Panic Attacks - Need Help In Bangkok

[sustento]

I spent three years getting panic attacks, agoraphobia and clinical depression. For over a year I daren't leave the house. I was sent to psychiatrists who put me on various medicines none of which worked.

The worst part of it all was that I didn't understand what was happening to me. Why did I have to grit my teeth to walk out into the street? Why did I feel so low that I couldn't get out of bed?

I spent all my time watching TV and happened to watch a series of lunchtime TV programmes by a woman called Doctor Claire Weekes. When she started to describe exactly how I was feeling and why I burst into tears. At last there was someone who knew what I was going through. She wrote a series of books the best known of which is 'Self help for your nerves'. It's an instruction manual to remove the fear of panic attacks and it works. I used to carry it round with me and when I felt an attack coming on I'd just sit and read it. That book literally saved my life.

Buy that book for your friend. Make them read it again and again (and again). It won't stop the panic attacks but it will explain why they happen and when your friend understands WHY they happen they will stop occurring. If they sometimes come back when your friend is under great stress the s/he will know what's happening and just let it roll over them.

If you buy it you'll be doing your friend the biggest favour you've ever done anyone in your life. Seriously.

Add: They were written in the 1960s they may sound a little outdated but the advice in them is as relevant today as it was then.

Edited July 16, 2013 by sustento

[Simhne]

Your friend should try and avoid Xanax or other Benzodiazepenes as much as possible as they are useful in extreme circumstances but addictive. If you can find a Cognitive Behavioural Therapist you should direct them there as it is the best evidenced means of managing the symptoms but they must be prepared to put the work in.

Mindfulness or meditation techniques are however probably more easily accessed in Thailand and are really excellent for changing our attitudes generally to a more calm and positive mind set. This is also well evidenced.

[stiggy]

Sorry to be a bearer of bad news.

A very close and dear person to me has suffered for 25 years (and still is suffering) this condition back in my home country.

The problem nature is psychiatric. The 'specialists' don't know xxxx about how to treat this. Sorry. No med helps really.

I'm sure the Psychiatrists will be arguing against my opinion. But the poor sods couldn't even help themselves.

All they know is how to charge their victims. Scum, feeding on poor sick people misery.

Diagnosed with PTSD and anxiety in 2006 following some pretty horrendous incidents, if it wasn't for the Physch's, the likes of which you are so quick to put down as Scum, I doubt I would be able to be where I am, and how I am today.

No one need's to live with Mental illness including Anxiety, its not a quick fix but is best dealt with in co operation with a good Physiatrics department.

Understanding what causes panic attacks the physiology behind them also helps a lot, again a good Physciatric Dr will help explain this.They don't all just give drugs and charge money.

[MrHammer]

I can vouch for Cognitive Behavorial Therapy (CBT) helping for anxiety in many different forms. I used to suffer from panic attacks too and ended in emergency rooms because I felt like I had a heart attack.

In my personal humble experience, there are two things happening. One is the immediate fight or flight response that results in the panic attack and it is caused by your brain running amok with unstoppable thoughts of doom. This is the part where I personally found CBT helpful. You learn to recognize the beginning pattern and let it go before it runs wild and causes panic. Going outside and sitting on a bench around other people also helps. Telling yourself that last time you had a panic attack turned out to be ok after all also helps. Education about what a panic attack is helps, so is learning what the difference is between a heart attack and a panic attack.

The second is that something is causing your panic attacks. I hate to be all Freudian, but I think emotional trauma is usually the cause and it can be from a long time back. Feelings of abandonment etc. My attacks began after my mother died suddenly which in turn led me in an abrupt way to have to contemplate life and death and how fleeting life is. That is where a normal therapist would be able to help.

I do not recommend Xanax, allthough they did work for me. I also don't recommend SSRIs as panic attacks and anxiety are really not caused by depression.

[jaideeguy]

I've suffered panic attacks/anxiety/insomnia and have dealt with it chemically [Xanax] and after being Rxed with them by my family doctor 25 years ago, I admit that I am addicted now. I do give them [benzos] the credit they deserve as they have helped me get thru some hard times and gave me a decent night's sleep with 2mg at night.

