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Don't feel like reading all the inbetween stuff, but I have panic attacks, too every now and again.
Have you thought about seeing a trained psychotherapist? They can teach you coping skills so that you don't need to take medication (works for most people). You always have yourself. You don't always have a bottle of medication w/ you, and even if you did, panic attacks aren't considerate like that. They'll wait until you least expect it.
Some things that helped:
1) Learn how to deep breathe (from the abdomen). You should aim for 6 deep breaths per minute.
2) Learn progressive relaxation. It's an exercise where you progressively tense up all your muscles, and then progressively relax them.
3) Learn cognitive behavioral therapy. Learn a new way to think so that you don't have panic attacks. It's not normal to think ALL the time. It's not normal to think about thinking very often. When we do this, we get filled with anxiety. When we are filled with anxiety, we don't breathe right, which can cause a panic attack.
4) Learn imagery relaxation. Close your eyes. Think about yourself and the closest encounter you ever had with paradise. Breathe deeply.
Medication is only a temp fix unless you want to be on it for life. Learn some coping skills too. If you are really fed up, get on the meds and see a psychologist. Ask strictly for cognitive behavioral therapy.
| quote: | | If you have very rare panic attacks and you find that if you smoke some weed it calms you down, is it a bad solution to the problem? |
There is ever present evidence that smoking small amounts of marijuana serve as a good antidepressant/antianxiety drug. You must smoke indica forms of marijuana (the chill couchlock kind, not the speedy-awake kind). In the US, in the medical marijuana legal states, you can often get a rec for marijuana for anxiety relief.
Let's try and do away with stigmas. Let's try not to believe all the stuff you've heard from the US Federal government over the years, most of it is being proven wrong. Marijuana is safer on the human body than most of the antidepressants on the market. They are liver toxins, marijuana isn't toxic on the body. It may, at worst, irritate the sinuses/lungs. Check pubmed if you don't believe me. Cannabis can even cause cancer cells to die. No joke. It's good stuff. It might make you feel slow/stupid for a couple of days while you're on it, but I've noticed no ill effects. It's helping me get through college (I have IBS  ).
Last edited by _angst_ on Nov-25-2005 at 14:03
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