Top 10 Things To Never Say To Someone Having A Panic Attack

So you know someone who experiences regular panic attacks, and in that moment you just don’t know what to do or even worse what to say. Some of the 10 things listed below may seem humourous but trust me when I say we who have suffered from panic disorder in the past, have heard them all, and some suggestions we dislike more then others. So here we go with…

1) “You’re taking this way too far!”

First thing that comes to my mind is, do you think I want to be feeling like I am about to die?

2) “Breathe deeper”

One of the worst things you can tell someone who’s experiencing a full blown panic attack is to breath deeper. Hyperventilating happens due to the fact that you’re breathing too quick and deep which expels too much carbon dioxide. Now you know the reason for your dizziness and numbness during a panic attack…

3) “Control yourself”

Believe me if the person having the panic attack could, they would.

4) “Hey, face your fears!”

Forcing someone who’s experiencing a panic attack towards their fear can actually back-fire in many ways. The real key is a guided systematic approach to facing the fear, when they are prepared to do so.

5) “Time to go to your happy place”

That happy place you mentioned, not so happy after all.

This one brings me back to my past life with panic disorder, and a friend who would always remind me to go to my ‘happy place’during a full blown panic attack. I think he picked the idea up from the movie Happy Gilmore which was a pretty good idea if you think about it, but all I could really think of was a bunch of little devil people invading my happy place each and every time.

6) “It’s all in your head!”

I understand that I need to stop the emergency signals that keep the cycle of panic alive, I also now understand that a panic attack can in fact be stopped in 3 minutes no matter the severity of it, what I don’t understand is when people keep saying ‘it’s all in your head. It just isn’t helping so be more specific please…

7) “You are embarrassing me right now”

Not cool, if someone’s telling you this it’s time to find new friends.

8) “You need to have more faith than this!”

All this does is throw the person suffering from the panic attack deeper into a world of confusion. In the end, a prayer won’t stop a panic attack and it just might even fuel the cycle of anxiety and depression further.

9) “Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff”

FYI, if someone has an anxiety disorder and has regular panic attacks out of the blue, everything is regarded as ‘big stuff.’ Reminding someone who’s experiencing a panic attack that they’ve been down this road before, and have come out of it can trigger positive memories for the sufferer. These memories can help turn the adrenaline and anxiety switch off in a short amount of time.

10) “Have a drink”

This one is plain and simply the worst advice there is. The gateway to an addiction opens up because of the temporary comforting feelings that alcohol can give you during generalized anxiety, and panic attacks. So take my advice and STAY AWAY!

Panic attacks usually start with an unexplained random attack that fuels certain sensations within the person. Very often this leads to the fear of losing control all together. So if you know someone who’s currently going through a panic disorder, it’s just as important to know what NOT to do and say as it is to know what to do and say during a panic attack. This list is a great place to start.

Did I miss out on any other ‘interesting’ comments heard during a panic attack? Share your own experiences in the comment section below.

Another Day, Another Panic Attack, Another Visit To The Emergency Room…

I was no stranger to the emergency room…

From the ages of 25 to 31, I had logged over 50 visits. The ER visits were due to either a bad panic attack caused by a situation from the past that triggered panic, or a scary physical sensation, but I should have picked up on the chain of thoughts and why the cycle kept going day after day.

The way I interpreted the world around me and the judgements I made of things was ultimately being stored in my subconscious mind. I played the same recording over and over, day after day without a break, and ultimately paid the price through these panic attacks and generalized anxiety.

My emotions, as they were happening, were just signals that I needed to react to the current situation. What I’ve learned is that I needed to read the emotion and react accordingly, which I wasn’t. If I was feeling scared, for example, I should have looked at the root cause of that emotion, not the situation I was in at that moment.

All main emotions have secondary emotions that are usually causing them.

I should have tried to understand what secondary emotions might be coming into play at any time that was causing me to feel upset or anxious. You are never feeling an emotion “for no reason.” There is usually a trigger that you experienced that set off a secondary emotion, which then builds up with all of the other feelings you have been supressing, and this causes an emotional reaction that seems out of sync with what you are experiencing. The key here is to be aware of those deep-seeded underlying secondary emotions that are causing whatever negative feelings you are having, and deal with those feelings first.

“Once you pay attention to those feelings, you can turn them around and begin to improve your overall outlook.”

