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.

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Your First Aid Kit Against An Anxiety Attack

It is rather simple to mistakenly take an anxiety attack for a real heart attack. In fact, most casual observers would not even know the difference between the two if they see it happening right before their eyes. The clear signs of an anxiety attack reflect the commonly known signs of a heart attack, with the differences being only apparent if one knows what to look for. Unfortunately, this close similarity also makes it difficult for people to know what to do in the event that a person experiences one or the other. For the most part, the only real response that people have when someone is undergoing a heart attack, anxiety attack, or even a stroke, is to simply call an ambulance and try not to panic while waiting for it. However, in reality, there are some basic first aid measures that a person can take in the meantime.

Breath!

The first thing is to restore balance to the person’s breathing. An anxiety attack often disrupts the circulatory and respiratory systems, causing a number of effects on their normal functioning. An attack can result in someone having a decreased heart rate, lowered blood pressure, and an increase in the body’s circulation. Any muscle pain that a person is feeling would also be decreased during an attack. While these signs cannot do any long-term or significant damage on their own, they can upset the body’s natural chemistry and trigger other changes that may cause damage. Restoring the usual balance of breathing and blood circulation can help prevent the damage that might be done in the event of an anxiety attack.

Posture Is Everything!

In many ways, this can also help in the event of a heart attack. More of a precautionary measure than first aid, keeping an eye on a person’s posture can also help people have better odds in the face of an anxiety attack. Bad posture has a tendency to compress vital organs in the stomach and abdomen, which makes them more vulnerable to possible damage during an attack. Bad posture can also lead to cramped space for the lungs and heart, which in turn can make breathing difficult under normal circumstances. The problem can only be worsened when a person is having an attack, where the lungs and heart are not working properly and other signs of discomfort such as shortness of breath and low blood pressure are not entirely uncommon.

Look It’s A Bird! It’s A Plane! It’s A… Where’d My Anxiety Go?

Diversion tactics are also known to help someone if they are experiencing an attack, though this is usually best done by the person themselves. There are various diversionary tactics that can be employed, with most doctors agreeing that the best effects come about if the tactics are done simultaneously. In general, anything that occupies the mind during an attack is a good idea, so long as it does not add further stress. Most experts suggest counting to 100 at high speed, though some have noted that most people also appear to respond to doing simple mathematical equations in their head positively. My personal favorite diversion tactic during an anxiety attack is to either count slowly from 50 down to 1 skipping every third number, then back up again to 50. Or apply what I like to call ‘Focused Distraction’ a technique that combines movement with a challenge. For example, walking at 80 percent speed… movement, to the local grocery store which is 5 blocks away and back… challenge. Focused Distraction can have many varieties and is best used when those varieties are written down, and taken with you in a card in your wallet… just in case an anxiety attack occurs.

Soak It Up

Cold water has also been known to help, because it triggers a reflex in the brain that keeps it from focusing on the attack itself. Since human brains are not wired to multi-task, keeping it occupied can often take up enough of the body’s ability to coordinate things to distract one from an attack, though talking on the phone about anything except the anxiety can help.

Your complete first aid kit against an anxiety attack is complete, now all you have to do is use them! You might actually get to the point one day where you welcome an anxiety attack, rather then run from one due to some of the techniques that become a reminder to what a healthy lifestyle should involve! Finally, DON’T JUST MEMORIZE YOUR FIRST AID ANXIETY KIT. Write it out, and carry them with you on a small card. This way you’ll turn to your first aid kit in times of desperation, rather then turn to the emergency room as I did for years.

If you’re tired of coping with your anxiety get the best support online by checking out the E.T.A program in the menus section today…it can be that easy to stop your panic and anxiety.