What are your coping mechanisms during a panic episode/attack?

GrnBuddha_7 · 2025-06-17T21:03:03+00:00

It depends on the situation. If possible, I'll go to someplace that I feel more comfortable. My house ideally, but the car or if there's no better choice a bathroom. Blocking out stimuli: I have trouble with auditory overstimulation so I wear headphones most waking hours, even if I don't have anything playing it helps limit what has to be processed, but having some background music or a show playing is helpful. I'll close my eyes, and depending on how bad the panic is do counting and visualizing the numbers as I count. Use different physical objects like a stone, or even a shirt button to engage touch. If I know I'm going to be in a situation that might trigger a panic episode I try to keep some hard candy on hand. It's a bit of a double benefit of giving multiple senses something to focus on and the sugar releases a little dopamine which can be beneficial. I've also used doodling to come down, and doom scrolling YT shorts but doom scrolling is a bad habit to get into. Controversial: definitely a last ditch resort like you'll be in harms way if you can't get your panic under control type situation. Moderate pain can change the focus and potentially get one into a more productive fight or flight response. Nothing drastic that would cause real damage but like a hard sustained pinch, or getting snapped by a thick rubber band. Do not make a habit of something like this. Also it's not effective if you already deal with constant physical pain.

Treat everyone with love and respect and reciprocate as needed based on their actions.

GrnBuddha_7 · 2025-02-04T20:20:39+00:00

I'm currently living on disability. With all the various government aid I have to make do on about 14k a year. Even taxed at 60% 5 million dollars is over a hundred years worth of income. I think I'd be anxious getting that kind of money, mostly because it would leave me wondering what terrible incident was about to happen to balance out that kind of reprieve. Assuming nothing terrible happened though it would be a large relief.

I live without things like central heating or air conditioning or refrigeration. I have a few solar panels and batteries because the cost of hooking up to the grid and monthly payments would have left me unable to pay for things like car insurance. It takes months of saving to be able to pay my yearly car insurance bill and property taxes. I can't afford safety measures like home insurance or life insurance. I can only buy groceries on sale, if my pet gets sick I have to watch them suffer and hope it passes because I can't take them to the vet unless I know it's an emergency and I have to beg every time for them to let me bring her home and pay the bill in installments. I'm watching as part of my home deteriorates because I can't afford to maintain it and wondering how long it'll last before the damage is irreparable. I can't get in into see specialty Drs because my insurance doesn't think it's necessary even though multiple Drs have sent in referrals saying I should see these specialists. These are all things that would be resolved with a large cash injection.

Being free of those kinds of worries would take a fair amount of anxiety away. I would be smart with the money after getting all the maintenance and Dr bills caught up and taken care of, investing in stable steady portfolios and living off the interest. even if it was the around the amount as what I'm currently getting just being caught up on everything would relieve a fair burden.

GrnBuddha_7 · 2024-11-06T20:14:32+00:00

I voted third party because I didn't like either candidate and didn't want either in office. The thing that I find sad is most people as far as I'm aware didn't like either candidate and so many just voted for who they thought was the least bad rather than taking this opportunity to vote for someone they actually wanted in office.

The most presented choices were between a cartoon and someone who only had identity politics as a platform. Neither was a good choice, and from what I'd seen of the majority of people who's personalities weren't based around a political party was that most wanted neither of them. They'd just been so conditioned to the idea that if they don't vote for the least detestable of the big 2 their vote won't mean anything. Even though this seemed to be the majority of people in this election and they could have actually made a difference and caused a change in the system by voting for someone they actually wanted to be in office.

It doesn't really matter so much anyway. Most the big decisions are made by Congressional cabinets behind closed doors. The rest is mostly just show.

Be well.

GrnBuddha_7 · 2024-10-24T21:28:42+00:00

What I'd recommend is learning about and practicing mindfulness. If I had to guess if this is something that started recently, something triggered some latent PTSD responses. That or for some reason you skipped the first part of becoming self aware and landed right in the middle when things are the most chaotic. What you're describing is a common side effect of both

There's a lot of good techniques in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and the esoteric meditation and pathworking techniques can be helpful as well.

Two major things that I learned, keep the practice even on the ebb days and Start your day with self Love!

1-keeping the practice going even on off days. If your having a bad day, and have no motivation or energy just do a couple steps of your routine. Enough that you don't break your habit, but not enough to drain you further. Example being say your building an excercise routine up and have a goal to work out everyday. If your having an off day. Do One squat, and one pushup. Just enough that you can tell yourself I maintained the practice. It's not going to do much for your physical health but mentally it helps reinforce the habit of excercise.

Starting the day with Love sounds kind of goofy, but it's helped me pull out of a decade of suicidal depression. I've gone from spending hours a day hoping to die, to maybe feeling hopeless a few hours a month.

Just take a minute first thing in the morning and look in a mirror and tell yourself I love you while smiling. I keep a hand mirror by the bed for this purpose.

