Question:
Thanks Arthur: I upped my dose of Zoloft from 50mgs to 100 mgs and that seems to be helping: The therapy thing is mysterious to me…I think for some it works, others it is a crock..for me…it does help me to understand that I can live through these attacks and that panic and somatic illnesses are one: So …i’ll keep working at it Thanks again for the support Laura
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I have been doing so well over the last 6 weeks,since I started on Zoloft: Today, things just got "big" and that crazy imbalanced feeling I have had since last march has returned with a vengence: I mostly can manage it, but gosh… I was just thinking the other day how I had not had a "real" PD in a while, only anxious moments: Now the symptoms have returned, at least for today: Heart racing, weakness and so forth: but this imbalanced feeling has got to go…I LOATHE IT. My therapist says I have to ask myself, at these moments, what are the PDs trying to tell me..I DON’T KNOW and fear I never will Any advice is appreciated Ps. I am trying to quit smoking too….not working…I did go 16 hours with out one! Laura
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Laura, IMO it is your subconscious mind bringing your Panic back. You even said you where just thinking that you haven’t had a panic attack for a while. Your therapist was right by asking what were you thinking of before your attack, and the answer was that you were infact thinking about that you haven’t had an attack in a while. I must ask, do you suffer from PTSD? I do and sometimes i can bring a panic attack on just by thinking about the past. Keep up the good work with your therapist. Therapy does work!
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My therapist says I have to ask myself, at these moments, what are the PDs trying to tell me..I DON’T KNOW and fear I never will Any advice is appreciated
Hi Laura, I had a therapist for YEARS that got me so conditioned to thinking that there always was a cause mentally for the attacks and anxiety. I kinda drifted with this for a long time and one day I got really mad! It was like I had to justify every instance of anxiety to the point I would go LOOKING for a reason, finding one, digging for anything so I could tell him WHY I had an attack. This theory was never in agreement with what my doc has told me – it being a neurotransmitter imbalance and beyond my control. (I am not talking anxiety learned reactions from the attacks like flying, going downtown, hospitals – my little bag of heeby jeeby inducers, I do think those can be addressed in therapy) I finally went back to this therapist and said I DID find the conflict – it was his always dismissing my attacks to some external cause and my reaction as opposed to what I knew inside was something beyond my control. I have since found another therapist who beleives these things happen for no reason and am working again on some solid footing living with them and have left the analysis of their purpose behind. Is quite freeing and I like it! PA’s have told me nothing. It has been learning to live with the fact I have this that the re-education began. Just my take on it. Ps. I am trying to quit smoking too….not working…I did go 16 hours with out one!
Now THAT is interesting. My very own doc has told me to NOT stop smoking until I get to a good and balanced place on the meds and stress levels. He said he felt bad saying that as a doctor – but he knows the withdrawl is quite hard and I did that once years abo (pre PD) and it shook up my life something fierce. Nicotine is hefty stuff, could be a consideration – that or the thinking about wanting to quit and feeling you may not be able to. Not trying to put words in your mouth on this, tho. Gwen
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<snipped for space I was just thinking the other day how I had not had a "real" PD in a while, only anxious moments: Now the symptoms have returned, at least for today: Heart racing, weakness and so forth: but this imbalanced feeling has got to go…I LOATHE IT. My therapist says I have to ask myself, at these moments, what are the PDs trying to tell me..I DON’T KNOW and fear I never will Any advice is appreciated
Ummm… why should your panic attacks be telling you *anything*, Laura? Could they not simply be a neurochemical problem? I mean.. is measles telling us anything? Or ‘flu? Or diabetes? I don’t doubt that there *are* cases where this sort of thing may be genuinely at work, but there’s far too little scientific evidence to justify all the hot air that’s spoken by the self-help/therapy industry, IMO. Ps. I am trying to quit smoking too….not working…I did go 16 hours with out one!