No Doc I swear, THIS is the big one!

Knowing what causes your negative feelings can work a great deal towards ending the cycle of generalized anxiety disorder and panic attacks. What drove me to the ER were one of the two different kinds of anxiety symptoms I experienced throughout a day―there was the lingering kind such as a lump in the throat feeling, more commonly known as Globus Hystericus, or the dizzy feeling of literally feeling like you’re walking in a dream and no one can really see or hear you. Or there was the sudden anxiety symptoms in the form of a heart palpitation that seemed to rise from nowhere and scared the life out of me, or the numbness/tingling in my arms that led me to always think a stroke was right around the corner, but as always I was wrong again and again… thankfully.

Boy was I stubborn!

In my experience working with people with anxiety disorders, a hypochondriac never seems to believe the negative result that is handed to him after physical tests are done, and I was no exception to this.

I fiercely held my ground, letting each and every one of them there know that they needed to see I was physically sick, and the tests were wrong. It was a tug of war battle, and I should have paid closer attention and began building on those facts that would begin growing my belief that there was in fact nothing to fear, and it was as many had told me ‘all in my head.’ I began not mentioning anything about my anxiety problems just so that the doctors wouldn’t do the same tests again and again.

If they gave me a different test for the complaint I had, then maybe I would find out what was making me feel the way I was and I could find a cure and it would all be done and I could go back to living free and happy how I once was.

But it was all for nothing. I just couldn’t accept that this was all being caused by me and my fear and worry, it was too easy a solution and I couldn’t get my head wrapped around this idea for a very long time, and people that were close to me in my life were growing more and more concerned and confused every day. If I would have just taken a few steps back and evaluated what was going on mentally, I would be able to start working on finding tools that would eventually lead me to freedom from anxiety and panic attacks, and end those awful experiences.

There’s something you don’t hear everyday…

For an overly anxious person, the decision to go to a regular doctor rather than the emergency room was an easy one in the moments of crisis. In my experiences with regular doctors, it was almost like they were waiting for me to show them a sign of an anxiety disorder so that they could write out the prescription and send me off. It didn’t seem like any of them really cared about the root causes of my issues and wanted to lead me in the right direction.

They just treated the symptoms on the surface, and that is plain and simply wrong…

When your mind is so wired to worry as mine was for 6 years, nothing else in the world matters more than tending to the emergency that your mind and body are crying out for. So after a deep crying session (you won’t believe how much tension crying releases), I took a good look around me and realized I needed to draw strength from the two people who needed me the most and also continue on my path to be the best tennis player I could be. I needed to be there for my son, who was going to grow up and ask daddy questions and want to play and be taught new amazing things. That was the beginning of the end to my panic attacks, and my endless visits to doctors and emergency rooms.

Knowing why you want change to happen and getting emotionally ‘charged up’ over the possibilities of how your life will be different, can truly steer you in the right direction past debilitating anxiety and panic attacks.

www.theanxietyguy.com

Health Anxiety And The Rebound Effect Part 2

Not the best choice for you at the library…

Gaining Progress Over Your Health Anxiety Starts Today

So through part 1 you have now pinpointed whether or not you truly have hypochondriasis (health anxiety), and you’ve also learned more about what I like to call the rebound effect (if you haven’t read part 1 I suggest you go back and read it before carrying on). So the question now is what do we do about it? How do we break the neverending cycle that the rebound effect and our health anxiety is causing you? To answer that question I should share with you a quote I heard once that has stuck with me for a while and that quote is:

“Only those who have patience to do the simple things perfectly, ever acquire the skills to do difficult things easily.”

So today after reading this post our goal is to start simple, master those simple things, take control of what is adding to our health anxiety and hypochondriac state, and overcome your health anxiety one small step at a time. So are you ready? Let’s go!

True Progress

The first thing I want you to do is grab a piece of paper and put a line right through the middle. On the top of the left side of the paper I want you to write down True Progress, and on the other side of the line I want you to write down A Cycle Of Coping. I want you to think back to some of the times when you’ve felt free from your health anxiety worries, some of these times could be when you were hanging around a certain friend, a certain job you were involved in, a certain activity that you did, a sport that you were commit to. This will take some effort from you to go back in time slightly, and remember what caused you to feel like you were in a different state through your body and your thoughts.

