Ways to combat anxiety attacks...

[Joshua Hughes]

Hi everyone,

This place is looking great, no doubt it will be another great resource.

I'm interested in hearing from other people that experience problems with anxiety.

Which medication works best for you? What forms of therapy have been successful?

[MrCjEvans]

Hey im not so much a big sufferer anymore but i used to panick really bad, got mucgged at knife point and then again all in the space of a couple of months. it took ages to get to where i am now wouldn;t even go out lol. well i found that exercise to be the best help, that and having something that assures you. hmm i used to have like a sick bag in me pocket with me? occasionally still carry it. It just helps reassuring ones inner self. Also when i was seriously bad i would use Dr Bachs Rescue remedy, and i'd recommend that to anyone. And if anyone would like to talk about anything remotely to do with this sort of thing, feel free to message me x

[Harry Sanderson]

I have a hard problem speaking, it wasnt until i went onto my medication that i built the confidence to speak. Thats usually a good start.

MrCjEvans said:

Hey im not so much a big sufferer anymore but i used to panick really bad, got mucgged at knife point and then again all in the space of a couple of months. it took ages to get to where i am now wouldn;t even go out lol. well i found that exercise to be the best help, that and having something that assures you. hmm i used to have like a sick bag in me pocket with me? occasionally still carry it. It just helps reassuring ones inner self. Also when i was seriously bad i would use Dr Bachs Rescue remedy, and i'd recommend that to anyone. And if anyone would like to talk about anything remotely to do with this sort of thing, feel free to message me x

[Jonathan Brown]

I agree with everyone here that has said that medication is the best way. I mean, the days where people were looked at funny if they took anything are long over, and most of the modern medications have little or no side effects. There is no reason why anyone should suffer. I mean, they don't make you happy, they are certainly not for that, but I have found that taking medication is the best thing I have ever done for myself. Ever!!!

[Joshua Hughes]

Ive kinda given up on following these remedies, most of them seem to be too gimmicky for me.

[Sean Bowen]

Yes, all those new age books can be tiring, and they only make you feel even worse about yourself. If you think your life is crap, and you can't think positively no matter what you do, then you are the one with the problem. Of course, no money back guarantee, since if moving your cheese or selling your Ferrari doesn't work for you, then you are the one with the problem. I would like to see a class action suit against all those self help book, and book all those writers in jail.

[Nikki]

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[Nikki]

Hi im nikki i dont know anyone who has anxiety as bad as me. It rules my life. I have to be around someone 24/7 and that is my abusive boyfriend. he is especially mantally abusive. I have 2 kids a 3yr old and a 5 month old, and I am barely hanging on for them. I am a freak, i freak out in summer heat, winter cold and my "favorite" HUMIDITY! I feel like i can never breath normal in any weather. To make it worst, I i'm disorganized, extremely co-dependent, self esteem is gone, and i dont keep up with doctors appointments so I have to wait for periods of time without pills, and when I do take my pills It's whenever I remember to( not that having anxiety is not enough to remember) I hate anxiety yet I dont keep up with appointments. ???????????? what the hell? I focus to much on giving my (unemployed) boyfriend everthing he wants, being there for my kids, argueing with my boyfriend worrying about getting kicked out of my appartment that has a heater and ac so i can be in any weather I want without freaking out, that I dont remember important things like hello pills and my appointmants. I havent been in counseling, I havent been referred. I'm with La frontera and they suck, they could care less about their patients! Any advice or am I as much of a hopeless case as I thought?

[Mental As Anything]

When I experienced the worst of anxiety I found the best thing that worked for me was making sure I was safe enough to explore all the options of medication to get me onto the platform that secured me to zombie like stage so I could explore what was going on with me as far as "why" I felt so anxious. What made my heart race and feel like it was out of my body and why I felt like my whole being was hyper-ventilating like a machine with no dial.

[serenax]

that's a good question, Josh.

i've been wanting to find out from people wht their thoughts are.
personally prozac and fluvoxamine (which i'm currently on) make NO difference to my anxiety disorder.
the former helped for a brief period in uni and i really don't know why i am on the latter.

i felt peroxetine really helped me when i took it years back. but it's too expensive where i'm at (there are no generics).
someone suggested effaxor to me once but i have yet to try it.

xanax is a highly controlled drug where i'm from. i try not to take it but when the anxiety spirals. it just goes.

it's terribly frustrating as i found it to be effective. anxiety is often a result of a bad cognitive process. and once it starts, it doesn't stop. helping to stop the anxiety i've found at least makes sense of many things.


sigh. i've been feeling SHIT, cold and in the bleakest for the past week.
you think you'd never get here again but you do.

be nice to chat to someone. :(
just drop me an email and i'll send msn addy.

s

[Nic Lucas]

Hi Joshua,

This is my first post to this forum - so Hi. Your question is the million dollar question isn't it? What is successful...what works for anxiety.

