tokyo Posted April 29, 2005 Posted April 29, 2005 Originally posted by alphamale what a farce, yoga, meditation, autogenic bullkrap. yeah that will really help with a biochemical based brain receptor imbalance. none of that hokus pokus bullshyt works for these types of problems. have you ever tried yoga to fix your broken leg or unclog your arteries? what a joke. people who recommend these snake-oil remedies are keeping some people from getting real treatment that could help them out. I didn't tell her any hokus pokus. I would never want to cure a broken leg, flu, aid, etc. with yoga or the like. Sorry, but that's a really stupid assumption that you are making. I would also not try to fight a real biochemical imbalance with concentrating on my inner peace. I do think though that anxities to a certain degree can be controlled by yourself. There are a lot of other factors contributing to your emotional imbalance like insecurities, pain, exogenous stress, etc. Be proud of your prozac nation, but it's not always custom in other cultures and countries to only head for biochemical solutions if there are alternatives with less side effects that might bring relief as well. Hm, on a side note, how do you know that Naive is suffering a biochemical imbalance? I'm not an expert on phobias, but many of them can be treated without prescribing drugs.
tiki Posted April 29, 2005 Posted April 29, 2005 Originally posted by kooky a lot can be treated without prescribing drugs. My husband is severely asthmatic, having only 60% lung capacity. Although he is on many prescription meds and inhalers, his doctor recommended meditation. I was a little surpised. But it made sense. A lot of asthma attacks get brought on by stress. And supposedly, meditation decreases stress.....hmmmmm.
emotionsmessmeup Posted April 30, 2005 Posted April 30, 2005 i never fainted but my hands and legs wud shiver/shake... its better by the day...
moimeme Posted April 30, 2005 Posted April 30, 2005 Meditation has been scientifically proven to be beneficial to relieve stress. Read up on it.
whichwayisup Posted April 30, 2005 Posted April 30, 2005 Naive, what I can tell ya about those nasty and unwanted panic and anxiety attacks is gaining control of them. That is what it comes down to. Not allowing the fear of it, the negative thoughts and awful feelings take over. IT IS hard, oh man do I know!! But everytime you fight it hard, they lessen each time they bounce back at ya. Doing yoga, deep breathing and meditation all helps during an attack or a build up of an attack. With me, when I start to feel that anxiety rise - I sit down and breathe in and out really deep...I find that safe place in my head and just keeping talking to myself..If I have to do it outloud I will (I'm learning NOT to worry about making a fool of myself in public, cuz it happens!!) and once I feel abit calmer, I push myself to continue with what I was doing. Don't be afraid to reach out to somebody! Call a friend, geez, I DO alot...My bestfriend has helped me cope through some pretty rough attacks and I know I couldn't have gotten through it without her! I'm not as scared of them as I used to be. Alpha is right, all of it is physical symptoms and most of the time nothing bad is going to happen. That is what you have to keep telling yourself and try not to allow those neg.thoughts rush in your head. Think of what it is that is setting you off? Not enough sleep, too much caffeine, not enough food or drinking enough water...All of that does come into play. Being stressed out and also the mentral cycle...Having a cold or feeling sick also brings it on too. Just know that it all passes and again, everytime you fight it HARD, the next one will feel less intense...Because you gained the control back! I understand about the agrophobia too as I allowed myself to slip abit over the yuk Canadian winter this year. It's a daily PUSH for me to get out of the house and DO things! But I do it anyway...If I can't drive that day, I walk. Or take a cab..Or ask a friend to come with me...Giving in just reinforces and ya lose some control. Can be the smallest thing - a quick walk around the block, but doing it over and over each time will give you the confidence and build up the positive feelings of winning the battle bit by bit. I don't take any meds with this. I'm a total med whimp and honestly, from what I've seen and heard through my friends, on and offline, I won't, unless my DR feels I have to, which fortunately for me, she doesn't ... My Cognitive Behaviour Therapy has taught me so much and I've learned the tools to cope better...With just about everything in my life. I've never fainted, but felt like I was going to. That does bring on alot of fear. I