What can I think of instead of if I have another panic attack?

Question

I keep thinking about what if I have another one in school...and I can't stop!What can I do to get my mind off of it??I'm afraid that it will happen again when I go to school tomorrow!

Answer 1

NewsTarget.com printable article
Originally published March 23 2006
Achieve optimum mental health by supplementing deficient brain chemicals instead of resorting to dangerous antidepressant drugs
by Dani Veracity

Pharmaceutical antidepressants aren't the best way to conquer our society's depression and anxiety epidemic, and they often have disastrous side effects, sometimes even increasing the risk for suicide. Taking the population as a whole, we're 100 times more depressed today than we were 100 years ago. Furthermore, panic attacks are the number one reason heart disease is going up in women. Julia Ross, a pioneer in nutritional psychology and best-selling author of The Diet Cure and The Mood Cure, explained these dire statistics at the 2005 Complementary and Alternative Medicine Conference (CAMCON).
Four brain chemicals -- serotonin, catecholamine, GABA and endorphin -- are essential for proper mental health, each affecting a different area of the brain. Some of us, unfortunately, have a genetic predisposition to lack these chemicals. Additionally, the modern mainstream diet is deficient in the amino acids that our brains need to make these neurotransmitters. As a result of these factors, incidence of depression and anxiety has reached epidemic proportions.

As a society, we just don't have the coping ability we should have. "Even if things aren't going well, we can still feel good anyway, but we're not," says Ross. Fortunately, these amino acids are widely available at local health food stores, and within five to 10 minutes of taking the supplement, you can feel its effects on your brain.

Five to 10 minutes sounds too good to be true, right? Ross' audience seemed skeptical, too, until they saw and felt the effects themselves. Before explaining the four essential neurotransmitters and their effects, Ross had her audience fill out a questionnaire regarding their mental and physical states. Since she offered permission to copy the questionnaire with acknowledgment, you can try out it out for yourself. Rank each symptom from one to 10, with 10 being the most severe:


Type One False Mood and Appetite
Symptoms:
Negativity, depression
Worry, anxiety
Low self-esteem
Repetitious, obsessive thoughts or behaviors
Irritability, rage
Disturbed sleep
Difficulty falling asleep
Panic attacks
Seasonal Affective Disorder, or "winter blues"
Phobias
Fibromyalgia or Temporomandibular Joint (TMJ) issues
Afternoon or evening cravings for carbs, alcohol or drugs
Dislike of hot weather


Type Two False Mood and Appetite
Symptoms:
Depressed, bored or apathetic
Lack of energy or motivation
Inability to concentrate or focus; ADD
Cravings for chocolate, caffeine or other stimulants


Type Three False Mood and Appetite
Symptoms:
Feel overstressed, burned out or overwhelmed
Unable to relax
Feel stiff or tense
Cravings for food, alcohol or drugs when stressed


Type Four False Mood and Appetite
Symptoms:
Sensitive to emotional pain or have had chronic physical pain
Cry easily, often sad
Crave comforting or numbing behaviors or substances -- certain foods, drugs or alcohol

© 2004 Julia Ross, author of The Diet Cure and The Mood Cure. Permission to copy with acknowledgement.
If you score relatively high in any category, you probably are deficient in the corresponding neurotransmitter. Let's take a look at the neurotransmitters, what they do and what you can do to supplement them if necessary.


Type One False Mood and Appetite: Low in serotonin, our natural antidepressant
If you have many of the symptoms associated with the type one false mood and appetite, you are probably deficient in serotonin, which is the most common neurotransmitter deficiency affecting Americans. Serotonin is important as a natural antidepressant; however, it is additionally important because the brain uses serotonin to make melatonin, which is an important chemical for sleeping. In fact, the serotonin-melatonin connection is one of the primary reasons that depressed people often have sleep disorders.
If your brain lacks proper serotonin, pharmaceutical antidepressants like Prozac won't fix the underlying deficiency, according to Ross. Rather than boosting your actual serotonin levels, antidepressants just make the serotonin already existing in your brain more active. Ross believes that the real solution to serotonin deficiency is tryptophan, which the brain can use to make serotonin within 10 minutes.

She advises people who score high on the type 1 portion of the false mood questionnaire to take 50 milligrams of a specific form of tryptophan called 5-HTP or 500 milligrams of l-tryptophan mid-afternoon and evening. Compared to l-tryptophan, less 5-HTP is required to get the same effects because, unlike regular tryptophan, the body only uses 5-HTP to make serotonin; it is not metabolized in the stomach.