When I look at a question like this, I need to unpack it a little more. What type of anxiety? What do we mean by successful? Does successful mean, "my anxiety reduced from a 7/10 to a 4/10", or does successful only mean, "my anxiety reduced to zero"?

Does something "work" if the side-effects are too troubling?

All difficult questions and the answers are sooooo unique for each person. All I can offer is two things.

First - my own experience for which I do not extrapolate to anyone else. It would be insensitive of me to presume that what worked for me will work for other people.

Second - what the scientific literature says on this topic. From this, at least we know what happens on the 'average' and can make more authoritative statements about what works.

Briefly - and for the purpose of establishing some 'street cred', I suffered from adult onset panic disorder which then developed into generalised anxiety disorder which then became accompanied by those delightful symptoms of 'depersonalisation' and 'derealisation'.

I had this for 4-5 years. I couldn't take medication - too scared of the side-effects. I didn't go for 'therapy' - thought it was only 'psychotherapy' and I didn't trust what someone would 'do to my mind'. I mean - I was scared I was losing my mind and I didn't want anyone else to speed up the process. So, I had to work through it all myself.

I haven't had anxiety or panic attacks for over 6 years now.

Now, I'm a health professional (work with people in physical pain) and over the last 10 years I have been so surprised at how common anxiety disorder is amongst my patients. And very often, I'm the first person they've ever told about their 'problem' and it's because I'm open about what I went through. If I suspect that someone might have anxiety, I'll casually tell them about my experience - usually in the form of making a joke about myself - and then they'll open up.

And of course, they want to know what works and what worked for me. So many people have asked me this that I decided to write it all down - and after that I decided to write a book - and after that I decided to write manual - and after that I decided to record a series of audio's describing it all.

Because I'm a researcher and health professional, I couldn't just write about my own personal experience - I had to add some externally valid information and so I delved into the research literature on 'what works'. In my book I review all of the common treatments for which there is research data available. From drugs to psychotherapy to exercise to relaxation to herbs to spiritual approaches - it's all there.

So, what can I tell you here. Basically, from what I found, the first line medical treatment is zoloft. But, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) has been shown to be as effective - in both the short and long term. Now, isn't that interesting.

On top of that though - relaxation therapy has been shown to be as effective as CBT.

And on top of that...it looks like computer delivered CBT can be as effective as therapist delivered CBT - but there's more research to be done on that.

Research does show that exercise helps reduce anxiety - and that aerobic exercise might be the most useful.

So - for first timers - I can't really understand why medication would be the first option, when CBT is as effective. Unless, of course, the anxiety is severe and the person needs to be sedated - but even then, this is short term. Another reason might be that paying for CBT is beyond the resources of the person - but 'media delivered self-help' or computer delivered CBT are making access to this type of therapy much more affordable.

When I listed and described all of the techniques I used - most of them fall within what would be called 'behavioural therapy' or CBT. I used breathing techniques and cognitive distraction techniques.

In fact, I used different techniques throughout my recovery as I improved - so each strategy was important for each stage.

One strategy sticks out though as being highly effective - and that's what I call 'the power of authentic emotion'. Whenever I had a strong 'authentic' emotion, it would cancel out the 'non-authentic' anxiety I was feeling - and by non-authentic I mean that the anxiety was out of proportion to the stimulus or when I didn't even know why I was feeling anxious.

Feelings of love directed to another person = killed anxiety
Having a laugh = killed anxiety
Getting really angry at the anxiety = completely killed the panic attacks.

in the end, though...what really clinched the deal and got rid of anxiety and panic was the difficult task of challenging my thoughts. Thoughts drive lot's of anxiety - and if the thoughts in your head are bulls**t then they need to go - well they had to go in my case anyway. Illogical thoughts can trigger anxiety - but I had to go through and meticulously critique each thought. Tough, long job - but so worth it in the end.

I hope people don't mind - but I am going to give my program a plug. I wrote it to help people and I've discovered that they only way I can help people is to promote the program myself. So I do hope people don't mind. Don't read any further if you're not interested.

I'm giving away a free sample chapter at http://www.fromanxioustohappy.com where you can also read about my program and get it if you want.

All the best,

Nic

Nic Lucas
BSc, MPainMed, MHSc
http://www.niclucas.com