Its very hard thing to get through. Is she or has she been in any kind of therapy? They can teach her coping mechanisms to help her with it. I can't offer a whole lot of advice cause I haven't started working on my anxiety problems in therapy yet a whole lot.

My thoughts are with you and your mom. I hope she will feel safe to open up here and talk to us. It does help to know you're not alone with this problem.

I'm new to Ds as well, but I felt that i needed to respond. I can understand where your mother is coming from with this, as i'm sure we all can. I lived as a virtual shut in for over 5yrs and have only recently really started to leave the house again. It is a real scary process when you know from experience that the panic attacks will happen.
Does your mom have any real close friends in her area? You could try talking to them, I have noticed (atleast with me) that if I have a close friend with me who can keep me talking and distracted that even if the attack does hit it usually isn't as bad. The trick is baby steps. Down to the street corner, or the corner store first. with me I had to start with just getting down the stairwell outside my apartment. It will take time and she will more then likely fight it. But with good patient friends, progress can be made.

If she has not done so already I would suggest seeing her doctor as a first step. With the anxiety so severe already medication might be necessary to take those first couple steps toward recovery. Since you are not physically close to her it may be a good idea to confide in your father or other close family and see if you can convince her to go.

this is very difficult for you and there will be no quick fix answers but you are doing the right thing by supporting your mother. SOme people withdraw to exrtreme lengths before they seek help, It would be useful if you get get your mother to see a GP, they will probably offer some level of medication which may help as a short term solution,

In my own recovery i saw a psychologist who introduced me to meditation and EFT, both of these therapies really helped me, they are free from certain sites on the net if you want to contct me i can give you more info. i was also encouraged to write down my feelings - sometimes i was unable to talk about things but also when they are written and you can read them back to yourself you begin to see some of the irrational beliefs that are keeping you trapped in anxieties.

I have to say panic and anxiety attacks are a horrible experience and the more you fear them the more you have them - your mum may just be trapped in this cycle at the moment but she will come through this,

I think by trying to keep daily contact with your mum, encouragin her to use DS - but i would say to keep away from the anxiety groups and discussions as this can re-inforce some of the negative issues going on and what needs to happen is a change in her mindset to postive thinking, she will find this is some of the postivie support groups that offer some light hearted tips and others that give advice on anxiety recovery and neditations etc, check out my profile for the groups i am in
if you need any direct support for your mum, please message me - i am happy to help.
i hope you are both well today

Your story sounds uncannily familer. my mom got very sick when i was nine and never got better. she had panic attacks, got sucidal, was on a crap-load of medications, was almost hospitalized several times, and lost total interest in life. im not sayin thats your mom, but i know where your coming from. i would suggest just be there for her. get her tea, get her slippers, clean the house, make the meals,do the errands, hug and tell her you love her a lot, and just be a rock for her. thats all i could do. hope this helps
trevy

Its really difficult to deal with panic attacks and for me going out is sometimes a struggle. I do get nervous and I try not to let it get the best of me, but sometimes it does. My advice would be to congragulate her on things that she has done and not what she hasn't accomplished. I just know for me its hard sometimes because I feel like people focus on what I can't do instead of what it is that I can and have done. I was afraid to go anywhere in public at one point in time. I still don't like to be far from my home. Sometimes you just need a pat on the back because you not only did you make it to the grocery store but you went in, picked something out, bought it and left. I think you need a pat on the back even if you didn't make it in, just as long as you tried because god knows its scary as hell. I wouldn't push her too much with the site. I find it super helpfull but I don't know that I would have when things were horrible. When things used to be bad, talking about it or even thinking about talking about it would make me anxious. The anxiety will pass and eventually she'll open up and learn to deal with it in her own way. I hope that was helpfull. I do feel for you because I know how hard it is to be in the situation but I can only imagine it would be very difficult to be on the other end and not be able to do anything to help.