Panic attacks

[Leonor]

Hi everybody,
I have a friend that has panic attacks and I was just wondering if panic attacks can also be linked to tms? Please advice. Thank you.

 

[gailnyc]

I think they can. I've often joked that I'm having a nervous breakdown in my foot. Hope and Help For Your Nerves by Claire Weekes addresses the physical symptoms of panic, which seem very similar to TMS.

 

[njoy]

They sure are for me, Madura. Luckily, research convinced me that "it's just a panic attack" and won't do any lasting harm. I do whatever I need to do to calm myself and it passes. Mine happen mostly when I'm asleep and have been stressing myself for a couple of days. For me, a panic attack means I've let the stress get away on me. My cup of stress has overflowed! During the day, I can usually control stress by distracting myself (meditation, music, exercise, journaling, etc.) but if I go to sleep feeling really tense that's when I have a panic attack.

Does your friend have other signs of tms? Examples might include: back pain, fibromyalgia, headaches, almost any pain or worrysome symptom in your body might be tms. Basically, your mind is afraid you can't handle your feelings and is trying to get you to focus on the pain instead of facing whatever you are angry, sad or scared about. That's my understanding anyway.

Have you read any of the tms books? They explain it a lot better than I do.

 

[Leslie]

Anxiety (panic attacks), depression, and physical symptoms are all sides of the same coin for me. I think they're all part of the distraction arsenal and the subconscious decides which one to use based on the perceived "threat level" requiring the distraction. Sometimes one of them is sufficient, some times all 3 are required. I guess it just depends on how dangerous the repressed prisoner is and how close he is to escaping.

 

[Buckeye]

A friend recommended that I come here because I described my panic attacks as something that I totally understand on an intellectual level, but are pretty much like a muscle spasm in your foot or calf. You know what's happening, but that doesn't give you much control to stop it from happening. And, for me, panic attacks = cannot inhale, muscles so tight that it feels like my ribs are all cracked and the broken ends are jabbing into my body. They have very little ramp-up (maybe a 10 sec warning) and boom, full force like a safe has been dropped on me. And, even thought I tell psychologists that I KNOW I'm not going to die, that doesn't change the physiological response to not being able to inhale because your entire abdomen and throat have locked up. So, their whole solution was that if I'd just admit that I wasn't going to die (and I know this because if you pass out the body relaxes), then the panic attacks will go away. They just could not buy into that fact that I did know that and that somehow my body still refused to follow my conscious control. They would say breath, and I would breath as best I could... but you try to deeply inhale with a dozen knives stuck into your body all over. It's just like a calf spasm, you try to lengthen the muscles and it pulls back and spasms all the harder. In the end, their solution was Ativan which makes no sense because it takes 20 min to take effect and my panic attacks are usually under control by then, except that then I'd be too doped up to do anything for the next 5 hours.

 

[Walt Oleksy (RIP 2021)]

I sure believe that panic attacks are caused by TMS repressed emotions, perfectionist and/or "goodist" personality.

I've had anxiety and panic attacks and found that Librium or Valium calmed me, but it wasn't until I learned about TMS
and my emotions did I stop having them. As Dr. Sarno says, TMS "penicillin" heals us.

Claire Weekes' books are the best for conquering our anxiety fears. She's been there and writes from experience.
It's all a matter of facing our fear of anything and doing what we're afraid of. Gradually, in small steps, until we conquer our fear.
Each small victory gives confidence to go farther, longer, to face our fear.

As Franklin Roosevelt told Americans during the Great Depression of the 1930s,
"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

Where are leaders like him when we need them today?

 

[Peggy]

And, for me, panic attacks = cannot inhale, muscles so tight that it feels like my ribs are all cracked and the broken ends are jabbing into my body. They have very little ramp-up (maybe a 10 sec warning) and boom, full force like a safe has been dropped on me. And, even thought I tell psychologists that I KNOW I'm not going to die, that doesn't change the physiological response to not being able to inhale because your entire abdomen and throat have locked up. So, their whole solution was that if I'd just admit that I wasn't going to die (and I know this because if you pass out the body relaxes), then the panic attacks will go away. They just could not buy into that fact that I did know that and that somehow my body still refused to follow my conscious control. They would say breath, and I would breath as best I could... but you try to deeply inhale with a dozen knives stuck into your body all over. It's just like a calf spasm, you try to lengthen the muscles and it pulls back and spasms all the harder. In the end, their solution was Ativan which makes no sense because it takes 20 min to take effect and my panic attacks are usually under control by then, except that then I'd be too doped up to do anything for the next 5 hours.

I feel for you on this one. I get the no breathing. Lasts about a minute. I have been getting them for years and just a few weeks ago I found a clip on you-tube about laryngospasm (throat spasms). The best solution is to breathe less, through a straw perhaps. Here is a clip:

Maybe you can relate to this. There is also a pressure point behind the ears that helps relieve throat spasms (assuming it is throat and not lungs, etc. that are reducing the breathing) that doctors use after surgery if a spasm is coming on. If I apply pressure to the spot I can feel my sinuses clear so I know it's in the right area. Here is an article on that:

http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S0034-70942008000600008&script=sci_arttext&tlng=en

Hope this helps, maybe I am out in left field though, you will know when you watch the video.

I assume you have been checked by a doctor and eliminated all the obvious things that can go wrong with breathing.

 

[Buckeye]

wow, thanks! I'll look at those. And, yes, for one type of attack, my throat closes and I can't talk or anything.

 

[Steve Ozanich]

Panic attacks are a huge part of TMS. TMS often exists to prevent the experience of them.

 

[balto]

to me, tms, anxiety, panic attack, and thousand more are just mind body symptoms. Negative emotions/thoughts started/triggered it. Fear and worry maintain it, Condition and learn behavior prolong it.
If you can take away your negative thoughts you stop producing more mind body symptoms.
If you can take away all your fear and worry you will greatly reduce its intensity.
If you can de-conditioning all your conditioning responds, you will be back to your true self which is no more pain/panic,

 

[Peter1900]

Hi,
I had back pain for years. When my pain went away, thanks to dr Sarno genius discovery, I started having panic attacks or anxiety for no reason. I believe, I am having typicall syndrom imperative, if remember correctly. Did anyone have similar experience ? I am really shocked by the force of tms. It would help to know I am not alone in it.
Thank you for reply.