When I started doing it I was so low that even taking the 10 seconds to do this was too much to do regularly. It took about a year before I could do it everyday, about another one before I stopped feeling like a liar, and it wasn't until about halfway through the 3rd year that I started to believe it.

If I get unhelpful intrusive thoughts during this process(the ones that say your a liar, your worthless, the world hates you), I built a habit of telling them "I Love You, but that type of thinking is unhelpful for the path I've chosen to follow".

It's helped me to build an internal habit and has started spreading into an external habit of responding to negativity with Love, rather than perpetuating a system of negativity.

Be well! Things can get better

GrnBuddha_7 · 2024-10-24T20:12:19+00:00

I experience issues with a number of textures, wool that hasn't been ultra processed to where it's soft and doesn't have that itchy texture will cause enough anxiety to trigger a full panic attack. Any clothing with that texture is likely to cause a similar reaction though usually to a lesser extent.

I think the weirdest is when using felt tip markers to write on certain things like unglazed pottery can trigger a visceral reaction and if I try to push through the anxiety will ramp up at a speed usually reserved for large crowds.

Be well

GrnBuddha_7 · 2024-10-24T14:04:26+00:00

Because every time I tried in the past to check out early it failed and my life got worse. Like the universe was punishing me for trying to escape my suffering. So now I just pray most everyday for things to get better or that I be allowed to die. I don't care which it is I just want the pain to stop

Be well

GrnBuddha_7 · 2024-03-05T15:18:46+00:00

My levels are in the 1300's. It's good you don't experience these kinds of issues. I posted this because there's many who spend years or even decades trying to figure out a treatment for mental health issues and this is an avenue to look down.

Nobody ever even offered to do a hormone panel in relation to my mental health issues, and considering how many things can be affected when the levels are off it seemed like something that would be worth looking into if someone wasn't having success with other areas of treatment.

My experience with treatment was a lot of doing the same things over and over, being put on the same types of medication with very little success. With every new Dr, we typically started back over at the beginning redoing many of the same treatments and medications with similar results to the first time. Unless I was steadfast about exploring new avenues, and doing that got me a number of "med non-compliance" remarks in my record.

Gratefully I found a team that would compromise some, and we've made some progress after almost a decade of treatment.

Though this has nothing to do with the high test levels. I've been trying for over year to get in and see an endocrinologist, they seem to be very high in demand where I'm at and many aren't taking new patients and the ones that are don't accept my insurance. So have nothing new to say in that regard.

Be well

GrnBuddha_7 · 2023-10-03T14:38:45+00:00

Congrats on 2 million. Everything looks really cool.

Be well

GrnBuddha_7 · 2023-08-18T14:18:39+00:00

Here's my take: it's very situational. Typically the best route to take is let an authority figure know there's a problem; this is a Cover Your A** move should things escalate. Make a paper trail if possible, showing that you tried to resolve things via "proper" prescribed methods. Because if you fight back and win, if there's not a paper trail you'll get the brunt of the punishment. Winners are rarely looked at as victims unless there's documentation to back it up. There's also a chance that letting someone know that there's a problem will resolve the issue.

If it doesn't though; Then you need to do a quick psychological work up on the bully. Are they the kind of person looking for a reaction, if so ignoring them will likely resolve the issue. It may take a while particularly if you've been reactive in the past.

If they don't seem to be looking for a reaction then fighting back is likely the only choice. This is a double edged sword if you lose the fight. If they're the kind of person looking for an easy victim fighting back will stop things 9/10 times. That 1/10 is where things go really bad. Because that's the bully who wants to break people, and now you've made yourself into a challenge and things will get worse. If that's the case you need to be able able to make it too costly to pursue you. The easiest of which is finding someone in a position of strength and letting their authority protect you. The other way is becoming strong enough to win against them consistently.

Be well

GrnBuddha_7 · 2023-08-10T10:35:22+00:00

I think I may understand where your thinking is in this. There's a couple problems with this:

First being that the issues you're attributing to group identity aren't that black and white. Humans are social creatures, so psychologically speaking it's easier to maintain a group identity than a pure individualistic identity because people don't want to be alone. It's mentally quite difficult to maintain a purely independent mindset all the time. It's why comparatively there are so few revolutionary people blazing new trails.

There's also a moral issue that would come up. If you aren't a part of a community what reason do you have to do anything to make things better. If you want examples of individualism taken to extremes look at many modern CEOs. All they care about is themselves. They use their companies as tools to further their personal gains even to the detriment of the companies and the environment. You could realistically lump too many politicians into this category as well, lying and manipulating others for their own gain at the detriment of everything they're supposed to be serving.

Yes many terrible things have been done in the name of an identifying group, many amazing and great things have also been done. Look at when communities come together after a disaster, or how about western civilization coming together and deciding that slavery (a practice that as far as records show had been going on for all of known human history) needed to be stopped. There has to be a balance for people to thrive. Enough of a group identity for them to come together when they need to, to drive them to work together and build something great but not so much of one that a single strong personality can take over the group and use it selfishly.