Ack! Shame … 16 hours is a long while and your body will already have done a lot of nicotine clearing in that period. As for advice, talk with your doctor, would be mine. You may be due for a meds update 
Good luck! — Gary Cooper
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: I have been doing so well over the last 6 weeks,since I started on Zoloft: : Today, things just got "big" and that crazy imbalanced feeling I have had : since last march has returned with a vengence: I mostly can manage it, but : gosh… Yeah, sometimes PD likes to hibernate and then surprize you. Used to happen to me allot. : I was just thinking the other day how I had not had a "real" PD in a while, : only anxious moments: Now the symptoms have returned, at least for today: : Heart racing, weakness and so forth: but this imbalanced feeling has got to : go…I LOATHE IT. I’m on Paxil (another SRI med like Zoloft). It does help allot, but I’m still anxious most of the time and get breakthrough attacks every now and then. My backup for those rough moments is Xanax (generic name alprazolam) which kills my attacks within half an hour. Have you ever tried Xanax as a PRN reenforcement? : My therapist says I have to ask myself, at these moments, what are the PDs : trying to tell me..I DON’T KNOW and fear I never will Any advice is : appreciated I spent years down that blind alley with my therapists; looking for the mythical psychoanalytic meaning behind my attacks. Never did find any. My mother has been looking for the ellusive repressed meaning behind her attacks in therapy for decades, and she’s still looking. Honestly, I doubt there is any psychoanalytic meaning in most people’s attacks; often it’s just a chemical imbalance. : Ps. I am trying to quit smoking too….not working…I did go 16 : hours with out one! Oh heck, that’s a tough one. I’ve tried to quit a number of times myself, but still smoking. It’s a hard habit to break, even with all the social pressure. Best Wishes, Arthur
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Thanks for all the advice and thoughts on this: I am upping my zoloft, as per doctors advice from 50 to 100 mgs….hopefully that will do the trick: Laura
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=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Keltic_=86_Cross?= schreef: Scott H. writes: Don’t listen to keltic Cross he is a troll. Ha, and that’s coming from someone who thinks eating babies is funny. I read some of your post and to me, you are not only a troll, you are a You can dish it out but you can’t take it. Scott you are such a jerk! PTSD, is one of the ways panic and or anxiety can hit you. Ask your Dr. before you cast judgement on me.
Eating babies isn’t funny, it’s just tasty. P.P.
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Scott H. writes: Don’t listen to keltic Cross he is a troll.
Ha, and that’s coming from someone who thinks eating babies is funny. I read some of your post and to me, you are not only a troll, you are a You can dish it out but you can’t take it. Scott you are such a jerk! PTSD, is one of the ways panic and or anxiety can hit you. Ask your Dr. before you cast judgement on me.
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(Airwrks) writes:
<snipped Any advice is
appreciated Ps. I am trying to quit smoking too….not working…I did go 16 hours with out
one! Hi Laura, FWIW< Could be the quitting smoking is increasing anxiety… very likely if you are trying to go cold turkey. I quit once before for a month by using the patches. Had no withdrawals at all. Problem was I started up again when I went to a family reunion, thinking I could just smoke a little (HA). Good luck to you. Lee "welcome to my madhouse….HAHAHAHA"
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: Thanks for the advice, it is appreciated: I never thought about PTSD,although : my childhood does seem like it could quality as a very long stress episode: : Todays attack taught me something valuable: That the panic is emotionally : driven, and I do not have a physical disease: My thoughts were less obsessive, : but the body experience was overwhelming: I had never known the extent of the : physical because i was being too mental about it: Interesting: : : PS I am smoking a few each day: During this time I cannot completly give up : the fix : Laura : Laura, Just to let you know, keltic cross is a troll. I would *not* listen to anything he has to say. BTW, I believe as many others and most of the renown PD experts, that PD *is* a physical disease. Just my 2 cents and YMMV. If you believe it is mental, I am not here to argue, I just don’t want you to take anything this fool tells you as fact. In case you did not know, keltic cross is the same person as pope jed, death from above, heat-seeker, kamikaze, exorcist, puppet master, puppeteer and I think benzo dude with AOL. Regards, Scott Hampton
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Thanks for the advice, it is appreciated: I never thought about PTSD,although my childhood does seem like it could quality as a very long stress episode: Todays attack taught me something valuable: That the panic is emotionally driven, and I do not have a physical disease: My thoughts were less obsessive, but the body experience was overwhelming: I had never known the extent of the physical because i was being too mental about it: Interesting: PS I am smoking a few each day: During this time I cannot completly give up the fix Laura
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