This is the only drug that I'll admit to being addicted to and if I were 20 years younger, I would attempt to quit, but at 67, with other health issues I had resigned myself to staying on them as the withdrawal is horrendous.

I tried tapering down to smaller doses from my max of 2.5mg, but have reached a 'plateau' at 2mg and if i go lower, the panic attacks/anxiety/insomnia returns and it's no picnic.

I have had older friends and relatives take them until they died and it gave them some relief from the miseries of aging, but they are now totally banned here in LOS because some health department minister said that they were being abused as a 'date rape' drug and passed a blanket law banning them for everyone, not considering grandfathering in us who have become dependent on them to lead a normal life.

Yeah, I agree that they should not be too easily available because of their abuse potential, but they are 'papa's little helper' and when used therapeutically and the user has some control and respect for the substance that does no harm to others, then there should be some consideration.

I also agree that there are better alternatives and the Dr's shouldn't Rx them to new [younger] patients and if they do, then give them the full warnings that should have been given to me 25 years ago and have a limit on the dosage and duration so they don't end up like me.............addicted to a once legal and accepted medication, but now too old to suffer the withdrawals.

What to do???

[WitawatWatawit]

I've suffered panic attacks/anxiety/insomnia and have dealt with it chemically [Xanax] and after being Rxed with them by my family doctor 25 years ago, I admit that I am addicted now. I do give them [benzos] the credit they deserve as they have helped me get thru some hard times and gave me a decent night's sleep with 2mg at night.

This is the only drug that I'll admit to being addicted to and if I were 20 years younger, I would attempt to quit, but at 67, with other health issues I had resigned myself to staying on them as the withdrawal is horrendous.

I tried tapering down to smaller doses from my max of 2.5mg, but have reached a 'plateau' at 2mg and if i go lower, the panic attacks/anxiety/insomnia returns and it's no picnic.

I have had older friends and relatives take them until they died and it gave them some relief from the miseries of aging, but they are now totally banned here in LOS because some health department minister said that they were being abused as a 'date rape' drug and passed a blanket law banning them for everyone, not considering grandfathering in us who have become dependent on them to lead a normal life.

Yeah, I agree that they should not be too easily available because of their abuse potential, but they are 'papa's little helper' and when used therapeutically and the user has some control and respect for the substance that does no harm to others, then there should be some consideration.

I also agree that there are better alternatives and the Dr's shouldn't Rx them to new [younger] patients and if they do, then give them the full warnings that should have been given to me 25 years ago and have a limit on the dosage and duration so they don't end up like me.............addicted to a once legal and accepted medication, but now too old to suffer the withdrawals.

What to do???

Oh, crap! No idea what to say. But atleast you understand the trauma involved in going through withdrawal. I wonder if, at your age and with other health issues, whether it would be worth it. It took me more than a year to withdraw from benzos, and still only about 99%. It was hell - and you seem to be aware of what you would be facing. But who to talk to about it? I wish I could help you, but I can't - local doctors are not tuned into this problem (and so I went solo on my withdrawal - totally on my own and with no support services). It's a private thing in the end because few understand just how tough w/d is. Feel free to PM me if you want a shoulder to cry on (but no medical advice, though).

[Sheryl]

See a psychiatrist specializing in anxiety disorders about getting on alternative (non-addictive) medications. Nowadays there are many alternatives, including beta blockers and drugs like Lyrica, Lexapro etc. Be frank with the doctor regarding your addiction so that he understands the need for a non-addictive alternative.

As new drug comes online, will be easier to get off the benzo.

A certain amount of sheer determination is also important. Understand that the difficulties you experience when you stop the drug are not what you are going to always experience because you no longer take it, rather they are temporary indications of your nervous system recalibrating itself.

One of the many problems with these drugs is that they make us unused to normal, transient unpleasant sensations so that we actually become hyper-sensitive to them and forget how to tolerate/manage them. So that needs to be re-learnt.