I’ve been having a panic attack for 30 minutes now. Can’t catch my breath. I’m freaking out, shaking, dizzy and my chest hurts. I’m able to type this, but my eyes are all over the place. Please distract me. Jokes, stories anything. I don’t want my daughter to know I’m panicking.
So this guy walks in a dentist office and says: “Doctor I think I’m a moth!”
The doctor then asks why did he go into a dentists office.
“The light was on”
Everything is going to be alright
Think positive dude.
You’ll be fine, @odiledecaray…
Women usually have this reaction when I leave for a spell, and then return out of the blue.
Man, I hate panic attacks - try to distract yourself and breathe deeply
It’s beginning to pass. Still jittery and lightheaded with chest pain. Woo. F**k panic attacks.
You guys are doing great. Thank you so much. I have to take my daughter to a girl scout meeting in a couple hours. I hope by then I will be ok, but I’ll probably have some depersonalization while trying to talk to these people.
My god, this is a rough one.
Two muffins are sitting in an oven.
One says to the other, “is it hot in here, or is it just me?”
The other one says, “AAHH! A talking muffin!”
Sorry your going thru this. What do u call someone with a panic attack…schizophrenic.
Don’t mean to offend:)
That is seriously one of my favorite jokes. It’s even a joke around here how much I like it because no one else finds it even a little funny, but it kills me every time.
Oh my gosh, kindred spirits! I tell it at least once a week and I die laughing every time. Everyone else mostly just rolls their eyes.
Here’s one from an old thread fom @Jayster:
A man comes into the doctor’s office with a stick of celery in his ear and a carrot in his nose. He says, “Doc, what’s my problem?”
“Well, for one thing, you’re not eating right,” says the doctor.
Tetracycline: The monthly replenishing of the tropical fish in your aquarium.
Global Warming: Face down, bottomless sunbathing.
Catastrophobia: The irrational fear that a black cat crossing your path will lead to bad luck.
Mcmxlogist: An expert translator of Roman numerals.
Chocological Counseling: A self-administered therapy with
chocolate rather than psychological counseling for the need of
more pleasurable experiences.
I just finished watching Charles Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol” on DVD. I’m getting into the Christmas spirit early this year. I know it is going to be a good Christmas. Dickens had such strongly humanistic values in his stories - a kind of militant compassion. It’s impossible to watch “A Christmas Carol” and not get into the holiday spirit. Maybe if you still need to you could watch some DVD you really like to cheer you up.
my mom had alot of panic attacks back in the 90s when i was under 10 years old. I remember now adays she says deep breathing helps alot and she still takes larazapan(sp?) for anxiety
In the future:
Breathe in a bit more quickly through your nostrils. Breathe out more slowly with your mouth open. Do this ten times in about 90 seconds. It works for me (and most people) most of the time.
Physiologically, the sympathetic (“fight or flight”) branch of the autonomic nervous system (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomic_nervous_system) is stimulated when we breathe in. While the parasympathetic (“calm back down”) branch is stimulated when we breathe out.
Most panic attacks are due to irrational ideation leading to severe autonomic imbalance and hyper-sympathetic pitch. Breath control will usually rebalance the ANS.
Mine hit me for no reason at all. I had just put on make up and did my hair and took some nice photos of myself out in the cornstalks. I felt pretty and then…BAM. Breathing exercises don’t work with me. I’m chronically short of breath due to my anxiety. I’ve had a breathing spell that’s lasted 16 hours. 16 hours of not being able to catch a good breath. Sometimes I think about going to the ER, but I’m too embarrassed and afraid they’ll just send me right back home. I just want some oxygen, man lol
Have you ruled out allergies and asthma? I mean, probably yes, but I’m just asking because ragweed and grass were positively brutal here yesterday and since you were out by the cornfield…
Anyway I would have been a respiratory mess in that situation, which can lead to panic attacks for me. If you do have allergies or asthma, maybe something like montelukast or albuterol could cut those triggers off?
I do have allergies, but it doesn’t affect my breathing that I’m aware. Just the runny snot dripping down the back of my throat (gross).
I will admit they didn’t work for me in extreme states of anxiety that lasted for months and months. (I have severe child-abuse and combat-related PTSD in semi-remission.) I have to use the described breathing exercise almost immediately upon triggering to prevent fight or flight from moving into freak and fry.
Actually, oxygen is what we don’t (too much of) during panic attacks. The blood is over-oxygenated then. The breathing exercise I described also lowers O2 and increases CO2 levels, which is associated with reduction of acute allostatic loading of the sympathetic branch of the ANS.
See Robert Sapolsky, Sonia Lupien, Bruce McEwen, Peter Levine, Hans Selye and Herbert Benson, all regarded experts on stress and autonomic response thereto.
Is this chronic? Or occasional and acute? If the former, you may do well to have a doc look into a PTSD-compromised immune system. (PTSD is known to be highly co-occuring with sz.) If the latter, it may be related to environmental conditions.