Originally Posted by
Tony N.
Everyone is being so helpful and kind. I have another question. For those of you who have a similar situation, what do you do if you feel the onset of a PA? Or what do you do if you know that you are going to have to be in a stressfull situation?
Most of us know some sort of breath control exercise. Part of the natural panic response is changes in your breathing, whether holding your breath or hyperventilation. It doesn't matter which you tend to do... you need to breathe, and not getting oxygen at a normal rate tends to reinforce the panic. So step one is always a breath control exercise to get a tiny bit of thinking ability back.
Step two is recognize that your body is convinced this is an emergency. So treat it like one. Get help. Tell someone you are having a panic attack, if at all possible.
Step three is begin first aid. If you've ever taken a first aid course, the first thing you ALWAYS do for the patient is treat for shock (after the ABCs of Airway, Breathing and Circulation). Guess what? A panic attack involves shock (specifically psychogenic shock), just like pretty much any other form of trauma. (you can see how my asthma problems would mess this up for you since I get hung up on the B of the ABCs
)
A good therapist (whether they're a psychiatrist, psychologist, licensed social worker or whatever) will work on teaching you a similar routine, and on building up further routines after you've gotten help and have started first aid. Depending on your exact treatment, there may or may not be drugs involved. For me, there always are, since I'm asthmatic and quite often that's the cause of the panicky feelings. The therapist may use different terms or phrasings, since honestly treating a "mental" issue as a medical emergency may alarm people more and make the whole problem worse. But the goals won't be radically different. But the whole point is to take your problem seriously, and give your body and brain the support they need. Long term, the goal will be teaching you how to prevent attacks from occurring.
A lot of people have panic attacks. Just having them occasionally does not make you mentally ill. It can be a totally reasonable reaction (see also: me not being able to breathe)... not helpful necessarily, but reasonable and normal. The point where it becomes a serious mental illness is if they happen too often, and/or in situations where it's not reasonable. There's probably a great whack of other diagnostic criteria too. I just know about the ones that affect me, and my situation is a little weird on a whole lot of different levels.