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Tips for Calming Down when Panic sets in


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Green tea isn't a wise choice when wanting to calm down, because it contains caffeine.  It could make you more jittery and increase anxiety.

 

Hope that helps.

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A lifetime of dealing with a congenital heart defect that causes bouts of arrhythmia with shortness of breath — and 40 years off and on benzos — have taught me a lot about anxiety and panic attacks and the most amazing thing I finally learned, and this only within the last few years, is that I can actually diminish and even prevent the panic attacks BEFORE they happen!

 

Daily practice of meditation and visualization combined with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and mindfulness practice have nearly negated all my panic attacks, which were once so severe I could not leave the house or even stay home by myself. Now, I rarely have feelings of panic at all — even though right now I am on a benzo taper. Having tools to deal with panic attacks is so important and helpful in the short term, but working long term to change my body and mind so that I have much less anxiety and hardly any panic attacks has been even better!

 

Not all programs are created equally and everyone is an individual so the right fit is important and these are not right for everybody, but the following worked WONDERS for me:

 

My absolute, top-rated, number one recommendation is, Anxiety Relief, an Audio Program by Martin Rossman — 3 meditations and 2 guided imagery sessions that just about saved my sanity. Within a few days I was noticing less panicky feelings and within a month my panic attacks had been cut nearly in half and now I rarely have a panic attack at all, though I still listen on a regular basis. Available at Amazon and itunes and for free on some Library On-Line lending programs. It's relatively inexpensive, it's fast and easy, it's kind of fun, it feels good and it really works for me.

 

The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion: Freeing Yourself from Destructive Thoughts and Emotions by Christopher K. Germer, teaches you to turn toward your panicky feelings and "embrace" them with compassion. NOT something I thought was even remotely a good idea so I really resisted this, but the book was pushed on me and it turned out to be truly helpful for facing my fears (like my fear of panic attacks!) and moving through them, which also eventually led to far fewer panic attacks. Not a book for the faint of heart and probably best if done with a support person or therapist since the goal of the book is to get to you deal with scary, sad, uncomfortable stuff in an effort to learn to live with it so your life is not disrupted. There were other things I liked about this book, too.

 

Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat Zinn — a mindfulness program for people with chronic illness in book form that is rather long, but takes you where you need to go if you can stick it out. Goes deeper into everyday life skills and takes more time and commitment, but reading the book and following the steps took away much of my panic over a period of about 3 months.

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Bechlin,

 

Try adding a few drops of lavender essential oils in the bath...and rubbing a drop on your palms...rub them together...and inhale slowly and deeply a few times.  That is really helpful for calming the body.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Man I think you just solved most of my problems!! Awesome :thumbsup: Been on for two days.

Already learning valuable info. I am digging this site 8)

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"3. Breath breath breath, Concentrate on breathing from your diaphragm, not your upper chest."

 

This is not easy for me. Just yesterday I had an quasi-anxiety attack and I was thinking too much about my breathing, believing that if I could not control it could stop. I was breathing and suddenly tooking a deep breath consciously,  this action was tooking me away from the sleepiness when I started to fall asleep each time.  :(

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Does it have to be warm milk specifically? I am allergic to milk. I do like a nice cup of hot, decaf, green tea when I'm anxious though.

 

Try Melissa tea, it works wonders with me. 2 infusions before going to bed. If I feel anxious during the day, another one is enough for now.

 

Keep it up!

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When I began tapering my first 0.25 mg of Alprazolam, I had like zillions thoughts fighting in my head. The responsibility of the cosmos was on my shoulders... so I needed some sort of help with that.

 

Got a book about Meditation. Thing is that I'm an atheist, & it doesn't cool me down to say things to god. So I had to come up with sentences like 'The plasticity of the brain', 'I'm potential' & verses of my favourite poets.

 

But in this Meditation book I found something really funny. Keeping away the monkey!

 

The writer compares undesired thoughts to really bothering monkeys. So you just have to tell them to get away. At the beginning I was all the time thinking 'Monkey out',  ;D, but days later I was ok. It coincides with peaks of anxiety that I've placed at certain hours & certain days.

 

I think that this method is also used by behaviourist psycho-therapists. It's effective. 

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Jeff,

Thanks on the sharing your tips on dealing with panic attacks. I started out taking 1mg of Clonazepam at night and .50 mg during the day 3 years ago after my 21 year old son passed while away at college. Now I'm taking .25mg before bed and also during the day. I'm also taking 100 mg of Amitriptyline for depression. Over last 2 weeks, I've started to have panic/anxiety attacks during the day while at work. As a Sales Manager, I travel a lot and interact frequently with clients. At a product testing session with one of my largest customers, the session was not going well and the competitive product was performing better than the product that I represent. All of a sudden I had panic attack and felt that I was loosing control of the session. I excused myself from the group, and walked over to a different part of the plant and focused on calming myself down with deep breathing exercises and positive thinking and it worked. Today, I was getting ready for a Webinar to train one of my peers on a new sales reporting tool and had another panic attack. Before the call, I found myself multi-tasking along with prepping for the Webinar and felt overwhelmed. I left the house and went for a walk to calm myself down and it also worked. How long can I expect to have these panic/anxiety attacks while tapering?

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It's easier than you think. This may sound crazy but it is for real. Cut MSG (mono sodium glutamate) out of your diet. This is known to cause anxiety. Eat lots of raw spinach. I know it doesn't sound real but it is. Here is why...it is high in the amino acid L-glutamine which raises the GABA levels in the brain. The GABA is what clings to the receptors and opens and releases chloride that calms the body. People who have low GABA are known to be restless and have anxiety. I was addicted to Ativan for 10 years. I was withdrawing for two. When. I changed my diet, I noticed a drastic change for the better. I ate two bowls of raw spinach a day. I slept good and felt calm all the time.
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Hi Jeff I'm new here and have weened myself from 6mg daily of Lorazepam to 1/2 mg. most days. I do suffer from debilitating panic attacks and the Lorazepam was/ is the only thing that kept me calm and functional. My panic goes from 0 to 60 faster than the speed of light so the techniques you mentioned don't work for me, not enough time to put them into practice the attack is in full force before I can take the first deep breath.  I also have

Burning Mouth Syndrome since tapering off  and this combined with all the other withdrawal symptoms is making my anxiety level high. I am truly at a loss as to where to go now, yoyo with the Lorazepam and have the constant pain of BMS  or get off completely and never leave the house again?Anyone else dealing with this? Can't take Valium, klonopin, have very little tolerance to most drugs.

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I love #11! I use it all the time. I like to call it fake it till you make it. If you smile, as silly as it seems, it doesn't something to you even if you are forcing it and don't feel like smiling. Another thing that helps me is putting cold bag of frozen veggies on the back of my neck. It cools me down and makes me focus on the cold feeling rather than whatever scary symptom I'm hvaing. If you don't like cold try something warm or hot!  It works like a charm.
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I have been dealing with panic attacks over 20 years.  I also have burning mouth syndrome, vertigo,  blood too thin, eye problems etc.  I find that when attacks set in working around the house helps a great deal.  I vacuum till the rug has no more fibers to it. LOL keeping my mind off the attacks help .  I was so bad once I did not leave my house for 2 years, honest.  No Dr., grocery store. nothing. Now I push myself to never let the attacks keep me down.
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Breathing gif:

 

http://i1261.photobucket.com/albums/ii589/challis99/breathe-gif_zpstuxdwviu.gif

 

Breathe in as it opens.

Breathe out as it closes.

 

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