Anxiety

Jim5014

Anxiety is always brutal fight but I feel like it really turns on at night . I love cuddles but hate fire alarms and drills.

How do you all handle panic attacks?

Bear

Box breathing helps me.

4cuddles

Calming scents can be grounding.

Personally, I like the 5-4-3-2-1 grounding technique. There are some variations, but I like to start by taking a couple big, deep breaths (in through the nose, out through the mouth, and exhale longer than you inhale), then as I continue to breathe, I find 5 things I can see around me, 4 things I can touch, 3 things I can hear, 2 things I can smell, and 1 thing I can taste. I'm a vocal processor, so sometimes it helps me to describe them out loud to myself. You don't want to rush through it. Take in each thing and really focus on it, really experience it before moving on.

Breathing exercises are super helpful, too. I also like guided meditations. There's an app called Medito that is totally free and has lots of great ones. YouTube has plenty, as well.

Just remember, as extremely unpleasant as anxiety can be, it is a temporary experience. Every time you've experienced it, it has eventually stopped and it will the next time you experience it. It's not permanent, and it's never physically hurt anybody. You will be okay!

I hope this helps. ❤️

2nd grounded yourself, can be really helpful! I'm not a doctor but also maybe consider talking to one about beta blockers or other medication or therapy that could help?

stormydaycuddle

@CaringPaws i love that you mention beta blockers. They’ve helped me so much. i wish they were prescribed a little more often.

CuddleHugs01234

I don’t have panic attacks, but if I have high anxiety it’s probably because I’ve been eating too much sugar or white flour and it’s made me imbalanced. There’s a book on it called “potatoes not Prozac.” If I’m imbalanced I will be anxious about stuff that should not cause much or any anxiety at all. Once I eat better, I feel better.

SunsetSnuggles

@Jim5014 I also hate fire alarms...along with all loud, unexpected noises. 😛

You can talk to a counselor about methods to help with panic attacks, and you can talk with your doctor about meds for them.

I try to head off panic attacks before they start. They are typically preceded by plenty of warning signs. The best remedy I've found is a sharp change of environment...go outside for half an hour (no matter the weather), take a hot or chilly shower to shock your body and keep you grounded, things like that. It can be hard to change the path our thoughts and emotions are going down, if we stay in the same environment.

~ Sunset Snuggles

🦄 Enthusiast 🏞 Travel Fiend 🐘 Animal Lover

CuddleDuncan

When I started getting full-blown panic attacks I laughed at them. They are so ridiculous, I couldn't not. Once the joke wore thin I ignored them as best I could. In the end I learned how to head them off at the pass and so they don't trouble me any more. They still threaten, so I do still have to get on my horse and ride to the pass, but when I arrive .... they've seen been coming and thought better of it.

For me the relentless grind of low level anxiety is much worse.

Anyway, for what it's worth here's my process:

1. Identify likely trigger points hours or days in advance (a mixed blessing, since then you have to avoid worrying about it)
2. Always keep an eye on how I'm feeling. Check my pulse occasionally. Spot the anxiety building before it becomes a problem (not always possible, but does help a lot)
3. At the appropriate moment, take the medicine
4. Think about the precise cause of the anxiety, and identify it if possible. Take explicit steps to reduce or nullify it, and if these are not possible use conventional techniques to minimise the feeling ("What's the worst that could happen?" etc.)
5. Plenty of fluids, the right food as far as possible, and the right clothes. Keep warm.
6. Muscle stretching and relaxation exercises
7. Initiate good social contact with a real human if possible
8. Think of the next nice thing beyond the anxiety thing
9. If all of the above has been missed, and I'm heading down the attack track, just do as many of them as possible
10. Remember to my first full-scale attack. I'd had several not quite complete versions, and so I hadn't spotted that that was what was happening to me. When it did, my breathing went nuts and I lost control of it. I began to think, "If I don't get control of the breathing soon I'm going to pass out. What happens then, does it stop? Does it keep going? Can you die of this?" At which point I realised, "Oh, it's an anxiety attack!" and the notion of me - a notoriously calm person - having an anxiety attacks amused me so much that I really did laugh out loud, or at least as best you can under the circumstances. Having figured out what was wrong, and happening to know that you don't die or anything else serious from an anxiety attack itself, I simply cracked on with the urgent work I was trying to do at the time (it not being done earlier was one of the causes of the attack). This memory always makes me smile. I'm smiling now.

Since I first had anxiety attacks, I've had whooping cough. For me, that's worse. I did pass out on quite a few occasions, fortunately always in a safe place. That in itself is no big deal (actually I found it very pleasant) but the big whooping attacks themselves were really, really horrible. Much worse than the panic attacks. With panic attacks, you are afraid you might die (spoiler alert: you won't). With whooping cough, the feeling is so bad you are hoping that you will die (spoiler alert: you won't). But whooping cough only lasts weeks or months, and anxiety drags on for ages.

RedFox16

@CuddleDuncan wow, what a hard path it sounds like you've had to deal with regarding anxiety! ❤️
But those are great points you made. Self talk and trying to be aware of what your triggers are....are awesome methods to help your brain to deal with anxiety!!

And if a person decides that meds are a good tool for them, that can make a huge difference as well! Meds can help with the chemistry part inside the brain....so then a person can be less overwhelmed and more able to use methods like self talk and awareness training ☺️❤️

Tolpeko

It varies per person, but CBD has worked wonders for me. Some people experience no effect from it, but it is generally safe to try. The important thing is to check for potential interactions with other drugs and make sure it is lab tested for purity, heavy metals, etc. I've had utterly catastrophic results with other pharmaceutical treatments, but for some reason this one really clicks for me. Of course the obvious basics of nutrition, exercise, rest, sunlight, human connection, and avoiding excessive stress are good too.