I got a call from a woman the other day who wanted to talk about her panic attacks and general anxiety. She is in her early thirties and lives with her husband and kids in a small town. She told me how anxiety and panic attacks were destroying her quality of life and everyday was turning into a pitch battle. She used to travel all around the world for work, but today she finds it hard to step out the front door for fear of having a panic attack. She has two small kids and they have needs to be
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Even when you’ve made significant changes to your lifestyle and have accepted the fact that you experience panic and anxiety attacks, a panic attack can happen at any time and throw you for a loop. Many people that experience panic attacks on a regular basis find it difficult to undertake new activities, maintain a healthy social life, and participate in activities that will improve their lifestyle because they are afraid of having another panic attack and being unable to cope with its effects. The good news is, there are several ways to re-balance or “ground” yourself after a panic attack
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Many people who suffer from panic and anxiety attacks on a regular basis find that the simple act of getting up in the morning starts the cycle. The reason for this is because your body is coming out of sleep and any feelings of anxiety are exaggerated. Most of us are not ‘morning’ people, so when you add anxiety to the equation you can see why mornings are usually the most anxious time of the day for people with an anxiety disorder. Desensitizing your body from being in an anxious state takes a lot of time and patience, and there
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Panic and anxiety tends to immobilize people, so much so, that some people have a fear of even leaving their home. Agoraphobia is the technical term used to describe people who are afraid of open spaces or being in crowded places like malls, outdoor markets and theme parks. If you’ve ever felt anxious about leaving home, or your “safe zone”, you’re experiencing some of the effects of agoraphobia. The truth is, those feelings are really just feelings of vulnerability. People who suffer from panic attacks feel like they are more vulnerable in certain situations, and so they have difficulty feeling
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Just a quick note to wish you a very Happy New Year. As we think back on the last year we can often tend to focus on what went wrong rather than what went right. There are some of you who might feel it was not as anxiety free as you wished it could have been. If that is the case with you I want you to take solace in the fact that the road to recovery almost always has setbacks along the way. Recovering from panic attacks or GAD is never linear like getting over a cold. You take
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Most people who experience panic and anxiety attacks regularly have forgotten how to breathe correctly. If you think about it, consider how you breathe when you’re tense or anxious about something. If you’re like most people, your breathing becomes really shallow and you may even “sink” into your body, rounding your shoulders and slouching slightly. This often sets you up for feelings of fatigue as you breathing is too shallow. Making sure fresh oxygen is circulating throughout your body helps to keep you alert and clear headed. When you are feeling anxious, you might slow down your breathing and thereby
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Why do some people have a problem with anxiety and others do not? This is a question almost everyone who experiences anxiety asks themselves at some point or another. Why me? My understanding of anxiety is that yes, some people seem more susceptible than others but that the key trigger tends to be exhaustion. By exhaustion I mean mental, physical, or emotional exhaustion. (Under physical exhaustion I also include things like diet or substance abuse) For some it may be exhaustion caused by a hectic life and never taking time to release the stress. People like that often do not
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People who have never experienced a panic attack often judge the anxious person harshly. The outsider has no real comprehension of what is happening to the person experiencing a panic attack and wonders why they fear to do the simplest things. I know myself that I could not understand how overnight I went from being a confident young man to someone who became anxious of common everyday situations. Going places took on a whole new dimension as I constantly evaluated if being there might trigger a panic attack. I had to force myself to do very simple things like go
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