My wife has been having gnarly anxiety/ panic attacks for 3 days now. We have been to the ER, physician care, and she went to a crisis center last night... nothing seems to be helping. I’ve been doing all I can to help her but I’m getting exhausted as well. She stayed with her mom last night so I could rest up for work.. hopefully she starts feeling better soon.
Anyone have any tips for helping someone with these attacks?
Intense physical excercise, meditation, and educating yourself about what exactly panic/anxiety is.
I been through it to a severe extent and that was the trifecta for me.
Understand what’s going on in your brain when you have a panic attack (this was explained to me by a therapist btw I didn’t just figure it out). Your brain can fuck up like any other part of the body. It’s sending you extreme DANGER DANGER messages when it doesn’t need to be, and you can legit feel scared you’re gonna die right then even tho there is no threat.
When it’s new and you’re clueless it’s extra scary, the better you understand it the more you can not let it get the best of you, eventually kinda roll your eyes like “oh word, I’m dying again? I don’t believe you”
Another key thing is remembering that it will pass. It always does, every time, because nothings fucking happening or wrong. Your body doesn’t maintain that level adrenaline for too long. It goes up and comes down like a wave. Just wait it out. You remind her all this stuff when she’s in it. Watch something funny, make her laugh.
Start the day by running or kicking the shit outta yourself in the gym and it’s harder to get worked up like that. I lift weights and have muscles now purely as a result of the harshest time I went through.
Learn the basics of breathing techniques and meditation and do that in the mornings too. Hit me up if you want more advice. I got better without any drugs, which some lazy doctors may default to (no diss to those who decide they need psych drugs).