Getting over panic attacks without medication?

[hellopanda]

Hi, I'm new here! I couldn't find anything similar in a search, but sorry if this has been done before.

I'm really interested in hearing about peoples experiences with panic attacks. For the past couple of years I've been having them severely and recently I've been taking some prescription drugs to help me out (not sure if I can go into details here?). I also have bipolar so I'm on a range of other medications for that, so I want to avoid more. I'm just curious to hear about your experiences with panic attacks, and hopefully how you've gotten over them without the help of medication.

As much as these meds are helping me I don't want to become dependent on them just to function in certain scenarios that I'm going to face almost daily if I'm going to be realistic about this. I panic when I'm the centre of attention. So no talking in front of groups. My flight response is very strong. I've run out of a lot of rooms. The reason for the medication is a new job. It's a really great job that I honestly thought would take me a few more years to work up to (and in those years I'd deal with the panic attacks).

I've done a lot of meditation work and breathing techniques. The breathing is really effective to a certain point for me, but often it just gets overwhelmed by the panic.

I'd love to hear your experiences.

Cheers

[Nikkir]

Hellopanda and welcome:)

Thank you for taking the time to reach out to us and share your personal journey. So often there are many people experiencing the same things. I don't have alot of experience myself but as a carer of someone who has high anxiety and panic attacks I do think medication is good to a point. Maybe ask our DR KIM. I think it is great that you are doing the breathing and meditation as well. Are you seeing a therapist or somebody who could help you with some strategies? You can get a referral from your GP. I have an app "smiling minds' this is for mindfulness and breath but I know when you have severe panic attacks this may not be suitable. To me my answer for everything is yoga. Have you tried this ? Connecting body and breath has made me so much more centred in daily life. I think walking is good and yes deep breaths. What I would be wondering is what is behind the attacks, what triggers them? You would need to do some work on this with an expert. Mindfulness and CBT and DBT are good skills training Cognitive Behaviour Therapy and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy. From what I can understand which is very basic and though I am a student I certainly cannot advise you but our body goes into "fight or flight mode" after we feel fear so we need to calm down our sympathetic nervous system and change the way that we react to the fear response. I bought a book called "Healing the Heat and Mind with Mindfulness" by Malcolm Huxter who was a Buddhist monk and now an author and clinical psychologist I think, he talks alot about fear and panic and happiness etc in his book. He has a section called " surfing panic with understanding guided instructions." maybe you could google this or similar. If you are really interested and you think it may be of help to you let me know and i will read it and summarise it for you. I hope this is of some help. Either way you are not alone. Best wishes and let us know how you are going if you would like to. Nikkir x

[hellopanda]

Thanks Nikkir!

Meds are definitely good to a point. Especially for me currently. I couldn't be functioning at work the way I am without them! I've previously seen a clinical psychologist and worked on CBT and she linked me to the 'mindfulness' app which is great. At the moment I'm seeing a psychiatrist and we're trying to work on the cause of the panic attacks but this is lengthy and difficult.

I think I should've given CBT more of a chance. I started to write it off cause it was during an intense period of panic attacks and I was looking for a magic fix. I've never heard of DBT before, I'll definitely look that up. It sounds like I should definitely read the Malcolm Huxter book. I'll try and track it down. I'd love to surf panic!

You said you're a student. What are you studying?

Thanks for your help.