The Path to Anxiety and Panic - and the Pathway out

Anxiety and panic often starts from stress.  Your body can only cope with its own personal limit and if you keep piling on more stress then it'll boil over and result in anxiety / panic.  That's often when you have a panic attack - its an outpouring of adrenaline.  

Being pregnant and childbirth is a huge task for your body to deal with - hormones raging about, tiredness, a child to nurture etc etc.  I'm assuming you've been checked for post natal depression?

Anyhow ... usually when you have a panic attack you often associate it with something you've done at the time or a place you're in at the time of the panic.  This actually has no relevance on the panic attack at all, but your brain tells you differently.  So you then associate this place or event with panic, and worry about going to that place or doing whatever you were doing at the time in case you panic again.  You then create a fear of panic, worry about panic and so start avoiding things.  Worrying causes more anxiety, and anxiety causes more fear and worry - so you get caught up in a cycle.  Anxiety also causes strange thoughts, and in turn these strange thoughts cause anxiety - adding to this cycle.  So then you find yourself in this strange place of fear, anxiety, worry, panic, sadness, thoughts, depression etc etc which will continue to churn around in a constant vicious cycle.  All these side effects and thoughts are due to one thing - anxiety.  Fix the anxiety and the side effects will go ... so in effect its pointless worrying about the side effects (but of course, we all do).

When you have anxiety you will think anxiously and negatively all the time.  You will not see anything positive and can only think of doom and gloom, fear and panic.

When suffering anxiety and panic we live in a state of tension - clenching our teeth together, holding the body taught, fighting 'this thing'.  Nerves are sensitive and tight and they need to be desensitised and calm / more soothed.  In order to reverse this cycle your body needs to start relaxing and calming.  But what do we do?  Instead we rush about hoping that keeping busy will distract us, we keep checking to see if 'it' is still there, and we question ourselves constantly and start the long search for answers and a cure.  All this just adds to that vicious cycle that keeps us ill.  But we can't see this because we're too entrenched in it all.

Eating and a sugar rush will not cause you to have a panic attack.  You are doing that by over thinking about this, tensing against it and avoiding it.

SSRI medicine will help to calm the body in time.  Initially it'll only heighten all these side effects, which inevitably will make you fear panic all the more, but over time as the side effects ease off the body will start to calm and you'll start to feel happier (the meds hang onto our Serotonin before being reabsorbed, making us feel happier).  This takes a long time to take effect.

Don't stop taking the medicine.  It will take time to work - and it will help.  You have to give it time though.  Trouble is we all do not like the feeling of anxiety and panic, so we panic at the mere thought of it (adding to the anxiety pot).

As we wait for the meds to kick in it helps to accept that you will feel like this for a while yet, so don't expect to be well tomorrow.  Understand these feelings and side effects take a while to go.  You wouldn't expect a broken leg and all its side effects to heal in a week, so treating the anxiety / panic the same is helpful too.

Also as we wait for the meds to work we can help ourselves by stop rushing about, stop holding the body tight - let go of tension, slow down all the time.  This has the same effect as the meds does.  This takes a lot of time too - months, not days or weeks.  Some people say I've relaxed this afternoon but the anxiety is still there.  Of course it is - it'll take much longer than an afternoon.

Many people reading this won't believe that relaxing and slowing down will help, because they don't get instant relief.  There isn't an overnight off switch, but with continued practice it does work.  The body becomes calmer, thoughts become more logical and calmer, panic soothes, anxiety soothes .......

As said, fearing panic causes more anxiety and more panic.  I know this is extremely hard but going through panic is also the way forward.  Its our reaction to panic that is key - by fearing it will only reinforce it ... and of course the avoidance game starts, which further reinforces it.  When a panic attack strikes the best way to deal with it is to relax as best you can, breathe through it and just let go.  The more you tense and fight it the more you will feel frightened.  I know this is the hardest thing to do, but believe me nothing will actually happen to you in a panic attack.  It will build and it will pass.  Passing through it is like passing through a hurricane and out the other side.  You're re-educating your body to not fear it.

Everyone can overcome this - and I honestly know its not easy, having been there myself.  But I found learning about anxiety and panic, the process it takes to produce it, the process to reverse it, the medication all helped me overcome 16 years of it.

We all panic about panic - its only natural.  But understanding what is happening to you can help to take a lot of tension and fear away.  Knowledge is good - practice letting go and not fighting is good - and the meds are even better wink

You will get better.