It has been a week since I wrote my last post. I said I would continue writing as a series to "That's My Panic Talking Again". My intention was to endure the turn my panic was taking me and hope to understand it and then tell you what I found out. As it happens I did find out something I already knew but forgot and have not mentioned here before.
Some of us with panic or anxiety have noticed that we are more in touch with and sensitive to our surroundings. By that I mean the people we come in contact with or have a soulful connection with affects us. I can pass someone and feel a flutter of something that sets off my panic. It is the energy of the person I just passed or am even speaking with. They may have something they are anxious about or their emotions are running high and I can "feel" them.
What I have experienced is that when someone I love is in trouble or feeling pain or sorrow I can actually feel it. I don't know it at the time. I experience heightened anxiety that will go into full blown panic for no reason at all. I'm just going about my day or night and boom....I'm hit with a tidal wave. I use my tools, call someone and can usually come down from it but I'm always sitting there wondering what just hit me like a ton of bricks or why do I feel sick? Why am I scared?
I will tell you a story of something that happened to me that will show you what I mean. I had the opportunity to go for a visit that took me over seas. I was to be gone one week. Filled with excitement at the thought of being able to "get away from it all" I boarded my plane and a few hours later was in one of my favorite places where I always feel peaceful and calm. After a short time I started feeling sick. I had some pains in my stomache and chest. I thought it might be something I ate. I tried different things to "physically" feel better. Nothing was working. At dinner one night I was overwhelmed with a feeling of dread and panic set in. I couldn't breathe and in front of everyone I had to get up and get some air. It immediately turned into tears and fear. Everyone wondered what was wrong and I had no idea.
That night I had a nagging urge to call home. Noone answered the phone. I tried 3 different family members and nothing. I began to understand and worry set in. Finally I got a call back and was told my mother was in the hospital. Her lungs were filled with fluid. She would be there the entire time I was away. The interesting thing was that when I found out what was going on my symptoms stopped. I began to feel better and to feel the peace and calmness I always was able to feel when I visited. It was like my spirit was feeling and my body was reacting but my head had no idea what was going on. It manifested in panic.
It happened again this week. And again I came to find out my mother fell and broke a rib. I have many more stories like that but I think you get my meaning. I believe that we are very sensitive to the energy around us. We can let it pound us with symptoms or we can ask the question, Is someone I know in trouble. It helps to know. It just helps us. We can process it. Move it to the part of the brain that doesn't focus on "panic" - "the human brain responds like this goes back to our prehistoric past
where humans needed their bodies to respond quickly to a perceived
physical threat. What this new research is telling us, is that people’s
mental activity during a panic attack is suddenly moving to the mid
brain, resulting in the heightened state of fear and panic. In short, a separate part of your brain becomes more active during a panic attack."
The website I get this information from is here. I want to tell you that I DO NOT agree with what this site says about breathing not being effective. I find it to be very effective. Take what works for you from the site. We are all different.
Now that I know what's been increasing my general, almost constant state of anxiety I can move on to something else. I wish I could have focused sooner on something else but as I said in my last post I am in new territory here and have learned what to do next time this happens!
