How To Cope With The Dreaded Night Panic Attacks

Posted on 18 September 2009 by simon

Nocturnal people tend to have high energy once it’s dark but for some people, night time is a dreaded time. This is mostly true for people who commonly experience anxiety attacks. There is nothing worse than not getting enough sleep and lying awake on top your bed worrying about your office tasks and other responsibilities. It’s just annoying that night time has ceased to be your holy hour, where you can relax and snag a peaceful rest.

I have arranged a few tactics that I myself have used in order to lessen my night panic attacks during a stressful week. These are just very simple yet significant moves that you can practice in order to help yourself in the middle of an attack. Initially, I recognize the panic. It’s best that you are still in control during an episode. Allowing your attack to be in control of you will only make things worse. Once I realize that I am having a panic attack it makes it easier for me to determine my next move. The next one would be to observe your body reactions. Take note of your breathing, pulse and check if your hands or other parts of your body are trembling.

Now, it’s time to take in control of the physical signals of your anxiety attack. The best way for all the symptoms to subside is breathing evenly. Normalizing your breathing pattern can also improve your circulation. Thus, the trembling will eventually coordinate with your breathing’s pace, making it go away. Remember that the old breath-in breath-out routine is usually the best first aid for you anxiety attack. Once your breathing has stabilized, it’s time for you to notice what actually caused your body to react that way. This is the time that you have to remind yourself that your fear is unreal. Most of the time, we tend to think of exaggerated negative outcome or F.E.A.R. – - False Evidence Appearing Real. You can also alter your focus by grabbing a funny magazine to read or by watching your favourite late night show.

It is always best to not worry too much. Remember, prolonged negative thoughts can escalate the formation of wrinkles!

Tips For Reducing Panic Attacks

Posted on 18 September 2009 by simon

Different situations trigger different reactions from an individual. Some may come out joyous, saddened, or frightened but some tend to experience panic. This kind of episode can be categorized as a panic attack, wherein a person feels difficulty of breathing, palpitations and hot flushes. Due to these sensations, people who have anxiety problems tend to feel more nervous. Hence, they are making their situations worse.

So not to elevate the attack’s intensity it’s best to be prepared and be in control of your body. Here are few simple tips that you can do to help yourself or help somebody else who is experiencing a panic attack. First, it’s best to normalize breathing.  The simple brown bag can be of help or merely breathing on your cupped hands can help you out. The bag encloses the air that you breathe, for you to avoid taking in too much oxygen which can make you feel giddy.

Second, don’t force yourself to be freed immediately from the attack.You don’t have to rush. Rushing can simply increase your adrenaline, increasing the intensity of your symptoms. You just have to allow the symptoms to get through for your anxiety to finally subside. Third, deviate your attention during an attack. Focusing can only highlight the discomfort that you are feeling. You may just listen to the radio or read a book until the symptoms subside.

The tips I have mentioned above are effective and immediate aids to reduce the panic attack. However, there are other ways that you can do in order to tone down the possibility of another attack. The most important one would be a change in your lifestyle. Cut down on sugars, caffeine and nicotine, these can heighten the possibility of a new attack. Lastly, don’t hold any grudges.  Free your mind and your heart for this will save you from another attack.

Anti-Dressants: A Crutch NOT A Cure

Posted on 03 September 2009 by simon

Many people hop along to their GPs for anti-depressants thinking that they’ll be the answer. They think their mood will be lifted, all their troubles carried away and we’ll all live happily ever after.

In some cases, usually temporary “life event” type depression they can work. This temporary lift from depression allows people to carry on with life, and then when they stop taking them, the mind has gotten used to being not depressed so carries on being so.

But for people with longer term depression, or other conditions such as general anxiety, it’s important to realise that their use can only ever be a crutch, not a cure.

Their use can be very useful if a person needs support to get them through a difficult time, or to get them working again. When the patient stops taking them again, they very well may find their old conditions returning. This is mainly because nothing has been done to treat the cause.

The best way to use anti-depressants is with another form of treatment, probably a therapist-directed course of treatment involving one of many different techniques, to try to change behaviours at a deeper level.

Personally, I resisted taking prescribed anti-depressants for many many years, knowing that they weren’t a cure. I tried lots of other methods instead. More recently though, I have been taking anti-depressants and their efficacy is to be debated! They’re certainly not a one-shot simple solution.

Journalling: A Shower For The Brain

Posted on 03 September 2009 by simon

I’m often recommended Journalling as a way of helping ones anxiety.  My therapist I’ve been seeing for many years keeps recommending it, and I keep trying it!
What is journalling?  It’s basically a way of writing down your thoughts, in whatever form.  Some people use a diary, some people a notebook, some people scrap bits of paper.  Some people do it electronically of course.
Why journal?  The point is that you WRITE, and that action of writing gets the stuff out of your head, and onto ‘paper’.  THis has a cleansing effect, a way of clearing the brain of those thoughts, and putting them somewhere else.
What do I do with the Journal?  What happens next with what you’ve written is of little importance.  You can keep it in a safe place, as it’s for your eyes only.  If you are scared of it being discovered, and hence perhaps not writing some (probably really important) stuff down, then maybe you need to consider destroying it as soon as you write it?  You shouldn’t read what you’ve written, not immediately, leave it for a few days, or a few weeks or months.  You don’t even have to write it at all.
Another method is to write letters, or emails, to a person. That person can be real or imaginary. And, you can either send them, or not.  You don’t have to send them!  This can be a very powerful technique, tell them what you think.
What do I do? Well, I often email myself with a journal entry.  It then just gets saved in my email, and I can search for it later if I want.  I’m aware though that I don’t write about some stuff frankly in that way.  So I’m going to try Morning Pages [http://www.theartistsway.com/tools/the-basic-tools] too, written on loose sheets of paper that I’m going to shred.  I don’t need to keep the stuff, I need to let it go!

