Anxiety Support Group
Anxiety is a physical condition marked by intense and persistent feelings of distress, fear, angst or dread. General anxiety caused by routine day-to-day stresses usually passes quickly and is experienced by almost everyone at one time or another. However, such feelings that linger over time and are very difficult to cope with, and which lack a clear cause, may indicate...
I had a reallllly bad panic attack in the shower last night. At first I tried to distract myself and go about what I was doing, but by the time I got out I was positive I was going to die. It took what felt like hours for the panic to stop and now I'm too scared to take another one. Even thinking about it makes me really anxious. Obviously I can't go the rest of my life without bathing, but I don't know what else to do. The shower used to be my sanctuary from panic attacks and now I've lost that too. Has this happened to anyone else? How did you "get over it"?
Getting to the root causes is best, along with perhaps some medication and other tools. Yoga, meditation, deep breathing, even hypnosis have all helped me a lot with my anxiety. There is also a good book out there - When Panic Attacks, by David Burns. He also has a workbook, which I haven't used but is recommended by a lot of other people. I hope this helps.
As for a trigger...all I can think of is lack of air. I was breathing, obviously, but since I was moving around I must have been breathing faster which sped up my heart and got all the other symptoms started. I'm just not sure how I can avoid that in the shower.
I remember a panic attack I had while I was taking a bath. I just told myself "fine, just get on with it, I'll give you two minutes, but no more." I have no idea if it lasted longer than that, but realizing that I could be in control was pretty powerful. I also remember I kept on taking deep breaths.
Using those three techniques above I've been able to stop panic attacks from happening. The last one I was about to have was while getting on a train.
I truly, truly, truly hate them. I used to have so many when I was a teenager that I feel they ruined my youth. My family didn't know what was going on. My mother was also having panic attacks, as well as four of my siblings. Back then there was a lot of ignorance regarding mental illnesses so we felt we had to hide our attacks, otherwise people would think we were crazy. We didn't even know that what we were having were called panic attacks.
You'll eventually find a technique that works for you. Take the advice that the wonderful people posting here offer you, take the advice from your counsellor, read as much as you can about anxiety disorders, educate yourself. Knowledge is power.
Take care.
The really good thing is, you have to take a shower unless you want to stink lol so your will to be clean will over come your anxiety and over time it should be less.