If you're worried about the safety of tryptophan, you have nothing to fear, according to Ross. The FDA pulled tryptophan in 1989 because of a bad batch that caused horrible long-term side effects. Ross believes that this bad batch made by a disreputable company was really just the excuse the FDA had been waiting for, and that the real reason it pulled the supplement completely off the market was to increase the sales of Prozac, which had been released in 1988 but was not making any money. Either way, now every batch of tryptophan is approved by the FDA before it is made available to the public, so the l-tryptophan and 5-HTP you'll find in your local health food store is safe.

The best part about boosting your serotonin with tryptophan is that eventually your levels will normalize and you won't need to take the supplements anymore, according to Ross. If you eat protein three times per day and take the tryptophan supplements, in a few weeks (for children) to one year (for people genetically predispositioned to low serotonin production), your serotonin will be restored enough for you to stop taking the supplements.

How do you know when you don't need the supplements anymore? Every time you finish a bottle, stop taking the supplements and, if the symptoms don't come back, you don't need them anymore. Incidentally, this is true for all the brain chemical-boosting supplements: If you eat meals containing 20 to 30 grams of protein at least three times per day and take the appropriate supplements, eventually the brain chemicals you are targeting will be high enough for you to stop taking the supplements altogether. You'll have normalized your brain! So, with this in mind, let's take a look at the other three brain chemicals you may lack and need to supplement.


Type Two False Mood and Appetite: Low in catecholamine, our natural stimulant
If you have the symptoms associated with the second type of false mood and appetite tested on the questionnaire, you probably lack catecholamine, as a lot of Americans do. In fact, this deficiency accounts for the popularity of coffee and other stimulants, says Ross. A lot of us are unable to naturally produce caffeine because we eat too many high-glycemic carbohydrates. As a result, we turn to coffee and chocolate for caffeine, but what we should really be turning to is L-Tyrosine. If you follow a high-protein diet and take 500 milligrams of L-Tyrosine when you wake up, mid-morning and, if you don't have insomnia, again mid-afternoon, eventually your brain will contain enough catecholamine for you to function without supplements or a coffee or chocolate caffeine fix.

Type Three False Mood and Appetite: Low in GABA, our natural tranquilizer
If the symptoms listed under the third type of false mood apply to you, you're probably deficient in GABA, the brain's natural tranquilizer. If this is the case, Ross advises you to take 100 to 500 milligrams of GABA as needed, or GABA combined with L-Taurine and/or Glysine. You don't have to worry about the supplement making you overly sleepy during the day, as GABA supplements have a small amount of tyrosine in them to counteract daytime sleepiness.

Type Four False Mood and Appetite: Low in endorphin, our natural painkiller
Men are born with two times the amount of endorphins as women, which partly explains why men are from Mars and women are from Venus. Whatever your gender, if you experience the symptoms associated with the fourth type of false mood and appetite, you're probably deficient in endorphins. Since the brain requires 19 different amino acids to build them, a high-protein diet is essential for proper endorphin levels. Luckily, the amino acid Dl-Phenylalanine (DLPA) slows down the brain's destruction of endorphins, so Ross believes that 500 milligrams of DLPA taken when first waking up, mid-morning and mid-afternoon, along with 700 milligrams of free-form amino blend taken before meals, is enough to keep a proper amount of endorphins in the brain.

For all types of false mood and appetite
In addition to taking supplements to relieve your particular type of false mood and appetite, you must follow a healthy, high-protein diet, according to Ross. This includes eating at least three meals per day, each including 20 to 30 grams of protein, low-carb vegetables (totaling at least four cups per day) and healthy fats. You should avoid foods made with refined white flour and white sugar, as well as allergens and caffeine.
According to Ross and many other experts, certain nutrients support good mental health, including:

Omega-3 fatty acids -- found in flax seed, fish, Salba and chia
Chromium
B-vitamin complex
L-glutamine -- maintains proper blood sugar in the brain, so it prevents carb cravings and moodiness


Proof by example ...
If you follow the dietary and supplemental regimens detailed above, you're on your way to a depression- and anxiety-free life, according to Ross. The best way to know something works is to experience it yourself, so give these supplements and dietary changes a chance before resorting to dangerous antidepressant pharmaceuticals.
There is so much more to learn about how dietary and supplementary changes can act as a natural alternative to pharmaceutical drugs. For more information, visit Julia Ross' web sites, www.moodcure.com and www.dietcure.com, which contain links to buy her books of the same names. You may be surprised by how much your life can change for the better.