try to breathe and tell myself I'm Okay, and just ride out like a rollercoaster. My big one is the fear of throwing up. I don't ever throw up but during a bad attack I gag (yeah it is like an old man cough - slightly embarressing when out in public!! LOL!) and the gagging relieves the anxiety that has built up inside me. (My brother in law loves to immate me and poke fun at me cuz of this! Well, not during the attack ever, but we all do joke around with it!) That is the other thing! DON'T LOSE the sense of humour. If you can laugh abit during the attack it won't feel as horrible. If you can find out the reasons, and slowly eliminate it helps too. Some of my fears stem from childhood experiences...Getting locked by accident in the bathroom as a little kid (the lock broke and I was in there alone for an hour!), being in the plane and the door jammed in the bathroom...So, yeah I am very clausterphobic as well! I rarely go in elevators unless I absolutely have to. If I go in, I always make sure somebody is with me. I will NEVER go in one alone...God forbid I get stuck! Oh man, they'd have to call 911 cuz I'd be LOSING IT BIG TIME! LOL! Some other fears, the death of my father nearly 12 years ago. So that brings on alot of thoughts that cause my anxiety too, the worry of something happening to somebody I love, family, friends and ofcourse my husband. Being alone, living alone and all that jazz. Oh my list can go on and on, but that's enough for now. Hope some of this helps. I DO understand all that you are feeling and it is hard to cope sometimes. Hugs!
faux Posted April 30, 2005 Posted April 30, 2005 A panic attack is a hard thing to describe; I don't know if I've ever actually had one. I was told that I suffered from them at one point, but I also noticed that different people describe panic attacks, well, differently. If whatever I used to have were actually panic attacks, I did get them bad enough that I would pass out, or at least become extremely light-headed.
goodnbad Posted May 1, 2005 Posted May 1, 2005 tiki, just curious, what exactly is vaso-depressor syncope? You know, the first thing I thought when you mentioned your symtoms was actually epilepsy, not anxiety attacks. Flourescent lights often bring on epileptic attacks because of their flickering quality. But anyhow...... I suffer from anxiety attacks. The first thing I had to realize is that you don't actually have to be suffering from an obvious sense of anxiety. But the symtoms you all are describing here (short of actually passing out), oh yeah, that's me too. I just wanted to ask if any of you have suffered from any form of tinnitus, dizziness (not just at the time of an attack, but generally-speaking), or balance problems? I get a lot of ringing in my one ear and after having seen several specialists, they can find nothing wrong. However, some really interesting stuff I pulled up from some tinnitus sites actually have found a tenative link between ear probs and anxiety. They say that some anxiety attacks may actually not be due to real (subconscious) anxiety, but your body's attempt to re-establish inner ear balance, resulting in your conscious body getting a feeling of imbalance. This feeling often will make itself known in particular situations such as being in large buildings, such as supermarkets or even open spaces---which I believe someone mentioned? I also get more attacks in such places. Driving a car will also make some people get an imbalanced feeling, since you are moving and your balance can be affected. Anyhow....I was originally given Zoloft and then also tried Paxil for my 'anxiety'. They didn't work, and personally, I would NEVER attempt such trials with drugs like these again. They really threw my body out of whack for years and I had a severe and dangerous reaction to Paxil. But hey, if you like walking around like a zombie with no feelings---I would prefer to work my problems out than be anesthetised. No offense to anyone who applauds these drugs, I'm sure they do have their uses, just my 2 cents. I think they are being wayyyy too much over-prescribed. As for yoga, Doubtful it would help me, since I don't believe my attacks are truly anxiety based, but I suppose it could help some people de-stress. Very interesting topic! goodnbad