A Cycle Of Coping

There Is No Medication For Fear… So Don’t Do It!

On the right side of the paper you have the title A Cycle Of Coping, and on this side it’s time to think about and rid yourself of the things that keep you moving in circles around your health anxiety condition. this list could contain things you do unconsciously that you are just now starting to realize is adding to the rebound effect and your health anxiety cycle. But we need to bring them out into the open if we’re going to stop your health anxiety once and for all. You could add things like turning to my ‘safety net’ (other anxiety sufferers online) for reassurance every time a new symptom of anxiety appears, calling my family doctor to set up an appointment, taking an anti anxiety medication every time I feel like I’m spiralling out of control, researching my new symptoms of anxiety online through search engines like google or other anxiety groups.

This list is a huge step forward, but I’m warning you now some of the things you add to this list you won’t like. But deep down you will know they should belong to the cycle of coping list simply because this has been your comfort net for so long, and yet you are still in the same hypochondriac state as you were in weeks, months or even years ago. The realization of what feeds your health anxiety, and what prevents you from falling into the cycle of coping is going to be a powerful exercise and you deserve a life better then this… don’t you?

This could be the most important 10 minutes of your life

I don’t want you to rush this exercise, I want you to think it through and fully realize what’s helping you and what’s hurting you. Letting go of some of those daily comforts such as turning to ‘DR Google’ for answers for example, could be difficult at first but in time you’ll see just how much stress and anxiety you’ve let go of simply by following through with your list.

Don’t forget to hang the list on your fridge door, or a place where you’ll run into it in your home

Start small, and watch your confidence grow.

You have to be reminded of this list consistently, so make sure that it’s visible. Each time you are tempted into doing something from the cycle of coping list don’t punish yourself, but just realize and understand that this was the old you. To begin the changes you truly want deep down it’s time to completely rid yourself of the list on the right and fully commit to the list on the left, only then will freedom from your anxious thoughts and your health anxiety condition begin to manifest.

The End The Anxiety Program is quickly becoming the #1 alternative to harmful medications and lomg hours of anxiety theerapy. To learn more about how you can begin your natural recovery from Panic Disorder, GAD, or certain phobias in your life visit www.theanxietyguy.com.

Is Your 5 O’Clock Drive Your Most Stressful Hour?

One of the most overwhelming stressors in your day, besides work, is coming home from work.

It’s 5pm and everybody is heading to day care to pick up kids or they are heading home like maniacs. They switch lanes, cut you off, slam on your breaks and you are screaming at the top of your lungs trying to figure out why these people can’t just drive normally. You probably barely avoid about 10 accidents before you even make it to the day care to pick up your child who sitting alone playing by himself because you are late again. The look of your kid plus the stress of the drive just adds to your total stress for the day.

Driving is a huge cause of stress.

Most people, especially in crowded cities like New York City and Los Angeles, spend almost an hour trying to get to work or get home safely. In many cities, this traffic also causes several public safety issues as well. As your stress builds, so does the stress of those who are traveling around you as well. With this stressor you are not alone and everybody is feeding off of everybody else’s stress and anxiety.

Your 5 o’clock drive doesn’t have to look this.

Once you are able to get your kids picked up you may have another stressful situation. Perhaps they are separated in the car because you’re tired of playing referee while you drive, but they still seem to annoy each other one way or another. One way to deal with this is to keep them as occupied as possible.

To deal with this type of stress, you may first want to try out some relaxing music. Invest in classical music that will make it more soothing as you drive. You may also consider nature sounds that will lighten up rush hour.

Another option is to change your daily route.

Look for a way that is not as stressful, perhaps take residential streets instead of busy highways. You might find that this route is longer, but you will appreciate the reduced stress in your life by taking this route.

Another technique is to simply start your drive five or ten minutes early. This keeps you from having such a time crunch in the mornings. This can actually make a less stressful drive as well.

www.theanxietyguy.com

Fun Fact Of The Day

I actually asked my fiancee about this fact, and she supports the idea that life is much less depressive and stressful when you have more guy friends than girls. She also mentioned that women are in the habit of being ‘nice’ all the time, and with guy friends their opinions on personal things like outfits, body weight etc can be much more truthful. Finally she mentioned how moving day can be a breeze because of your guy friends, and there would be no need to hire movers.

This one’s definitely a thinker, so what do you think?

www.theanxietyguy.com