Answer 2

When you think about it, there's usually nothing dangerous or risky about school, so there's no real reason to panic. But you start worrying about a panic attack, and end up panicing about panic - a vicious circle. Panic is a natural reaction to fear. So, in a way, your feelings are a normal reaction to fear, only in this case, the threat isn't real. All of the panic feelings are just a normal response to adrenalin - fast pulse, rapid breathing; the 'flight or fight' response.

Don't worry that you will experience the 'fight or flight' response - you will feel it - it is fighting these feelings that usually causes the problem.

What usually works is to acknowledge that these feelings WILL occur, that they are a natural response to something that scares you, and there is no actual threat from these feelings, so they are really nothing to fear.

You have to recognize the symptoms and feelings that you get during a panic attack and cope with each one. For each type of feeling, you can develop a deliberate routine to get through it. For example, when the pulse rate starts to rise - stop whatever you are doing and think about relaxing on a beach in the sun, or some other mental quiet place, and focus on taking a few relaxed breathes until you settle down. This alone, can make a huge difference because you see that you are able to control the situation, and this reduces the worry that you will not be able to control yourself. Same thing each of the other things you experience - keep a moist cloth or handiwipe on hand if you get hot flashes or cold sweats, and shake your arms a little to help relax the jittery feelings. Pay attention to your breathing - slow steady and relaxed. Go to your quiet place as often as needed to keep the breathing relaxed.

Another thing that helps is to always have a plan B. Don't worry about going school tomorrow because you may have an attack - think of a way to deal with an attack if you have one, so you don't need to worry. Talk to the principal or teachers if you can, and let them know that you may have an attack, and if you do, you will quietly pack up your things and leave the room and go sit outside or something until you calm down. If you have a plan B, you don't need to worry about going to school because you know that you won't get stuck panicking in a classroom with no way out.

This link has a good self-help process that was developed for panic attacks. You can walk yourself though several steps that make it a little easier to get by. Try it out.

Answer 3

Slow down for one. when you feel a panic attack coming on just relax and breath slowly till it passes. Try keeping mind off the attack this will lessen the attack. It will a little time to train yourself. It works for me. Your not alone when it comes to panic attacks. Most people will get a panic attack some time in their life. Mostly in their teenage years.

Answer 4

First of all, what I would do is try to figure out why you're having these panic attacks. It could be anxiety, depression. I would definitely talk to your parents or a guidance counselor if the problem persists. You may have a medical condition causing you to get these panic attacks. I used to get them, and it turned out I have anxiety disorder. There are ways around it, but first you need to figure out WHY you are having them. Trust me, its easier talking to people than you think. More than half the world has issues with anxiety and think there is no one to turn to, but there is. Just talk with a parent or someone you really trust. Believe me, you will start to feel better just by telling someone...good luck!

Answer 5

I am so happy, it was only a 35 minute drive ( 70 minutes total) but absolutely no sign of anxiety or panic i shopped till I dropped - brilliant! I will now go for the next stage DUAL CARRIAGE way, probably at the weekend, with my husband accompanying me first then the solo drive, if successful the final stage of driving on motorway

Beat Anxiety And Panic Attacks Naturally?

Answer 6

This because you spend WAY too much time in your own head. You have to stop that and the panic attacks will go away. Your thinking about them all the time is what keeps bringing them on.

Go help someone. Volunteer. When you are helping others, you can't possibly be thinking about yourself all the time.

Answer 7

It is common to get the sudden urge to go to the loo as a symptom of anxiety or panic. It is a natural response... you know the 'fight or flight' situation? When you have anxiety or panic attacks, it is the fight or flight kicking in, but usually at an innappropriate time. Emptying the bladder and bowels aids the body in being able to run quicker... so when the anxiety kicks in, you need to go to the loo. Addressing your anxiety by learning relaxation techniques will help you to get over the fear and the resulting symptoms.

Answer 8

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Answer 9

I usually sing a song outloud. Or I just talk to my honey. I also feel better when I am touching someone or they are touching me, even if it's holding hands.

Answer 10

think of something or someone you love !! Works for me. Also . check with your doctor. There is med's you can take to make you feel better. Don't worry.. your not alone. You will be ok! :)

Answer 11

I think this situation is not an emergency, I am not really in danger, noone in this store is really out to get me - and then I do deep breathing exersizes and work on my relaxation