Panic Attacks - or what? Any ideas?

Poor girl

The only thing that may work..is making her breathe into a paper bag for a few minutes to calm her down...cover the nose and mouth with the bag....hopefully if she does this it may calm her before she gets to the 'hysteria' part

All I know about panic attacks I learned from wathing "The Sopranos."

Is she some sort of mob boss?

Not much help, I know.

Thank you.

Skip the pills and have here begin intense Cognitive Behavioral Therapy with a certified CBT therapist. This way she can identify her triggers and then formulate a plan to battle the panic attacks without the need for synthetic pharmaceuticals that can cause more harm than good.

I've never heard of that happening.

bizzaro

That sounds more like drugs to me, possibly hallucinogenics.

I had panic attacks and always remembered all of it. ANd I never just 'freaked out', it was more like be stuck in the 'fight or flight' mode without knowing what to fight or run from.
At any rate , it's all in your head.

could be caused by emotional problems rooted in insecurity, could also be linked with too much pressure to achieve results, succeed etc..

from a physical point of view could be linked with a poor diet and lack of vitamins that nourish the nerve system

I have that.

Magnesium powder helped quite a bit...you can buy it online it's called Calm.

Anti-depressants have helped too.

She needs to learn what triggers those...

For me when I was that age I would get little panic attacks before school...later on it was driving on the freeway...

Now it's when the ex and I get into it (not often)

I agree with this and have already advised my friend to do this. Thanks! :)

Get the book "Hope and help for your nerves" by Dr . Claire Weekes . You can get it on amazon . It is one of the best .

I wish her the best of luck.

Sounds more like it's an attention thing...self control issues...but I'm not a doctor.

No chocolate or pickles. See a doctor there are good drugs out there. Often just knowing that there is a pill you can take is enough to stop them. I went through it, it sucks but there is a lot of help out there.

You know, I hadn't thought of that....I'll bring it up to my friend to investigate. Thank you.

Yeah what I bolded didn't happen to me either...I hope she isn't having seizures?

Will do - thank you!

common for an eeg not to show siezure activite (i have epilepsy so i know) take her to a epineuroligist for further study. Regular neuros dont know what they are doing in diagnosing epilepsy. It shoulds like a sort of clonic siezure

have her blood checked for vitamin deficiencies.

I had a deficiency of vitamin B and it caused fear, panic and depression.

a normal b vitamin supplement isn't enough, neither is a b complex. it has to be a B 100 or better (preferably in liquid form for full absorption)

+1

I was diagnosed with Panic Disorder & Agoraphobia and this helped me more than any medication ever did.

Yeah - I like the idea of trying natural remedies. And I agree about learning what triggers them..Thank you!

Thanks for that....you've given me something to investigate...

Same here - never blacked out during mine, although I'm sure it's different for everyone. Here's hoping she gets better.

Yes, I have both as well. I don't take medicine, I use self-therapy and it works way better! Used to take meds for it, but I didn't like how they made me feel. Thank you!

Never during mine, either. Maybe her age factors in.

Is she extremely light, I mean weight wise. I'm 5'6" and over the summer my weight dropped to 98 lbs. I should weigh like 130. I started having panic attacks, it goes like this.

1. something, I dont know what yet, triggers it.
2. I start to think my heart is racing, therefor it starts.
3. I start to think I'm going to have a heart attack.
4. I start to think my throat is swelling shut and I can't breathe, like an asthma attack.
5. My vision starts to get blurry around the edges and I think I'm going to faint.
6. sometimes I do.

Basically once I hit step one there is no way to stop it. Telling me to breathe, or focusing on breathing makes it worse. I checked myself into the E.R. one day, and I have no insurance, nothing, I was sure I was dying.

They gave me kolonipines (once again sp) and had me speak with a cognitive therapist.

His advise helped me greatly.

DISTRACTION.

be like, look at that stop sign, observe the colors of the neon signs in store windows, ask what the cloud shapes look like, how many leafs do you think are on that tree? etc.


If you talk about the panic attack, it makes it worse, for me at least. Or even after it starts to subside, if some A- hole asks me what it felt like or mentions it I start to have another one.

During the distraction its best to get the person out of public places, the idea of fainting in public is soooo embarassing and scary, it doesnt help.

I gained 15 lbs and my panic attacks stopped. I hope this helps.

Thank you. I'm going to look into this myself, so that I can understand it better before I tell my friend.

Thank you. Although she is not underweight, some of the symptoms you describe seem to fit.

Normal effects of thyroid dissorder - she should make a thyroid test!
Please, it is very important, because this desease cannot be healed, but
you can get the hormons again in the right order by meds, it is thyroxin, a hormon, you need to live, but it is nothing else like a natural hormon, it is not like aspirin or so, it is not a real med;
so, please, help her!
Panic attacks are mostly not of madness or so, but because of a bad hormonic status.

I would also try the Bach flower remedies...theyre helpful for emotional problems...especially the Rescue Remedy one

Thanks for the input. :) There may be something to what you said about chocolate and pickles.....I know that pickles can cause psychedelic dreams, anyway. Will look into it.