Panic attacks?

[chaim]

I'm happy to say I've never experienced anxiety attacks or panic attacks.  My brother does have anxiety disorder.  Makes it hard to live a normal life.  A combination of meds and a good therapist have done wonders for him.

I did suffer from depression for years (most of my childhood and my first few adult years).  Looking back I basically used cognitive behavioral techniques on myself.  When in a depression you make it worse with your thinking- "no one likes me", "I am no good (fill in the blank)", "I am a bad person", etc.  I simply decided that I was going to beat it, I learned to recognize the first depressive thoughts, and I combated them.  For example, "no one likes me" was followed by my reminding myself of all my friends, that was usually followed by the depression trying to win with "but do they REALLY like you" and I had to remind myself of how close some were, what they've done for me, or what they've put up with that only a good friend would.  After a couple years I beat it and I'm happy to say I haven't had a major depressive episode in probably close to 15 years (I did have a short one, a few months, about 5 or 6 years ago).

I also have (much lower level of psychiatric issue) ADHD.  When I have too much on my plate I may seek medication (very rare), but generally I try to live with it.  I try to maintain a job where my supervisor is lenient on lateness (adults with ADHD are notorious for having trouble with punctuality), I try to do jobs that are interesting, that provide diverse experiences, or that allow me to move a lot (it is important to not become bored at work for someone with ADHD, and we get bored very easily), I need to keep a good calander and be outwardly organized since I'm not very inwardly organized (I'm not so good at this step), and I make sure my friends understand so they won't get too upset when I say something that seems stupid (our minds are going at 100MPH often times so our thoughts and actions/words are often in different places).

As I said, people who've never been through this just have no understanding. They seem to be more tolerant of heroin junkies than they are of people who suffer from anxiety.

That is too true with all mental illnesses.  Usually it is friends and acquaintances who are actually wanting to be helpful.  Well meaning individuals who say something like "just don't think about it" or "just get over it" not realizing that they aren't helping their friends/family/co-workers/etc but making it worse.  Right now I work in the Eating Disorders unit of a psychiatric hospital and as bad as it is for people with any psych issue, it seems even worse for them (even people with psychiatric issues can't understand why they "won't just eat" and have no sympathy because "they are doing it to themselves" not realizing that they'd love to be able to eat and live normally).

[Antibubba]

And it isn't like all depressions are the same.  I've had the kind when you cannot move, cannot sleep, cannot get out of bed, and thinking is a difficult, painful process.  The barely walking undead.  I've also had the "closing down around you" kind, where your whole life and being sort of implodes.  You become invisible.  You talk to people and they don't even seem to be aware of you, like you're slightly out of phase with the rest of the universe; I've even started seeing myself as if I was watching over my shoulder.

And then there is Melancholy, which is like one of those "Crow" graphic novels, or a well thought out dystopia, and suffering serves a useful, even noble, purpose-as if my suffering somehow alleviates the pain of the world a little (pretty Christ-like for a Jewboy, eh?).  Everything is harder to get through, but my creativity kicks in.  It's like being inside Edgar Allan Poe.  It's the scariest one, because a part of me doesn't want it to end; it's a glorious pain, a keening suffering joy and honor.

Snap out of THAT!

Have I said "Thank God for modern medicine" yet?

If, as so many of us here believe, TSHTF, guess what I'll miss most about civilization?

[InfidelSerf]

For the most part I probably come from your dad's line of thinking.
I'm a huge skeptic of most psychological conditions.

I WAS going to ask if you could describe what an anxiety attack was like.

But Antibubba damn near GAVE me one with his description

But try to imagine you woke up to find out that Ted Kennedy was President, Hillary was VP, Schumer was Attorney General, and the head of Homeland Security is Sarah Brady.  Feinstein is heading up BATFE.

On a serious note.
I can't say that I've ever experience anything to that degree.

I do however have a strange problem that pops out of the blue.  I have no idea what causes it, but know the instant it's going to start.
It first happened years ago when I was at Steamboat Springs, CO for the vintage motorcycle race weekend they used to have there.
I will get the worst case of the shivers.. I get real cold, like my body is begining to experience hypothermia.  It overwhelms me and the only thing I can due is to bundle up and ride it out.  
I first thought it was simply that I WAS cold.   But it's happened to me when the weather is quite warm.
I'd say since then I've experienced it about 2-4 times a year.

Certainly not life altering.. just annoying.