OCD Action

sandy
Member

Hi everyone,
I have been trying to manage as you know my OCD while waiting for CBT and i have been managing ok but waiting for it all to come crashing around me again.
Well i experienced my first panic attack on saturday. I did not know what was going on it was very scary.
My niece helped me concentrate on my breathing but my legs would not hold me up they kept giving way.
I was in an hysterical way it was bloody awfull. I could not believe this was happening to me.
Why do they just happen and that i have never had one before really got to me. Does this mean its gonna happen again and again to me as i dont ever want that time again.
Is a panic attack quite common in ocd suffers?

Cheers
Sandyx

Sun Aug 2 2009 20:47:09 #
Wombat140
Member

It's fairly common in OCD sufferers I think. It is harmless actually but, as you have found, pretty nasty while it lasts. Hope it doesn't happen again, I don't think it necessarily will. I think some people just get them once and never again, though I could be wrong.

Sun Aug 2 2009 20:50:35 #
Moocher
Member

I don't think panic attacks do just happen. They could happen because you've been suffering chronic stress, or because you are forcing yourself into situations that you don't want to be in. I think it's basically a reaction to being out of control in your life. It shouldn't happen again if you slow things down and learn to recognise the first signs of when things are getting too much for you.
I'll tell you what else helps. Recognising that all a panic attack is is a sudden rush of adrenalin. Your body has just accidentally shot off too much adrenalin and that is all that is causing those feelings. And also knowing that even though you are thinking that something terrible is going to happen to you, that it actually won't and that all that will happen is that you will start to calm down again and life will go on.
Can I recommend a book that helped me? It's called "Panic Attacks" by Christine Ingham. It really helped me to overcome my panic attacks by teaching me exactly what they are.

Mon Aug 3 2009 14:53:56 #
Ashlee P
Member

i remember my first panic attack and it was in school, i also suffer from OCD and my head just started spinning as the unwanted/bad thoughts in my mind became too much, ive only ever had 1 though

Tue Aug 4 2009 9:34:19 #
sandy
Member

Thank you to all that replied it has been a great help reading your replys. I am hopefull that maybe it was a one off but life has a funny way of throwing things at you. Like i said i do not want to experience another panic attack ever.
Still no appointtment yet for my CBT but im hanging in there.
Im managing to keep my OCD under control at the moment, not sure how im doing it though but going with it.
The doctor gave me a talking to last week not to expect things to take a turn for the worse and at the moment i am trying to be postive and not manically cleaning ever where.
I have had a couple of anxiety attacks but i have shortended them which is good.
I try and tell my self when i get up "keep smiling and dont fall into OCD mode" it seems to be working at this moment in time.
Thank you all again as i find this site has been a great help and also my partner she has been my rock through this tough time.

Sandy x

Thu Aug 6 2009 7:23:29 #
frazzledmom
Member

Sorry to hear about the first panic attack, nasty things they are, I have had quite a few they tend to get worse during really stressful times, I have also had them when I thought everything was going good. I find it helps to recognize the first signs I imagine it's probably different for everyone. For me I just starts with some heart palpitations and I get lightheaded,sometimes I feel like I'm having a heart attack( i've actually gone to the hospital because I though I was going to die) I just stop what I'm doing I sit down take some long deep breaths and start counting back from 10 to try and clear my head. If you recognize it early it's easier to overcome.

frazzledmom

Sat Aug 8 2009 16:28:04 #
Rikki_bristol
Member

Panic attacks can become a regular habbit and research suggests that OCD sufferers are likely to experience them atleast once, although they do happen in completely healthy people, it's all about the relationship between the cognitive thinking pathways we OCD people are confined to and they way they make us produce more neurochemicals, which in turn make us repeat and go further down the same thought pattern. Recognising physical symptoms is great because you will already know where it's coming from, but what you should learn to do is recognise your cognitive triggers. My case is complex as I have comorbid conditions but generally you should keep a note of what your thoughts are, group them into things like normal thoughts, depressed/unhappy but normal thoughts and then intrusive thoughts. For example everytime I used to put a key in a lock, i used to have a flashback of an old memory in primary school about accidently locking my favourite teachers draw and he was coming up the stairs and I couldnt get the lock open and get the key out. so everytime it would result in a panic attack, the reason/thought is a "normal" thought, but still in the same context of OCD as it is an intrusive thought. Once I learned to recognise that everytime I walked upto a door with a lock my mind was thinking of the memory subconsiously in the first instance, thus producing neurochemicals that weren't useful to me, thus forcing me to be locked in that same thinking pattern and go deeper til it become a full blown panic attack.

Follow your physical symptoms and recognise what thoughts are making you feel that way, then when you get to your CBT sessions you can target those thoughts and reduce the panic attacks, depending on how well you practise and take on the CBT. Ofcourse everyone needs these things to be tailored to their own individual needs.

Hope this helps,

Ricardo

Sat Aug 8 2009 17:03:37 #