whichwayisup Posted May 1, 2005 Posted May 1, 2005 I just wanted to ask if any of you have suffered from any form of tinnitus, dizziness (not just at the time of an attack, but generally-speaking), or balance problems? I get a lot of ringing in my one ear and after having seen several specialists, they can find nothing wrong. That's an awful feeling! I've had it afew times and the first time it happened I was going to bed. Stayed up too late so that was part of the cause...I think??!! Anyway, I closed my eyes and I heard a faint noise in my left ear. Sounded like a light hum...Then I heard music. A song, but couldn't really hear the lyrics. I thought I was going crazy and basically had huge waves of anxiety building up in me. My husband was feeling sick that night and was sleeping in the spare room...I didn't have the heart to wake him up. I know I should have (the next day he was really worried and upset that I didn't wake him) but couldn't. So I lay there, thinking I was going insane! I actually called my therapist and left a message for her at 3am!! She called me the next day kinda laughing and explaining what it was, and that it was anxiety related! I felt relieved as I really thought I was losing it! She told me those thoughts of insanity and worrying about going crazy actually means that I wasn't crazy. Having thoughts like that is rational thinking and that if I was going crazy I wouldn't be aware of it. It's only happened two more times since and I breathed throughout it. A good friend of mine told me that I should try to "hear" the music instead of freaking out about it! lol! Wow, that is exactly WHY I won't ever do meds unless I absolutely have to. I know too many who have had problems with paxil and going off other drugs. Yuk! Scary side effects and withdrawals. No way. Rather fix myself with just CBT and talk therapy, yoga and all the tools I've learned. since I don't believe my attacks are truly anxiety based Just curious, but why do you think your attacks were anxiety based? And yes, this thread is turning into something really good to read.
goodnbad Posted May 1, 2005 Posted May 1, 2005 whichway is up, funny you should mention it, some tinnitus sufferers do think they hear things that aren't there, such as music, bells, whispering voices, etc. So there's nothing crazy about that! What I hear is either high pitched screeching (very faint, TG) or a snowy tv/white noise kind of sound. Over the years, I've learned to tune it out pretty good. My doctor thought that my attacks were anxiety-based because I had went to her having problems with sudden waves of light-headedness, what I thought was a feeling of impending doom, and a sensation of having cold icy water dashed on my chest and arms. However, this was before I was seeing the ear specialist, who thought that the light-headedness was the inner ear imbalance. The 'doom' was actually my body trying to re-establish its equilibrium (by using outside surroundings as reference)---not too successfully since my inner ear balance was sending mixed signals. And the icy water, the only true anxiety part, since the other problems caused stress. What I meant by it not actually being anxiety-based though was that my general life was not stressful and I didn't actually spend a lot of time feeling stressed. So there was no reason for my body to be looking for a stress outlet. It was my family doctor that thought it was anxiety. She prescribed me Zoloft for 'stress' which left me with zero emotions. So I switched to Paxil, with once again, zero emotions. I started out with the low dose and upon working up to the second higher dose was very ill within 5 hours of it. I had taken some sort of weird hallucinogenic attack where I was seeing stars and so dizzy I couldn't get off the couch for two days. I absolutely could not eat (something very out of whack for someone with compulsive binge-eating disorder!) After the second day---all the while with my GP telling me to keep taking the Paxil!---the hubby finally drove me to emergency, where the doc there cut my dosage in half immediately and told me to work myself off it within 3 days. He said that Paxil and related drugs cause a lot more problems like this than the drug companies would like you to know, and I believe it. It's no surprise that they don't recommend this stuff to people with eating disorders...well, duh, but then my doc didn't believe that I had an eating disorder at all, still doesn't. So there's the end of my boring story in a nutshell! IMO, most docs would rather 'fix you up' with pills than try to really figure out what is physically wrong. It's quicker and less work involved for them. I guess anxiety attacks are the "in" thing to prescribe pills for now. goodnbad
SexKitten Posted May 1, 2005 Posted May 1, 2005 i have anxiety attacks with and without passing out. sometimes it just happens before i know it. if i feel it coming, and i sit down i can usually stop it. it's like i panic, my heart races, my breathing goes all out of whack and then my body just shuts down. then i wake up (i hate the expression "come to") and i'm like, what the eff? it's scary, but it happens...are you okay naive?
