Dix, if I'm out, I will go into a garden if possible or find as quiet a space as possible, sit and do deep breathing. I don't care what anyone thinks anymore. I remove myself for awhile, always.

Mind you I also have an anxiety med for real back up if needed!

I usually do deep breathing exercises or I count. I know it sounds crazy, but counting really helps because it gives you something to focus on besides what is happening to you. And I do try to remove myself from the situation. But I do have meds as a back up if necessary.

Hope this helps,

Jenna

Years ago, I suffered with a panic disorder that scared the heck out of me....all the time! I remember my first panic attack like it was yesterday. I was home with my baby when I suddenly felt a sense of dread come over me like a big, dark, suffocating shroud. I knew something horrible was going to happen, but I didn't know what. My chest tightened and I could barely breath.

Then my Husband got home from work and it scared him, too. He took me directly to the doctor's office where I was told to breath into a paper bag. That was the first time I'd ever heard of a panic attack. I was sure I was going to die and these idiots handed me a bag????

I was given a few 1 mg. Xanax and told to take one only if I really needed to. The first one (a hefty dose for a first timer) mellowed me to the point that a freight train could have rumbled through the house and it wouldn't have bothered me. Wow...this was wonderful!

For a few years, my Doctor would prescribe only a few at a time and a much smaller dose. I would carry the damned bottle around in case I couldn't stand it any longer. I lived with constant fear of the panic fear! This made my disorder so much worse. Eventually, when I completely fell apart, I was hospitalized and started on several meds. I finally came home, very delicate and with a med schedule that I had to write down to keep it straight.

I eventully got sick of walking around like a dead person who forgot to stop breathing and slowly took myself off most everything. Now...I'm on so many meds that I'm writing it down each time I take something...again. The only one of the original drugs that I still take is Trazodone.

I hadn't had a true attack for a long time until very recently when I went to the mall with my Sister. I could feel it happening and this time it was accompanied by a lot of pain. I tried to ignore it so my Sister could finish shopping, but I finally had to tell her and then wait in the car. She was so good, practically ran through the check out and then drove me home.

It wasn't until I was safely back in my house that I managed to calm down. Now I'm back to being afraid to go very far from home. I should have known that all this isolating would catch up wih me.

Xanax drip, anyone?

Cherry , it's so good to see you feeling comfortable enough to share of yourself! I so understand.

I think all the stress you are under right now and the fact that you never feel well enough to get out is causing your anxiety to resurface again. I know it does mine.
But dang, what do you do, when you hurt so much all the time you don't feel like getting out.
I know I panic just worrying about someone seeing me in pain at the store....we work so hard at just trying to hid it.:(

Hugs Cherry, I'm sorry your under so much stress, I wish I could take some of it away for you.
xoxox

I try to meditate to reduce stress. It is very helpful.

there's a pill for that.















heather knows this for sure- benzo's are a pretty harsh mistress.
for me, i started having panic attacks in high school. but, i knew they were panic attacks then. driving in the rain could rattle me so badly that i would have to find a place, anyplace and pull off the road and out of traffic for long enough to recover. but, riding along in a car in the rain was really harsh as well. i couldn't control how other people used their wipers. if the rain would let up a bit and the wipers were (in my mind) too fast or worse, if they made noise you could find my screaming with my ears covered trying to go into fetal position while wearing a seat belt. following other people in other cars would reduce me to a shaking mess. if they made hand motions (before affordable cell phones) to signal a turn that i should make or something i didn't understand i would flat freak out. talking on the phone (the ones with cords) was ok. but, if anyone interrupted me or asked me something during my conversation i would go blank, not be able to answer the person on the phone or the person in the room, panic, hang up and run. then medical procedures, especially dentistry became out of the question without almost full sedation. i went into shock once and turned white, sweat through my clothes and got up and started running out of the office with my bib still on once.

then i started smoking grass for more than just fun. and i kept on smoking grass until my mid twenties. i didn't have a single panic attack again. then i got a bag of something strange, nicer than usual, more expensive and i inhaled and commenced a total panic. so i think, at around 26 i quit grass forever. and i was fine for a really long time.

two years ago, a traumatic experience occurred and i thought i was dealing well with all of it's far reaching tendrils. i was in therapy, i was on anti-depressants again, i was seeing doctors a lot. and i started having chest pain and palpitations.

after about a week of what i thought was heart problems, my mother forced me to a cardiac emergency room where nothing was found and i was given ativan. i followed up with a real cardiologist and had an echo..something more ecg's and a total work up of my blood, 24 hours of urine and lifestyle. there wasn't anything wrong with me at all. i had just started up with panic again and didn't recognize it.

i've had a bottle of 275 1 mg tablets of ativan since last november and a recent count showed that there were 225 left. i don't leave the house without them, but it's pretty rare that i need one. i now know when i do. they are not euphoric to me like valium or xanax have been. they just stop the panic before it comes. having the bottle makes me feel safe. even if i don't need them, just knowing that they're there helps me enormously.

i am not dependent on them so for now, i'm going to keep with that plan.
it's my sleeping med that has me worried. i'm absolutely and totally dependent on that one.

but, really, what i do is take a pill. kind of sad.