Panic Attacks

[hodge]

I was diagnosed with ms 13 years ago and I have been experiencing panic attacks for the past ten years. I have been having panic attacks every other month for about three days. It seems to occur when I am at my lowest with my ms. Thx

[mama292227]

Just a note

I too get pannic attacks and it does signal to me that my ms is here as always. Kinda like it is waving hi to me.... but anyways the one thing i notice is that when it happens i am on sensery over load. movement, visual, sounds...ect. not to mention emotions.... if at all possible i find a way to remove a sence... like closing my eyes for a few until i get past what is making me panic. or blaring a familiar song, and singing along loudly.... blocks out otherwise unwanted noises.... so on and so forth... good luck to you.

[marti]

I have several autoimmune diseases and I completely believe that anxiety and panic are "built-in" symptoms or results of them. I don't think there is any way we can avoid it.

I've been on Xanax and Klonapin for a long time now. When you need relief.. you need it and should get it.

[BigA]

I've dealt with Anxiety as well. When it was at its worst, just having a Xanax in my pocket, knowing I could "come down" was a great help. There are also lots of antidepressants that work. It's no good suffering if the meds would help and you don't have an alternative.

I've found mindfulness meditation to be amazing. If you've never done it, it's not what you imagine. You don't try to calm yourself or "go to your happy place". The best book I have read on depression/Anxiety (they are a couple) is this book, from Jon Kabatt Zinn. He has taught meditation to people in hospitals who had pain that could not be controlled by medicine. His approach is completely non-spiritual, non-technical and he uses no foreign words - it's just the "meat" of it and he makes it so easy if you listen to his recordings and do them or 8 weeks.

But this is a book he wrote with psychologists. You will understand anxiety in a way you never saw it. I recommend it. You can get it from your local library or here:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Mindful-Wa.../dp/1593851286

[Debby]

BigA, thanks for the book suggestion, I will definitely get it. I need TOOLS! Anxiety and panic attacks are sx I despise and get so frustrated with. My problem is that Xanax works well...but I panic so much I want it gone NOW and take too much of the med, thus going through my rx too fast.

The meds also "really" alter me, so I can't take them unless I am at home and know I don't have to go anywhere...and then I sleep like crazy. My family has told me how altered I am on the meds, much more than I realize. My teenage daughter says she doesn't like it when I'm on Xanax, that it scares her. And her feeling that way scares me. I desperately need a solution that does not involve drugs.

I have been afraid to tell my doctor about this problem with taking too much of the meds, so I just suffer through however long I have until the next refill or next doctor visit. I worry constantly about being perceived as a drug-seeker between my pain and anxiety meds, and with the anxiety meds it definitely would come off that way. I feel like I'm being held hostage with this issue.

I've tried meditation, but my panic levels make it difficult to be calm enough to work through things. I also HATE how completely irrational the whole thing is. When I can't make sense of things, it drives me crazy!

[MarkLavelle]

I have to second BigA's recommendation about mindfulness meditation. A therapist friend recommended it to me when I went through cancer, and I always come back to it when things seem to be getting out of hand.

"Full Catastrophe Living" (by Kabat-Zinn, also on Amazon) was my introduction. Somewhere along the way I lost my original set of tapes (probably 'on loan' to a friend ), but there are CDs available now at http://www.mindfulnesstapes.com/ -- I like the Series 1 & 2 sets. Does anyone here have Series 3?

It's difficult to describe what I get from it, but if I had to choose one word it would be "acceptance." The world gets easier when you really pay attention to how you're reacting to it...