tiki Posted May 2, 2005 Posted May 2, 2005 Originally posted by goodnbad tiki, just curious, what exactly is vaso-depressor syncope? Hope this helps... Vasodepressor syncope is caused by a reflex of the involuntary nervous system called a vasovagal reaction. The vasovagal reaction leads the heart to slow down (bradycardia) and, at the same time, it leads the nerves to the blood vessels in the legs to permit those vessels to dilate (widen). The result is that the heart puts out less blood, the blood pressure drops, and what blood is circulating tends to go into the legs rather than to the head. The brain is deprived of oxygen and the fainting episode occurs. I suffer from tinnitis frequently, and have so since I was a child. I've got a lot of ear problems though.
XNemesisX Posted May 2, 2005 Posted May 2, 2005 I have passed out countless times. Each time it is equally terrifying and I literally think i'm going to die. It's not from anxiety or panic disorder though. The last MAJOR episode I had was when I was taken on an ambulance in early Feb. I was so dehydrated that I started seeing "auras" yeah that's what really scared me. I couldn't hold any water down at all. When the paramedics got here I was lying on the ground unconscious. All of this over a stomach virus! Other times I have passed out have been from not eating enough. When I feel depressed I can't eat and it will cause me to pass out. I'm not having fainting spells like I used to now that I try to make an effort to at least eat a little something each day and drink plenty of water. Fainting is VERY scary. I know I literally think I'm going to die right before I faint. That's interesting about the tinnitus. I don't have that, but right before I pass out I hallucinate both visually and auditory. The night I went on the ambulance I saw auras coming off everything, really loud voices talking all at the same time and I couldn't understand what was being said, and a strange man standing in the corner of my room Yeah, it's freaky to say the least. ...
Author Naive Posted May 2, 2005 Author Posted May 2, 2005 I should have not even started this thread because thanks to it on Saturday I was freeking out while I was driving on the freeway and I thought I was going to faint. It was so crazy, I had such a long time I did not get such a bad panic attack I am trying to push it to the back of my mind!!!
whichwayisup Posted May 2, 2005 Posted May 2, 2005 It's a good thread for others who are suffering from anxiety too. The more help one gets and useful information the less they feel alone.
jacquelyn Posted May 15, 2005 Posted May 15, 2005 It had happen to me once and i would come close to it plenty of times. well, first i would experience hyperventilation from either being so upset or crying too much, then i would feel a big light headed and everything would turn white. once that happens, i would have to quickly close my eyes and sit down. if i dont, i would just faint.
Arianahatz Posted May 19, 2005 Posted May 19, 2005 I remember having mine, when I was nervous at school I would sometimes skip meals because I was really shy, and very nervous.. & if I was in Science or near a group of people.. I would feel hot, sweaty, tingly and I needed to go out quick I could not see it was scary it would feel like I would pass out.. but I have never ever done. I have had one recently, when I had a virus.. for 3 days I was having my nails done and suddenly my finger started bleeding it bothered me a lot, I don't like to see blood, as I didn't feel well I worried myself about it, sometimes my finger has bled but it has never bothered me before. I needed to get out of the shop I started to see blurry vision... like a tv switched to a wrong channel which doesn't exist.. I fell to the ground & my head was spinning around and around.. It was raining and it was cold.. but I was so hot.. I just couldn't move I was so scared I thought I was going to die. I haven't had them since... but when I first got them I went to a therapist.. and I got help and it helped me a lot.
goodnbad Posted May 20, 2005 Posted May 20, 2005 Originally posted by Arianahatz if I was in Science or near a group of people.. I would feel hot, sweaty, tingly and I needed to go out quick I could not see it was scary it would feel like I would pass out Funny you should mention that. The last time (several weeks ago) that I had a so-called panic attack, was when I was taking a math refresher exam. I totally detest math and find any kind of math exams---especially in the presence of others---stressful. I felt like I was getting very light-headed and needed to get up and out of the room. But I calmed myself down and told myself it was all in my head, and the feeling went away.
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