Coping with Anxiety and Panic Attacks.

“No panic” yesterday got compensated by panic today. It wasn’t that bad at all but wasn’t nice too. Most of the day was fine except of the evening when I had an attack right after the dinner. I felt that it was coming through the day since I was a little depressed all day. We went to Uwajimaya in the afternoon and on the way back I felt some breathing panic symptoms but was able to control them at the beginning. They slowly dissipated after that. During the dinner I also mostly controlled them but after the dinner I lost tracktion and had to spend couple hours or so trying to calm it down. Playing a little guitar did help since it required me to switch and start thinking about frets and strings instead of my throat, stomach and breathing. Playing guitar is my new way of dealing with panic attacks. So couple more years of panic attacks and I will become a professional guitar player

I don’t know how I developed this habit and why it was so helpful to me but the best way for me to get rid of panic attack is to stand in the bathtub with about 3-4 inches of warm water in it.

I think it is related to the fact that most of my panic attacks causes my legs and arms to get cold. And warming them helps a great deal.

I also noticed that in the cold environment it is much easier for me to get into panic attack state.

So let me give you some details on what symptoms I usually experience when I have this type of panic attack. Yes, I have multiple types of them (food related, heart related and breathing related).

Usually when I eat and have this type of anxiety or panic attack I experience feeling of food getting stuck in the throat. This is the most disappointing of all panic attacks I have since it makes eating a challenging process and also makes it hard to give your body all required vitamins and minerals.

Other usual symptoms are inability to belch. It sounds like a strage symptoms but it really is a symptom. You want to belch and you feel like you need to but you can’t. My theory is that it happens because of tension in throat muscles.