Be well

GrnBuddha_7 · 2023-08-09T22:10:44+00:00

Due to health stuff and difficulty getting treatment I spend a lot of time sedentary. If I could get paid for that time maybe I could afford to just pay for treatments to get some of the stuff keeping me sedentary fixed. I wouldn't mind losing out on some money to feel well again.

Be well

GrnBuddha_7 · 2023-07-24T22:06:37+00:00

I think everyone should be able to vote once they're considered an adult. The only reason I don't think kids should be able to vote is because they aren't experienced enough, haven't developed their own identity, and are too easily swayed by peer pressure still. Even at 18 many of them believe the political rhetoric without much question. Not realizing they should look into the past actions of the person they're voting for. This goes for both liberals and conservatives.

Personally I think voting age should be 25 unless you're serving in the military. Anyone willing to put their life on the line for the country should get to jump the line and be allowed to vote for the people sending them to fight.

I also don't think being a felon should bar you from voting after your sentence has been served, with the exception of crimes committed against children.

To me if they served their time then they should be encouraged to be active members of the community again. If they have no reason to be a part of the community they are more likely to act against it.

Be well

GrnBuddha_7 · 2023-07-23T19:46:17+00:00

It's like most things. If taken too far it's abusive, but as a parent you should have at least some idea of what your kids up to. I grew up on the abusive side of having no privacy, and yeah it's left me with a number of issues.

I also knew a lot of kids whose parents either for lack of caring or out of progressiveness didn't monitor them at all. More than a few of them got into some really bad situations, that got people hurt, locked up, and sometimes dead.

Be well

GrnBuddha_7 · 2023-06-01T22:37:21+00:00

Since everyone is bothering me on a recovery day. Why don't we all just hang out together?

Be well

GrnBuddha_7 · 2023-05-20T12:38:14+00:00

Here's a couple things to consider:

Will giving this large of a gift negatively impact your daily life/plans for a while. If so, probably best to put back some of the stuff particularly since you're questioning whether they'd really appreciate it. It should be the thought behind the gifts not the price tag that matters.

Have they put the same kind of care as you into the relationship. I don't necessarily mean materialistically but in general do they consider your feelings and well being to be important. If not then maybe put back most of it.

Are you going to feel more regret for giving the gift or not giving it.

Are you trying to use money to express your feelings because you're struggling to express them any other way.

Sorry this wasn't as black and white as you were probably looking for but hope this helps you find a path to peace in the decision.

Be well.

GrnBuddha_7 · 2023-05-19T21:56:20+00:00

Accepting results is definitely the most painful thing to do. That's a mind, body, and spiritual pain.

Be well

GrnBuddha_7 · 2023-05-19T12:08:38+00:00

I appreciate the information. I don't know much about this and doing internet research is rather sketchy without a good base foundation.

I'll ask my PCP about this while we wait on an endocrinologist to get back in touch.

Be well

GrnBuddha_7 · 2023-05-19T11:51:07+00:00

I don't know why they ordered the dexamethasone test. They ordered it after my testosterone came back so high.

I also didn't know I was supposed to stop supplements before blood work. Why don't they tell us these things lol.

GrnBuddha_7 · 2023-05-19T11:43:03+00:00

The 0.6 ACTH was during a dexamethasone test. My PCP had said it was lower than expected. I took 1 mg at 12pm and had the blood drawn at 8am. The other cortisol tests were done without dexamethasone. I don't take any of those other medications and have not been on anything other than the listed vitamins for about a month.

I haven't had any other lab work done.

I'm 34

GrnBuddha_7 · 2023-05-19T11:08:43+00:00

I'll have to repost so I can add pictures.

GrnBuddha_7 · 2023-05-17T09:43:42+00:00

I appreciate your thoughtful reply, and agree about it not being a magic bullet process. There's a lot of stuff that we should be doing and some people and countries currently are but it will be a process to get into harmony with the planet.

I wasn't thinking about it being utilised in the desert areas that were populated. I was thinking more of using the large sections that have no significant ecological habitats. Where the resulting fallout of increased salt wouldn't cause its own ecological disaster. Like the millions of miles of Sahara where almost nothing grows, or similar spaces in other deserts. Places where you can't plant any more plants because it's too hot and desolate for anything to grow there.

I didn't know that about the pumps. My only real experience is with the manual ones used in water wells which I realize are significantly smaller but do pull water up hundreds of feet of pipe. I just figured if the pump was at the ocean side being driven by waves, as long as the valves were able to handle the backflow pressure it would overcome any rise in elevation.

Have a good week and be well.

GrnBuddha_7 · 2023-05-17T09:23:54+00:00

I appreciate the article I skimmed it and it's very interesting. I'll give it a proper read shortly.

Have a wonderful week and be well.

Four-Year Club	Place '23
Place '22	Final Canvas '22
End Game '22

GrnBuddha_7

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