my friend had a panic attack. what to do?

[vulturesrow]

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I've been wanting to talk to you. I checked out that Myspace- I'm cursed. Nothing but pigs in my area. [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]

BTW- did you move yet? And how is the physique transformation coming along?

Sorry about the hijack, Gamb.

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There is this really neat private messaging system here...

[man]

I hate how medication is the first thing people look to to solve these problems. It doesn't always work. I had a pretty adverse reaction to a prescription drug myself a few years ago when I had a long, drawn-out bout with anxiety. but I"m just one person.

when you're with someone who's having a panic attack, the best hting you can do is stay calm and cheerful, and try as hard as possible to make them feel comfortable. when you'r ehaving a panic attack, you usually experience an unreal sensation of impending doom, and possibly a fear of going crazy (that's for people with recurring panic attacks, I think). the best thing you can do is make them feel comfortable. along with that, get them to control their breathing. that's very important.

as far as advising a friend after the fact, I would tell them that panic attacks are normal. lots of people have anxiety disorders. furthermore, you have to address the fundamental problem with all neurotic disorders, being the neurotic paradox. if you're aware of your disorder, you tend to spend more time worrying about it, which only makes it worse. you have to let it go. accept that panic attacks happen. accept that you're having a completely uncalled-for reaction to everyday events. and when you feel a panic attack coming, lie down, or lean back, close your eyes, and let it come. "bring it on," my psychologist used to say. acceptance for your disorder is the best path towards recovery. at least that's what worked for me.

panic attacks suck, bottom line. I hope this at least helps. but I'm not a doctor so I'd recommend your friend to see a therapist. and screw drugs, they don't work for everyone and they don't address your underlying problems. (/bias)

[bwana devil]

what brought on the anxiety attack? and the first incident?

how far apart in here life were the two incidences?

those are factors that will be important to the decision.

it's up to her if she wants to seek treatment but medication is an effective treatment for anxiety. the above posts are talking about some old school meds. there are newer meds on the market that have fewer side effects.

taking meds and addressing issues in therapy is usually the best method.

[Russ McGinley]

I once had a panic attack. It happened while I was water skiing. I was having trouble putting my skiis on in the boat as they kept slipping off and I had a panic attack. I knew what was happening right away and just calmed myself down and its never happened again. Tell your friend to chill, there is absolutely no reason to go see a shrink or take medication.

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PIIHB

[tonypaladino]

Semi-hijack:

I had a bad panic attack while on a family vaction in August. Full on freak out, I was in front of a hotel, and refusing to get into the car, thought i was having a heart attack and tried to call 911. My family talked me down, but then I started freaking out again in the car, and opened the door in the middle of I-419 and tried to jump out.

Basically, if someone is having a panick attack, do not force them into a car when they don't want to. That's a tip kid, write it down.

Back on topic:

As long as it only happens rarely (<1 per year) she shouldn't worry about it.

[peachy]

they cant be controlled for the most part and happen at any time, yes she should see BOTH a psychologist and psychatrist. They can give u meds to help control these (and they are a HORRIBLE feeling), they can also do things like systematic desensetization (u can also use a fatigue tech, threshold tech, or a method of incompatible stimuli - these types can be more extreme but the ideas behind them do work, so maybe use a variation of one of these - but the one i mentioned 1st - systematic d. is the most effective and least "stressful") which is more of a helping with the mind issue. A combo of meds/conditiong is the best bet but sometimes people wont go in for the times needed to do this mentally. In panic attacks some things with sometimes trigger it and other times it just happens, but if they can be taught how to calm down and how to lessen thier anxiety about certain things they can reduce the extremity of the attack and sometimes it happening all together - for a psycholoGIST try a clinical with behaviroal/cognitive focus

If she had a genuine panic attack...it WILL reoccur and is often lifetime for most people - its occurance rate will vary from person to person

She will probably want to rotate a few meds to begin with and find one that suits her, again everyone is different

[Skip Brutale]

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Talking to a friend on msn. She said she had a panic attack today. Had lots of trouble breathing and started freaking out. Cried a lot.

Should she see a psychologist or should she just forget about it? She is very well adjusted socially/academically, said something like this happened once before and she went to see someone, but that didn't help. This was the first actual panic attack.

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you should dress up like a monster clown and tackle her!!

[A_C_Slater]

From my understanding panic attacks are a sort of byproduct of modern day civilized behavior.

Ancient man used to spend a good portion of the day in a panic, running from and attempting to kill wild animals, tribal territorial wars, etc. We no longer have any of these extreme worries to contend with in the modern day. But I guarantee you that people in the third world don't have panic attacks, just in the same way they don't have eating disorders.

I used to have panic attacks and Xanax will crush them immediately. I hate dependendcy on drugs though, so usually I just tried to ride them out, unless it got really bad.


But ever since I started playing a certain risk involved game seriously, I haven't had one. I now have an outlet for the fear.

[astroglide]

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Ancient man used to spend a good portion of the day in a panic, running from and attempting to kill wild animals, tribal territorial wars, etc. We no longer have any of these extreme worries to contend with in the modern day. But I guarantee you that people in the third world don't have panic attacks, just in the same way they don't have eating disorders.

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this is my basic theory as well. people who have real problems don't seem to have anxiety disorders because they're too busy dealing with life. and all my experiences with anxiety disorder lead me to think that people who have them either need real problems or some motivation, because if you're doing something challenging that you can be proud of it counts as "a problem".