[sunshine82]

My first panic attack hit while I was in the shower. I immediately yelled for my husband with him rushing to me, and trying to calm me. I knew in my head it was a panic attack but I just could not break it's cycle, I was convinced I was dying. I just knew my husband would have to do CPR on me and my children would stand by watching as this happened.
Now every time I take a shower I feel panic creeping up on me, now my poor husband has to sit in there with me or sometimes even get in the shower with me.
Has anyone else experienced panic in the shower? Any suggestions on overcoming this fear of having a panic attack in the shower?

[kaliope]

hi sunshine
to be honest with you, i only shower once a week cause it causes such a panic for me. mine is from childhood trauma and

Possible trigger:

i was molested in the shower

.

here are some tips for overcoming panic attacks and anxiety that have worked for me.

a way to stop panic attacks is to relax. it is physically impossible to panic and relax at the same time. you dont even have to really relax. just fool your brain into thinking you are relaxing. imagine as if you just did a meditation or had a massage and all your muscles have turned into limp noodles. just let them all go. this will stop the panic attack. you may have to do it a couple times over your first tries, but when i started doing this it ended the attacks and soon i never had a panic attack again,

i have this thing called an anxiety meter that i visualize in my head. it goes from 0 to 10, 10 being the worst anxiety ever. so when i am anxious, i see where the needle registers on the meter. then i do breathing exercises until i get it down to a four. which is manageable for me. sometimes i see a knob on the meter and i will manually turn down the meter to four so i can calm down faster. practicing this enough, all i have to do now when i am anxious is say dial down, and i can calm myself.

[notaprettygrrrl]

This has happened to me before, and it is pretty terrible, I know. You could try breathing exercises for 5-10 minutes before and also make sure you are well-hydrated and that the water isn't too hot. Really hot water can raise your blood pressure, and a really steamy room might make it feel like breathing is harder. You might also try telling yourself that there is nothing life-threatening about taking a shower and that it is possibly just your body responding naturally to physical stimuli, which you are changing. Knowing circumstances are alterable and that changes are being made might help to make you feel like you're in control of it more, too--maybe lessening the fear of it happening again. These are some things that helped me, anyway.