Anxiety/Panic Attacks/Stress/Meltdowns - tips please!

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Does anybody have any non-chemical suggestions on how to deal with those moments when you entire body tenses up and you just know you're about to explode?

Unfortunately, I can't really think of any solutions at the moment.

Tim

When I have meltdowns, I usually go take a blanket and roll my self like a taco, and then have somebody put weight on me, or I'll just go lay down, and put my tempurpedic pillow over my face, weight helps me a lot!

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Being Normal Is Vastly Overrated

Well...I have these relaxation tapes and they tell me to breathe in and hold my breath for 8 to 10
seconds and then to let it out. It seems to help. It does kind of calm me down. You count slowly to
8 or 10..you know like 1000 -1 1000-2 kind of thing. Hope it helps.

Yoga and martial arts emphasize breath control to keep emotions in check. Try DaQwerk's suggestion. If you need a violent movement, try blowing the air out hard a couple of times then go to exhaling normally. Be careful to not get an oxygen buzz.

Playing music helps me. If I play for about an hour each day, minimum, I'll have fewer meltdowns. That is, if I can't avoid the situations that trigger them. Exercise also makes them less frequent. When I have one, I just try to get to a place where I can be alone until it stops.

I have meltdowns, on average, once every 3 months. Usually, when that happens, I do one of my many projects, or I exercise.

Tim

One of the best ways to counteract the stress of a difficult situation when you feel all panicky is do some deep breathing exercises.
Simply just take in a deep breathe and blow it out slowly...and do it for several times. It helps to release the tension in your
body muscles, too.

I curl up on the floor in the foetal position... so I don't know how to help you. It's been a good long time since I last had a full on meltdown though.

EDIT: Actually i might have a solution of some kind. I used to get quite a few when I first came to Florida. My father, sister and I were living at my aunt's before we got on our feet. Must have been a meltdown every couple weeks. I had my aunt talking to me much of the time.

There's supposedly something called circular breathing that helps with panic attacks. I've never found an exact description on the net as to how to do it except to pay for a course/video on how to do it.

Great post ! I sniffed some lavender earlier it works quite well even better than more hardcore therapies. I once tried valium and it made me jittery.

Ok, best thing about this thread so far is it's reminded me I have to exercise! I wondered why I had gotten worse recently, now it seems obvious to me that part of it is because I haven't gone out cycling. Its interesting to see that other people report this as being helpful too. Sod the cold, I'll be out on my bike this weekend!

Sub point - A friend of mine is so lovely she's actually asked what she can do when I start to meltdown. My answer was that I didn't know, other than 'don't touch me!!' What would everyone else have said?

When I'm about to completely freak out I'll recite things to myself. It can be just about anything. Lyrics to a song, names of people in my family, my house number, but mostly I use poems that I've memorized and prayers. The repetition of words helps me take myself out of a stressful situtation.

When I feel like I'm going to privately melt down I listen to music. I turn off all the lights in the room so that there's no visual stimulation and put my headphones on. Once the music is so loud that I can't hear anything else I pace back and forth. Usually 30 mintues of this will even me out for a whole week. It is, however, a difficult habit to explain to people. ^_^

Headphones, and a web enabled cell phone. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.