The healthy mental health thread

[Little Richard 6,265]

On 22/02/2023 at 06:40, layzie said:

Generalised anxiety disorder can come up in many ways. I don't know if anyone else experienced this but recently I was unfortunately the recipient of 2 rather intense panic attacks. They came totally out of no-where and in a situation where it was not exactly easy to escape, driving.

The reality that I've learned in the last few weeks is that the instant reaction is to try and treat the attack, make it go away and prevent it from coming back. However it appears this is just a symptom.

I've learned to live with anxiety as a way of life, most of the time I can keep it under control but the end of last year and start of this year have been pretty difficult. I'm coming round to the idea that these attacks are showing up because my general anxiety set point has been raised along with the fact that I have gone through a fair bit of change in the last 6 months.

If anyone has experienced anything like this let us know.  

Hey Layzie, have to admit I only just stumbled upon this thread and wish I'd found it sooner. I'd consider myself as a bit of an expert on anxiety and panic attacks, thanks to a lot of first-hand experience about 10 years ago. I am inclined to be quite an anxious person so the odd panic attack has cropped up since I had a bit of a breakdown back then, but I feel like I've become quite good at dealing with them.

It took a long time to kind of condition myself to have this response but essentially my approach is firstly to know it's a panic attack and not a stroke or heart attack or some other medical catastrophe (as used to be my first thought). Once I've established that I kind of just let it hit me, and keep up the attitude of what's the worst it can do, been here many times before and I'm totally fine, it will pass. Sometimes I spiral a bit and lose grasp of that thought process but find my way back to it with steady breathing. Also weirdly playing Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin helps me jump into that 'just let it hit you' mindset.

Anyway this is a bit of a stream of consciousness but feel free to reach out if you'd like to talk more about it mate, hope you're doing better with the panic attacks these days!

[layzie 34,002]

On 11/07/2024 at 12:57, Little Richard said:

Hey Layzie, have to admit I only just stumbled upon this thread and wish I'd found it sooner. I'd consider myself as a bit of an expert on anxiety and panic attacks, thanks to a lot of first-hand experience about 10 years ago. I am inclined to be quite an anxious person so the odd panic attack has cropped up since I had a bit of a breakdown back then, but I feel like I've become quite good at dealing with them.

It took a long time to kind of condition myself to have this response but essentially my approach is firstly to know it's a panic attack and not a stroke or heart attack or some other medical catastrophe (as used to be my first thought). Once I've established that I kind of just let it hit me, and keep up the attitude of what's the worst it can do, been here many times before and I'm totally fine, it will pass. Sometimes I spiral a bit and lose grasp of that thought process but find my way back to it with steady breathing. Also weirdly playing Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin helps me jump into that 'just let it hit you' mindset.

Anyway this is a bit of a stream of consciousness but feel free to reach out if you'd like to talk more about it mate, hope you're doing better with the panic attacks these days!

Thanks for this Little Richard and sorry for the delay in responding. Can be a long time between drinks in this thread but you do occasionally find yourself coming on here when things aren't great!

I think there is definitely merit to the idea of letting anxiety or an attack happen, it's a bit like the 'stay still' approach and the bear won't see you kind of thing. The only time I'm not too confident about using it is while driving, it's the one place where it legitimately feels like a panic attack could bring serious danger. 

Anyway thanks for this post, this second half of the year has been tougher but hopefully it looks up.