I’m often recommended Journalling as a way of helping ones anxiety.  My therapist I’ve been seeing for many years keeps recommending it, and I keep trying it!

What is journalling?  It’s basically a way of writing down your thoughts, in whatever form.  Some people use a diary, some people a notebook, some people scrap bits of paper.  Some people do it electronically of course.

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Anxious People Need Exercise

Posted on 03 September 2009 by simon

Many people with anxiety would benefit from exercising.  It releases happy endorphins, which is good for you!  And of course it’s good to be physically healthy, that leads to a healthy mind.
Over the years I have to admit that exercise and me aren’t the best tent buddies.  We don’t snuggle up to each other to keep warm.  We don’t really drink decaff soya lattes and eat cake together.
But, I have had periods where I’ve done exercise regularly.  And those times, amazingly (that’s sarcastic), I’ve been at my fittest in those times!
Exercises that I’ve done regularly have included: weight training, squash, cycling, swimming.
These have all been done in periods of my life, and have come and gone.  Right now I sometimes do some weight training, and very occasionally I cycle.
The weight training is a very good choice for EVERYBODY.  It increases muscle, of course, but in doing that increases metabolism, and can burn fat, if you’re not taking in enough calories, to build those muscles. While you sleep!  Imagine that!  Oh dear, I’ve just let the cat out of the ‘one weird fat loss secret’ product.  It’s hardly a secret though.
I recently bought a kettlebell, and it’s fantastic, it really does work.  You get a compound work out in just a few minutes, and all sorts of muscles are used that in a normal gym you’d have to use a dozen different machines to ‘target’.  Targetting weight training to me is a bit odd, as you miss bits out, and end up working to your strengths – ie doing the ones you enjoy.  I always used to enjoy chest and legs, but hated shoulders.  As a result I always had weak and injury prone shoulders.  The kettlebell doesn’t allow that, you do the whole body at once.  Recommended.
Cycling is a tricky one for me.  It works again (or should that be with?) my agoraphobia type tendencies.  So when I’m feeling I’m struggling, I won’t be cycling, so don’t do it.  Of course that’s exactly the time I should be doing it, and going out and challenging those panic type thoughts.
Many people run.  It’s not for me, I’ve thought about it many times, but I just don’t seem drawn to it.  I’m also very aware of the running nutters.  The people who become addicted to it, and do it incessantly and end up doing marathons, and triathlons and the like.  That doesn’t seem healthy to me, it’s just another addiction!  I don’t know what it is about running (and cycling, to an extent) that people end up obsessing about?
Okay, so, what am I saying here, yes, do some exercise.  Any exercise!  It’s good for you, and you *need* to do it.  Do resistance weight training, everyone can benefit from this, do not neglect it.  Even if it’s just picking up a bottle of water a few dozen times a day.  I said water, not pint of beer.

Many people with anxiety would benefit from exercising.  It releases happy endorphins, which is good for you!  And of course it’s good to be physically healthy, that leads to a healthy mind.

Over the years I have to admit that exercise and me aren’t the best tent buddies.  We don’t snuggle up to each other to keep warm.  We don’t really drink decaff soya lattes and eat cake together.

Continue Reading →

Can You Recover From Panic Attacks?

Posted on 03 September 2009 by simon

My name is Simon, and I suffer from Panic Attacks.  That sounds like I’m at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.  But in some ways there are similarities, people who suffer from panic attacks are often trapped by the condition, just as alcoholics are trapped by their addiction.

I’ve suffered with what I now know as ‘panic attacks’ for about a decade.  These panic attacks changed my life. They caused the loss of a 6-figure blue-chip media career; relationship issues and family problems.  They’ve significantly reduced my quality of life.

Take a look at the video below for a great description of what a Panic Attack is.

At one point, about five years ago, I was largely ‘cured’, and lead a pretty normal life.  I was running a company, managing many staff, travelling internationally and doing well.  How I got to that ‘cure’ was complicated, long winded, expensive and not a process I’d like to repeat.

In the last couple of years panic attacks have returned to me, and with the help of my therapist and medical doctors I’m trying to find the ‘cure’ once more.

The internet is a huge resource of information, and I came across at site that promised to cure the problem in one step.  I was intrigued, and interested.  What was this technique I wondered?

I bought the course and all was revealed.  It wasn’t as simple as one step really, there was one step in there, a very powerful technique for managing the panic attacks.  And one I’ve been successfully employing.

The course was quite long, and contained lots of information, and lots of practical things to do to help with anxiety generally.  Don’t expect to be able to take the information in in five minutes and be ‘cured’.  As I know from my past experiences, beating panic attacks is a difficult process, and one that requires hard work and determination.  But it’s something that *can* be done.  I know, I’ve done it before!

I’m confident that the tools I’ve learnt in this course will form a big part of my practical tools and techniques that one needs to develop in order to be in control of the panic again.

Take a look at the Panic Away course and see for yourself, I recommend it highly.  Click here to learn more about the Panic Away course.

Panic Away

If you have any questions for me, feel free to contact me.  I get a lot of email, and cannot promise to answer them all, but I do read everything that comes to me, and appreciate hearing from you.

Take care of yourselves, and, take action, you’ve got to put your hook in the water to catch some fish.

Simon