Panic Attack or something else?

[staley]

You are in the middle of a meeting at work and you start feeling weird (its kind of hard to explain) accompanied with worrying that something bad might happen to you in front of your peers. Sometimes you can calm the feeling by deep breathing or thinking about something else, but sometimes it persists and you have to excuse yourself and walk out of the room, which resolves the feeling and everything returns to normal. It has happened a few times recently, after a period of intense worry.  Any thoughts or recommendations.

[spade22]

Classic panic attack!

Self help:  Panic attacks can be induced with caffeine and too much sugar (this includes "fake" sugar) and so you may want to avoid those for awhile and see if that helps.  Deep breathing during a PA can really help calm your body down and it sounds like that technique provides you with relief.  You can also try slowing counting from 1-10 to try and take your mind of the PA and "rating" it over time to see how your feelings become less intense over time (this way you can see the end in sight).  A well-balanced diet, vitamin/mineral suppliments, a good nights sleep, and frequent exercise can also help improve your health and mind.

Medical help:  If you still experience PA after making those adjustments, you can seek professional help in the way of a councellor/therapist who can teach you cognitative behavioural techniques and how to cope during a PA.  There are also plenty of medications out there that can significantly reduce your symptoms - talk to your doctor about those.

Finally,  two things that I have learnt along the way.

1)  "Avoidance" only makes things worse.  If you have a PA in a meeting and leave the meeting, you feel better at that time, BUT you are "training" your mind that fleeing that situation is what alleviates the unpleasant symptoms.  This can lead to full-blown avoidance behaviour and before you know it you may find yourself not attending the meetings (or other situations where you may experience a PA) for fear that you may experience a PA - this can result in agoraphobia.  Cognitive behavioural therapy essentially retrains the brain to deal with these situations.

2) You will NOT die from a PA.  As unpleasant as the symptoms may seem, they are not life-threating and will eventually subside.  Rather than trying to stop a PA when you feel one coming on, try and accept it.  Tell yourself "my body is giving me a surge of adrenaline because something set of the flight/fight mechanism which is why I am having symptoms and these will soon pass (as the adrenaline wears of) as they have always done in the past".

[staley]

Thanks for your advice. What you said makes sense. Never considered the possibility that "avoidance" could make it worse. In fact, never had this issue before.

[spade22]

Are you under a significant amount of stress right now, or more so than normal?  Since this has only just starting to happen, are there any "triggers" you can think of that may have caused this?  Since you are at the very beginning stages of an anxiety disorder, I think a lot of these techniques/behaviours can help you bury this thing.

BTW: there are some medical conditions (thyroid disorder for example) that can cause PA's.  It may be worth while for you to pay a visit to your doctor to rule out any medical reasons that could be causing your symptoms.

[mikej1736]

Welcome to the wonderful world of panic attacks.  I used to dread them, and freak out over them.  But really, the best option is to not fear them!  Tell your brain your are no longer scared of them. Try to fight them, try to see it as a challenge.  When you feel it coming take a deep breath, remember what it feels like, and what to expect and see if you can fight it.  I don't have them as much as I used to now, and when I do its not a big deal, even if I have them around other people I can almost always fight it off and go back to whatever I was doing.  After you fight it off or have one, don't be scared!  Just think, nice try brain, but that wont work on me anymore!  That way you wont fear them in the future.  It worked for me at least...

[marcee123]

You hit it on the nail.  My first PA was about 3 years ago during a bad case of pink eye.  I was on amoxicilin and thought I was having an anaphalactic reaction, but now I think it was a panic attack.  Anyway I called 911 because I was sure I was dying of anaphylaxis.  After they dx me w/ panic I was quite offended and just ignored it.  3 years later now, during a move from texas to maine suddenly out of nowhere during a relaxing car ride,  another attack.  I thought I was having an allergic reaction to sudafed, which I had taken that day for allergies and congestion.  Again, thought I was dying and my hubby tried to calm me down which basically took hours, off and on it came back, that feeling of dread and dying.  Over the next few wks I would get them, sometimes in church, sometimes just in the car.  But thinking that they were panic attacks helped me fight them off much better.  It was like, I know what it is now so there's no reason to be afraid.  They don't get nearly as bad now or out of control.  There is usually, for me, a feeling of extreme fatigue afterwards, like my legs are made of jelly.  I personally think the whole thing is embarrassing, there is a stigma associated with it.  I am a nurse, and I worked in telephone triage.  When someone would call me and their history would come up on the screen as a person w/ panic attacks, I would immediately think, 'oh no, here we go'.  But now I realize that very often these things just 'happen' to people, people like you and I , and we are not crazy!!!  I have not been seen by a dr since the first 911 thing, and I don't think I will as long as they don't get worse.  Would you agree w/ that plan?  

Well, I appreciated your plan of action, and thought it was very encouraging.....