Do you have any personal methods of dealing with anxiety attacks?

One of my eight-times-a-year trips outside my home is coming up this Sunday. Already I'm getting anxiety attacks about it. I feel like it's a death sentence and I'll be leaving forever. I feel shaky and jittery and don't know if I should laugh or scream. Fortunately no one else is here to watch this!

No amount of rational thinking is helping me with this. Since I'm not on meds yet, I'm wondering if anyone has any tips or clues on how you personally deal with an attack.

Chocolate just isn't doing the trick.

I read the 7 tips that Clau posted earlier, and I'm working on those too. The breathing technique is making me dizzy, I'm not doing it right. Working on it.

This is hard.

Hi Boing (love your name )

The breathing exercises are hard but they do work. I was told by my therapist that it is harder for a woman to learn the proper way to breathe...we have more of a tendancy to hold in our stomachs (zipping up jeans , etc).

Focus on breathing in your nose and out your mouth.....place your hand on your belly and feel it move up and down....use your stomach to breathe and not your chest. We feel that we need to use our chest to breathe cause that is where our lungs are.....the best way is to use your stomach and feel it right in your belly. Lay down in a comfortable position and place your hand there......make sure it is quiet or even have soft music playing.....close your mouth....breathe in your nose...hold it for a few seconds and then let it out your mouth slowly.

Another thing I use is when you are breathing in.....say to yourself Calm and when you breathe out say to yourself anxiety This does work and you can also do that when you are on your way for your trip.

Sending you positive thoughts.


Heather

Ozzie, I tried that last night and I kept picturing myself in a car crash. I'm hopeless! Then I tried visualizing the trip with everything going smoothly, right up until I pulled back into the driveway. Seems like wishful thinking on my part to have everything go smoothly, but I'm going to try to keep picturing that when I think about the trip coming up. I think that might help...seeing it as if it's already done.

Heather, I'll try the breathing again with your tips in mind. I was surprised to see the part about saying "Calm" when doing it, because that is part of a breathing technique I use successfully with hiccups.

Thank you both for your kind thoughts.

Hi, I have a different tool that really works for me. I start with A and think of all the city names in the U.S. that I can think of that start with A, then I move on to B and keep going all the way through Z. If my panic isn't under control yet, I start all over. It keeps my mind occupied and before I know it, the attack is over. Sometimes I say them outloud and sometimes I write them down to keep my hands busy too.

There are 3 things.

~ Postive Self Talk--- that's key but takes alot of practice
~ Abdominal Breathing
~ Mind over Matter.

<font color=red>~Sundance~</font color=red>

<font color=blue>"Never react emotionally to criticism. Analyze yourself to determine whether it is justified. If it is, correct yourself. Otherwise, go on about your business."</font color=blue>

<font color=black>Norman Vincent Peale</font color=black>

deep breath in thru your nose and out thru the mouth...i find that stretching exercises help me too...maybe it just gets my mind off the anxiety. Thinking too much also makes my anxiety worse. Try to think of something else...make a grocery list. Do the dishes. Take a nice bubblebath. Light a candle. Turn the music on. Sometimes despite all my efforts...the anxiety wins out and i take an ativan. This usually works and I become much calmer. anxiety sucks. I find that nice smells calm me alot. Aromatherapy is an underused method of dealing with anxiety. Sandlewood and Egyptian Musk are very soothing. Inscence and scented candles are available everywhere. I also recently got a oil warmer for the lightbulb in my room. this works really nice.

i also get very calm and peaceful (i know this sounds corny) watching my collection of lava lamps. I have lots of lamps...different ones...wave lamps...glitter lamps...lava lamps...bubble lamps...and i keep them on all the time. My room is a sancuary...lighted just right...smells good...very calming...especially when you can close the door and be alone.