Thank you both for your replies. I have been making a real effort since i started with this site to make sure to really try and pay attention to the thoughts that occure with my panic attacks..and since reading about it..ive started attempting to challenge them..course that usually comes after the panic attack subsides. Im trying to get in the habit of jotting down my anxious thoughts ect like the homework says. Not easy considering i cant print any of the worksheets..cant afford it..and the only spiral i have is a bit too big to carry around with any kind of ease lol so im often writing what i can remember down hours later. I am starting to wonder if it might be a good idea once this therapy ball i started at the clinic gets rolling to go the medication route..just long enough to slow some of the thoughts down. It really does feel like im just being bombarded by these irrational thoughts so fast that most of the time each thought just runs together. I dont know. Will just continue working at it for the way i am..and when we get to that point with the clinic therapist see what they think. Im real iffy about starting a medication..as im super afraid that i will end up using it as a "crutch" long term if im not careful. But you know what...if it helps me by making it just a bit easier to deal with all this junk..thats just a bit farther down the road then i was before so ill take the help!
This is only information. It all comes from my therapist and I've tested it to see the validity of it.
You can slow down the information with Ativan. It will build a priority pathway so that only a small amount of your anxious thoughts go through but you will have to switch to a different benzodiazapene when the month is up. It won't impair your positive thought which is why doctors and people love it but more than a month and you start to become dependent. It does work as an adjunct to CBT. For long term there are safer drugs in this class.
I do not know if you saw or understood the panic triangle I posted on here. Thought happens at incredible speed as you have probably noticed. But what you don't notice (thankfully) is how many thoughts your brain looks at and rejects for every situation. During the panic phase some of these thoughts become more obvious as information overload. That is not where the problem comes in. Normally that would be no more annoying than a song stuck in your mind.
Thoughts come from your memory. Everything you think or do passes through thought memory and the right decision on what to think or do is based on previous experience in your memory. It does this at incredible speed. So if you have slowly been filling your thought memory with panicky thoughts from previous panic situations these thoughts get used to make the decisions. This too is not such a problem except thoughts get recycled back to memory so that every time this happens you reinforce the panicky thoughts bank. This is why it is a triangle it has three corners that work together and influence each other. To break the cycle you have to use a CBT technique. When the thoughts start to come fast and heavy you have to challenge them one at a time so that when they are recycled to thought memory they go there as positive instead of negative. This way you build a bank of thoughts to use for decision making that are positive rather than negative and since they recycle you slowly start to think positive thoughts instead of all the negative.
Some times though it takes something to calm you and slow down the thoughts so you can deal with them one at a time. It doesn't have to be medication. Some times just having some one tell you to slow down or a relaxing tea and some relaxation techniques from the site will work. Medication is still the best though if it is bad. That is up to you and your therapist or doctor to decide though. This is just information.
I just posted a bit about this in my blog but in a much more rambly I have no clue what im trying to say way lol
. Tuesday I went in and did a initial intervies with MHMR to see if I qualified to be treated at the clinic. Of course..I do, and thats a story in my blog..and to be continuted. But during the interview she asked me..what seemed to make me panic. My answer..and my husbands answer where both. "Everything and Anything" When asked what exactly did i fear..or what about the situations cause me to become afraid and panic the answer was the basically the same "anything and everything" which of course makes no sense to anyone not me. My husband likes to explain it by saying i "overthing" everything, and that makes more sense to most people. Its what i do.
Lets say I am thinking of buying myself a book..somehow my brain starts to go crazy..i suddenly am wondering down all the ways my buying that book could cause problems..hurt someone...make me seem like afailure..break the budget and land everyone i know and love out on the street with me being the sole and total cause of it..losing my son..causing armagedden ect..This will go on and on from slightly silly and unlikely to not even close to being possible senerios that nonetheless will have me in tears hyperventalating with my chest in agony sobbing and gasping so much that i cant speak all in seconds..and guess who isnt buying herself the damn book. LOL This can happen for any small situation, from deciding to take a nap..to cooking supper..dropping a spoon..calling the electric company..or even a close beloved friend. And Driving..yea I have actually hyperventalated so bad i blacked out while at the wheel of a vehicle, more then once which of course scares me to death!
Having read a bit about the panic cycle..and then having the therapist at MHMR tell me I needed to start challenging these thoughts by asking myself what the worst could happen..its helping me see the cycle a bit more. I can see where it starts..and yes i can challenge the thoughts..afterwords..but how do you do it during? I mean for me its like this overwhelming crashing down of thoughts..often complete with not so wonderful "visuals" like fifteen videos each a little or a lot worse running through my head with all thes horrors going on..how do you stope them and rationally challenge them. I mean. while it is happen i know whats happening..i know these things arnt giong to happen..or atlest are very unlikely but that doesnt stop the fear? So how do i put the brakes on long enough to work through them?
