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Topic Tuesday //Supporting a loved one through a panic attack // Tues 22 Jan, 7pm AEDT

Unknown userMember04 Jan 2019, 12:02 pm AEDT

Topic Tuesday //Supporting a loved one through a panic attack // Tues 22 Jan, 7pm AEDT

Panic attacks are overwhelming to go through and can affect anyone, not just those that live with mental health issues. It can be very difficult to see someone you care for in a moment of a panic attack. In this Topic Tuesday we will discuss insights that will help you better support a loved one who experiences panic attacks.

Special Event Note:

For this Topic Tuesday our content team will be reviewing our discussion after the night and will use some of your wonderful insights to help put together a SANE blog post to highlight helpful tips, strategies and thoughts on supporting loved one’s dealing with panic attacks. Quotes will be completely de-identified, your forum username will not be used and therefore your anonymity maintained and respected. If for some reason you do not want any posts quoted, please feel free to e-mail team@saneforums.org

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77 replies

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In response to: Topic Tuesday //Supporting a loved one through a panic attack // Tues 22 Jan, 7pm AEDT

Unknown userMember22 Jan 2019, 7:42 pm AEDT

Re: Topic Tuesday //Supporting a loved one through a panic attack // Tues 22 Jan, 7pm AEDT

Welcome @JPJ - thanks for coming and sharing your insights, it's great to have you join the forum.

That sounds like a really difficult thing to go through - it must have felt a lot better once you could understand what was going on? @Former-Member that sounds like it would have come as a surprise. @Former-Member do you know what may have triggered her to have that reaction?

In response to: Topic Tuesday //Supporting a loved one through a panic attack // Tues 22 Jan, 7pm AEDT

JPJContributor22 Jan 2019, 7:43 pm AEDT

Re: Topic Tuesday //Supporting a loved one through a panic attack // Tues 22 Jan, 7pm AEDT

What’s Dx?

In response to: Topic Tuesday //Supporting a loved one through a panic attack // Tues 22 Jan, 7pm AEDT

Shaz51Senior Contributor22 Jan 2019, 7:45 pm AEDT

Re: Topic Tuesday //Supporting a loved one through a panic attack // Tues 22 Jan, 7pm AEDT

Hi @Former-Member, @Former-Member, @JPJ, @Former-Member, @Former-Member

just finished dinner here

Yes @Former-Member I went over to mr shaz and said to sit down for a little while and breath but he said all he wanted to do was go home now , so I packed the ute and he drove home , don`t know how but when we got home , it was it

In response to: Re: Topic Tuesday //Supporting a loved one through a panic attack // Tues 22 Jan, 7pm AEDT

Unknown userMember22 Jan 2019, 7:46 pm AEDT

Re: Topic Tuesday //Supporting a loved one through a panic attack // Tues 22 Jan, 7pm AEDT

Oh @Former-Member thats awful! But thank you for giving us some insight into what it can feel like for you. Do you have any ideas about triggers for you?

@JPJ dx means diagnosis ☺️

In response to: Re: Topic Tuesday //Supporting a loved one through a panic attack // Tues 22 Jan, 7pm AEDT

Unknown userMember22 Jan 2019, 7:47 pm AEDT

Re: Topic Tuesday //Supporting a loved one through a panic attack // Tues 22 Jan, 7pm AEDT

I know we are all here tonight to get into some of the practicalities of helping someone having a panic attack. It's been good to dig into a bit of what they are, what they look like and all of us here tonight seem to have very different experiences under the same umbrella (if that makes sense ☂️) and please keep sharing that as we go.

Before we delve into what to do’s I thought we could take a bit of an honest moment and share some of the things we have done, or ways we have responded that didn’t work. It’s hard to get things right when loving and supporting someone all the time, we are human after all! Plus seeing a distressing moment can kick our own bodies into survival mode and our reactions can often get ahead of us before we even realise how we are handling the situation!

Getting things wrong mean we can learn from that. So let’s share some maybe tougher but useful experiences of things that didn’t help your loved one when panicking?

In response to: Topic Tuesday //Supporting a loved one through a panic attack // Tues 22 Jan, 7pm AEDT

JPJContributor22 Jan 2019, 7:47 pm AEDT

Re: Topic Tuesday //Supporting a loved one through a panic attack // Tues 22 Jan, 7pm AEDT

16yr old sons panic started when he had an ongoing headache that he thought was something sinister. He thought he had a tumour or something. It’s now managed but rather than pianos attacks he suffers anxiety

In response to: Re: Topic Tuesday //Supporting a loved one through a panic attack // Tues 22 Jan, 7pm AEDT

Unknown userMember22 Jan 2019, 7:50 pm AEDT

Re: Topic Tuesday //Supporting a loved one through a panic attack // Tues 22 Jan, 7pm AEDT

I think she gets really overwhelmed easily - she works a lot of hours and she is tired a lot and I think she isn't very happy in her job. She also has bipolar so I know she gets anxious a lot

In response to: Re: Topic Tuesday //Supporting a loved one through a panic attack // Tues 22 Jan, 7pm AEDT

JPJContributor22 Jan 2019, 7:51 pm AEDT

Re: Topic Tuesday //Supporting a loved one through a panic attack // Tues 22 Jan, 7pm AEDT

It does not help when I tell him he is and will be ok. It definately doesn’t help when I try and talk him through the attack by telling him what it is. We joined some online headspace apps with meditation and that was our biggest breakthroughs during an attack

In response to: Re: Topic Tuesday //Supporting a loved one through a panic attack // Tues 22 Jan, 7pm AEDT

Unknown userMember22 Jan 2019, 7:52 pm AEDT

Re: Topic Tuesday //Supporting a loved one through a panic attack // Tues 22 Jan, 7pm AEDT

@JPJ - good to know that it's now a bit more managed - have you felt like the anxiety has been different to manage? If you don't mind sharing - what was it that worked/helped your son and what didn't when he was having panic attacks?

In response to: Re: Topic Tuesday //Supporting a loved one through a panic attack // Tues 22 Jan, 7pm AEDT

Unknown userMember22 Jan 2019, 7:56 pm AEDT

Re: Topic Tuesday //Supporting a loved one through a panic attack // Tues 22 Jan, 7pm AEDT

Thanks @JPJ - that's really interesting. Has anyone else had this kind of experience in terms of what wasn't working?

@Shaz51 - glad you both got home safe. We are going to talk soon about managing this together with your loved one and will look for some insights on that from you soon!

So everyone, feel free to also share what was it that DID help in the end? Meditation sounds like a good one - often breathing or breath work in the moment can help regulate the oxygen going to your brain which can help the heart rate and shallow breathing. Other things people have found?

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