.

The worst aspect of panic attacks for me was the feeling of eternal despair. Once I learned that an attack never lasts more than half an hour, that helped a lot. During the worst of it, I found that the Cartoon Network was the only TV channel virtually guaranteed not to have ANY triggers for me.

I would recommend STRONGLY that you find a doctor who will let you try various SSRIs until you find the one that's best for you. Serzone was my third attempt, and the only one that didn't interfere with relations with my Beloved.

If you do take some medication, use the time it gives you to practice the mental, dietary, and lifestyle techniques that you'll need when you taper off the meds eventually (if you choose to do so, that is.)

I'm sure it's possible to do all this without the medicine, but I imagine it would be more difficult. And, in my experience, the SSRIs had very few negative side effects, and gave me a chance to breath.

I can't do your question much justice right now - it being 1:00 in the morning - but I would be very glad to reply to more questions. My memory is a bit dim, given that some of the period is being adamantly blocked from recall. Also, it was a decade ago. But I did manage to learn a great deal.

Let me know how it goes.

Remember to breath slow, and count the time down. The attacks never last very long, and they NEVER last as long as they seem like they must.

This is the second day of feeling on the edge of insanity. I was triggered by every sense out there. Everything came at me. On all levels and it's still manifesting today. My triggers are all along the spectrum of sensory input - including that of emotions and places - I feel invaded by everything where no where to put anything that I feel or that comes at me. No way to integrate - process. It just builds up and explodes. And the panic is the explosion. If I could describe the feeling it's like being ripped to shred from the inside. I just drank, smoked, took a pill, stuffed earplugs and am listening to trance music - for just the constant repetition. Music stimming.....

I do, I have them that are triggered by my surroundings or an abundance of stress. I also get them out of nowhere. My doctor tells me they are a form of seizure, its all the way your brain process things. We are a big electric machine. I use Rescue Remedy (Bach Flowers) it's always worked for me as you can take it in the moment, natural w/no side effects.

I get panic attacks.
Mine are trigged by sensory overload or social overload and also situations in which I feel intimidated and threatened and also 'performance anxiety' when I have exams or have to speak in public etc.

I find that Xanax is good, although they are discontinuing it here in UK, so I will have to switch to lorazepam.
If I need something stronger, Oxazepam is good.

I also discovered, completely by accident, that taking L-glutathione seems to take the edge off my anxiety too.

Flower remedies help, but only very mildly.

I took beta blockers for a while but they didn't help and they also gave me dizziness and palpitations.

But different medicines work for different people, so it is a case of trial and error to find what works for you.

I found diet has a big effect on my panic attacks - your mileage may vary.

Sugar and carbs make me edgy, and if my blood sugar is fluctuating wildly, I am far more prone to panic attacks. When things get bad, I usually go extremely low-carb for a few days. This typically shuts the panic off. Then I gradually reintroduce carbs.

Sugar metabolism is linked to serotonin through the inositol pathway. My linkage seems to be glitched. Shifting the metabolism away from carbs also appears to turn on production of tranquilizing compounds similar to GHB.

For short term relief, benzodiazepines work.

hehe yeeep don't know about the triggering thing but I sure as hell get panic attacks.

Undiagnosed panic attacks characterised my childhood. In those days, there was no mention of it in the media and very little information in my country about it at all. A panic attack could come on when I was walking down a road, looking up at the sky, in a cinema...anywhere. It was frightening, to say the least. Thought I was dying. My mother has them too, mostly at night. I no longer have panic attacks - they stopped in my late teens - when other problems took over, perhaps As an adult, I no longer have a sense of being alone in the universe, if that makes any sense. I'm comfortable with an idea of the universe that doesn't isolate me. I'm not talking about religion, but more of a spiritual understanding that is comfortable for me. I know it might sound like a weird suggestion, but exploring any kind of spiritual path that feels okay for you might be one way of experimenting and seeing if that reduces or stops the panic attacks. Seems to have done so for me, anyway, so no harm in giving it a try. I think the key, though, is to try and grow a relationship with your OWN idea of spirituality - not someone elses.

You hit right on what I feel - alone in the universe. I've literally been indoctrinated into this state of being-ness. Spirituality plays a huge part in my life - but like all relationships - mine to what I believe is my Benefactor Giver of Life - is very weak and sometimes I just fake it. I don't know what else to do. All of my connections are blasted wide open - to people as well. When I get a panic attack it's when I'm alone - cause that's how I live - but interestingly - 3 of my cats just surrounded me with their love while I was in the middle of it a few hours ago. And I heard back from you kind souls - that helped too......

Yes, jjstar, I think being "alone" can trigger attacks. That can be related to feeling alone (not connected to others) or being physically alone a lot. I don't like or need large groups of people, but I do need to feel connected to at least one or a few people. And yes, cats are wonderful at reading us. I have a similar connection to my older female cat (the younger one is still developing her relationship with me). My older cat instantly senses when I am starting to feel disconnected and comes and licks my head, rests her head on mine, purrs and generally just gives me love and affection until I 'come back' to a connection. I love her in a way that is very difficult to describe. We have a definite bond of unconditional love.