Posted by Lindenblüte on October 28, 2006, at 15:57:34
In reply to Re: what about Panic Attack Meds?, posted by Phillipa on October 27, 2006, at 11:53:24
Hi Amandafran,
I haven't been keeping up with the boards much, so I don't know what kind of treatment you are getting right now.If you have acute anxiety, and you know the trigger, you may be able to prevent or stop the chest pain, hyperventilating, heart racing feeling you got with your first panic attack. This would be accomplished not through a medicine that acts in your brain, but rather through a medicine that acts on the muscles in your heart and chest to keep them from responding to the surge of adrenalin that happens during panic. That kind of medicine is a beta-blocker. I take 10mg when I am anticipating or experiencing an acute panic attack. Fortunately, I know what my trigger is, and I know how to recognize it. It's stage fright, in my case. I take 10mg propanolol (Inderal). Works very well in the BODY.
However, if your MIND may be the trigger for the anxiety, or if you are still trying to figure out what the panic is related to, you should consider learning some behavioral tricks like breathing, imagery, meditation, yoga, etc.
These things work- imagine how the Lamaze (sp?) breathing technique has helped millions of women endure childbirth labor. You will have to put in some effort to find a technique, and learn it well enough to be able to DO IT when you NEED IT.
CBT, etc.
Okay. Now, maybe you're not up for learning a behavioral technique. Maybe you've mastered several, but you're not confident that they'll be there when you need them.
benzodiazepines. Worried about dependency? Ask for one with a long half-life, that doesn't give you a "rush" of benzodiazepine action. Klonopin comes to mind.
Can't see your pdoc until november. I'm sorry. This sounds really difficult. Well, remember that you've lived all your years with only ONE panic attack. You may be lucky enough to never repeat the experience.
Anecdotally, musicians eat a couple of bananas in the hour prior to a big audition or solo. I have done this once when I ran out of inderal. I still got some of the physical symptoms, but they were not as severe as I had previously experienced. In addition, I was able to play through them, and had a really great audition.
there may be soothing anti-anxiety herbal concoctions (maybe take a stroll through the Alternative archives?)
hugs for you Amandafran, I hope you feel better soon.
-Li
poster:Lindenblüte
thread:698058
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20061028/msgs/698519.html