If you have situational panic attacks

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I read a big article explaining what happens during panic attacks. I was trying to understand why I had more faintness and severe trembling than rapid heart rate.

 

At any rate, the article explained what happens during situational panic attacks. Like if you go to the store and panic, then you avoid the store, but if you go to the post office, you also might panic because they trick your mind into thinking they "match" the same thing to be avoided and escaped from.

 

The article was for Psychologists in an academic Journal. It's newer. It suggested adding in a weird variable to trick your brain into NOT matching things that are alike.

 

This totally worked for me! I was trying to get on the ramp to the freeway that I drive past on surface roads for two months now. Even if I try to get on the ramp, I get hot, dizzy, tunnel vision, start shaking, and my stomach starts going into flip flops. I can't get onto the ramp or the freeway and swerve off. Recently, as I was approaching the ramp, I remembered this article, as I began to SERIOUSLY panic because there were too many cars to swerve off and I was on it. I knew I had to drive four miles before the next off ramp too, in a full sweat, trembling, chattering teeth, can't see, trying to breath, to relax, nothing was working. So I tried what it sounded like the article was saying (although I kind of made this up as well):

 

I thought, "What do I never do and not associate with panicking in the car at all?"

 

I started rolling my shoulders in big circles with my elbows sticking out and stamping my feet on the floor of the car like I was marching.

 

The panic completely stopped. I'm going to try this again soon. It was honestly amazing so I wanted to share it with anyone having trouble driving or who is agoraphobic.

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Interesting.

 

fg

[[Ga...]]

wow blueorchidlady, I had horrible panic attacks while driving. I now hate to drive.

This sounds good though. I give you credit. I would never geton a Freeway ramp!

The shaking got too bad, I truly thought I might wreck my car.

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Blueorchidlady, loved your post.  I'm going to try it.  Can you supply us with a link to the article?  My anxiety started like that years ago.  I had a panic attack at Target.  Then I started feeling anxious in other large stores, then grocery stores, shopping malls....then freeway driving, then driving over 45 mph....it's nuts how the human mind can generalize.....

 

I'd not heard of that particular technique....I'm willing to try almost anything.!

 

Thanks!

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wow blueorchidlady, I had horrible panic attacks while driving. I now hate to drive.

This sounds good though. I give you credit. I would never geton a Freeway ramp!

The shaking got too bad, I truly thought I might wreck my car.

 

Gardenia, I'm just as bad. I promise. I am also afraid that I could crash. VERY. I shake and then get faint and can't see, and the desire to flee is so bad that I've done a few dumb things. I've stopped my car and put the hazard lights on and gotten out in the left lane. And I've driven 30 mph on the freeway a few times. I also went right over traffic cones one day in blind panic.

 

That is why I shared this. I tried to go to a Psychiatrist recently just for this problem, but because I was on benzos, he wouldn't treat me.

 

I read about how your brain pattern matches and so this was my attempt.

 

I have to tell you! I just did it again! I went out today on an errand and tried this mental self-trickery and it worked for me. I was having zero luck with relaxation (made me feel worse d/p and d/r) and breathing (all I know how to do is hyperventilate).

 

I hope it could help even one person. My situation is AWFUL. Seriously awful. I'm sometimes okay on surface roads with a shoulder if I stay in the right hand lane. But that's it. I feel like I am going to die the second I get into a left lane, hit a light or traffic, or get on the freeway. I have tunnel vision, feel limp, go into a sweat, shake uncontrollably, can't think, feel like I am going to throw up, and lose it totally.

 

This worked so I wanted to share. It sounds silly and probably looked it if anyone was looking at me. But it's worked two times now!

 

I empathize totally with what you feel though. It's one of those killer things to get.

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Blueorchidlady, loved your post.  I'm going to try it.  Can you supply us with a link to the article?  My anxiety started like that years ago.  I had a panic attack at Target.  Then I started feeling anxious in other large stores, then grocery stores, shopping malls....then freeway driving, then driving over 45 mph....it's nuts how the human mind can generalize.....

 

I'd not heard of that particular technique....I'm willing to try almost anything.!

 

Thanks!

 

I invented the technique, I think, but it was something about pattern matching and panic and was in my University Database which links to medical journal articles. The idea is kind of like Pavlov's Dogs with the bell. I can't link to the database because it's password protected.

 

But this is similar to what I read, in more plain language (from a site online for panic attacks):

How panic attacks spread

 

For survival purposes, once we have 'learned' that a certain situation is dangerous by panicking, the mind 'remembers' this fact to ensure that the next time it sees a similar situation, it can give you the necessary anxiety or panic to enable you to run or fight, just like the woman in the story.

 

This is not the normal type of 'remembering' like remembering a name or telephone number, it is the sort that makes you feel good when you hear a particular piece of music, or feel happy when you look at holiday photos, or maybe feel a bit like a kid again when you walk into school as an adult.

 

'Sloppy' Unconscious pattern matching

 

We call this type of remembering 'unconscious pattern matching' because it is the 'back part' of your mind, the unconscious mind, that causes you to react in a certain way when it spots a particular situation or other 'trigger'.

 

So if you have a panic attack in a car, you might feel anxious next time you are on a bus or train, because the situation is roughly similar. As far as survival goes, it is much better for us to 'err on the side of caution'.

 

When a cliff becomes a gorge

 

The woman in the story above came to a cliff that roughly matched her terrifying experience in the gorge. She had 'learned' unconsciously that 'high rock walls=danger'.

 

Despite the fact that she knew consciously that this was a different situation, her unconscious mind, looking out for her survival, 'erred on the side of caution' and gave her the necessary resources to get out of there fast.

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So after reading something like this, I thought, what can I do to make my mind not match the pattern? And I thought, well, something ridiculous and out of place. So I moved my arms and shoulders in a way that I never had before while driving, dramatically. It absolutely seemed to trick my mind. I felt anxious at first but it went away. That never happens to me. Today, I more like did this dumb dance while driving that got me over the first hurdle.

 

And so far it's working really well and once you can get over a few panic situations, you start acclimating pretty well and being okay again. Panic attacks love to feed off of themselves and then you have just a few and they take on a life of their own. Strangely, the situational kind can be as easy to break as they are to come on. Only in the past, it was just time that helped. This time, this weird idea seemed to help.

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BlueOrchid, yes it pretty devastating. I remember the day I sold my car and I loved it

The first time it happened, I had to pull off down into a side road and stop car, just started crying because

it was so uncontrollable. I had always driven anywhere. Of course what they told me was carry an extra xanax

I sometimes dreamed of living on a bus line and just taking a bus!

I give you alot of credit for keeping on trying!!!

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Very interesting info on panic attacks BOL.  I always wondered what my mind was doing when I experienced those.  I developed panic attacks in the shower!  Not sure why, but did.  Now, when my heart rate increases and I start to feel dizzy I try to think of funny things.  Heck sometimes I am sure my hubby can hear me.  he he.  I know that in the past if I just face the thing that makes me panic that I eventually get over it.  Years ago I was petrified of snakes.  I grew up on a farm so snakes were very common.  I would lock up and couldn't move.  9 years ago, I face that fear and actually still own one.  Holding her as a baby and watching her grow all of these years helped me conquer my fears.  I fear driving to new places.  I have jury duty in 2 months so I have to face this fear.  I had to schedule it out a few months out so that I could become comfortable with the idea of going.  I hate feeling this trapped sometimes!  Now, to think of something to take my mind off of it while I am driving there....