3 ms·
Absolutely this. I've struggled with panic attacks that came on secondary to medical issues in the past couple years, and the elevated heart rate and perceived
by krooj 7y ago
Absolutely this. I've struggled with panic attacks that came on secondary to medical issues in the past couple years, and the elevated heart rate and perceived breathing problems are textbook. Other things to lookout for are: impending sense of doom (fixated on the idea something's wrong), lights appear brighter or have halos, bounding pulse (you feel your heart beating hard), eyelid twitching, amongst others.
Block breathing will help. Inhale into your belly until you can't hold more air, hold for 5, exhale slowly. Take a couple of normal breaths, then repeat the block breath. Do it for 10 minutes.
Other things to note: before and after the panic attack, you're in a "prodromal period", which means you're susceptible to subsequent attacks. Try to stay away from stimulants, like caffeine, and, honestly, get the hell off the internet and away from news.
- stordoff 7y ago> Try to stay away from stimulants, like caffeine Something of an aside, but I've actually found caffeine (400mg/day + variable amount in drinks) _helps_ with OCD-induced panic attacks. If I do have an attack, it seems somewhat worse, but it makes it _significantly_ easier to shift my attention away from obsessive thoughts, thus avoiding triggering the attack in the first place. I was pointed towards it by this paper - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19573497 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19573497 It's a pretty weak basis for making treatment decisions (n=24, caffeine was used as the control against d-amphetamine, both showed some effect), but my doctor and I reasoned that there was fairly limited risk in trying it. Other studies seem to have shown similar results - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6559101/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6559101/