You obviously get really bad attacks if you feel like you're going to die. Do you do anything to manage them?

Being in the space of impending death is sort of like the main signal I have that this is a panic attack as opposed to just nervousness or regular anxiety. To manage them I first try deep breathing. Once I learned to use abdomen instead of simply breathing from the chest more slowly I was able to relax using this. If it still escalates then I will lay down both because I feel like I'm going to faint anyway and I feel safer horizontal, and hopefully laying down will reduce my pulse rate. If that doesn't work, then I try to distract myself, which incidentally explains why I've been on this site so much lately (). By the time I'm about to call 911 I pop a xanax because really that's all they will do for me at the ER anyway and this saves me the cost of an ambulance ride and hospital stay. :cool:

I suppose I don't really have anything useful to say, but...hi.

Panic attacks suck ass. I'm sorry you are having so many. Do you know what seems to be setting them off? Is it being off the alcohol or more than that?

While you may try, I don't know that you will rival the amount of time I seem to spend on this site on a daily basis, so if you are around and just need to talk, feel free to pm me.

Take care.

MM and Z thanks for caring. Just dropping by is useful. It's not like I'm currently capable of taking advice anyway.

I don't know what sets the attacks off, but they are fucking pissed right now. It's not so much being off alcohol as what that represents. My addictions are like oh no what's happening we better fuck his shit up! If I don't drink I start to feel like going back to the illegal shit.

I willingly walked into my addictions as I was suicidal at the time. I couldn't think of any better way to go out than high as fuck. They want to collect now if I'm gonna try and get sober. I was shocked when the calendar hit 2005 and I was still alive. Hence everything since then has been borrowed time.

In contrast the "borrowed time" has been worth it - I've had much more happiness than pain in my adult life. Now if I include my childhood, though, on net I wish I was never born. In this light it seems perfectly rational to bury my past under beer cans. Then the doctors say I'm fucking up and hey they are doctors so better listen right? Ooops. They had no idea what was in that closet.