anxiety attacks...
 

they wont stop... had one last night again... i can tell there coming i just haven't figured out how to stop them. I want to stay strong for everyone but they just put me in this vulnerable spot... they make me hate myself... help... i hate them.

I dont have them often, but what helps me is to do a deep breathing exercise. As silly as i thought the idea sounded at first, it really does help. Breath in slowly, counting to, say, four, while you do so, then breath out counting to four through the mouth. I explained it badly, but it helps me to relax a bit. Sometimes i'll blare music and it serves to help me get through it until it goes away. A friend of mine has medication that she takes whenever she feels anxious and she says it helps.

Otherwise, all i can say is that knowing it was a panic attack and being able to say its this and no im not crazy helped me tons. I started to be able to identify what can trigger me and what can help make me anxious enough to get one. I find that in the moment, telling myself to calm down, its just anxiety, taht it'll pass, helps too. Cause its just your body reacting to mental/emotional/etc stress as if it were a physical danger to your life and making your body go into the fight or flight response, and thats only temporary. Deep breathing can help to lessen the symptoms, at least for me.

I personally have had panic attacks for years and still get them
a few things i have found that will help is to breathe deeply into a paper bag
(it has to be paper, we don't want you suffocating yourself)
try to say out loud the alphabet, and really concentrate on doing so, or reciting a nursery rhyme, our brains are not capable of having a panic attack and reciting things at the same time.
if i think of anything else i'll add some more x
i normally as soon as i get the tingle in my fingers take a diazepam as that helps to take the edge off of the panic attack.

its usually during any high stress situation... i can have it at night right before i go to bed and wake up still shaking, thanks for the advice, i will try those out... i just feel like the attack stresses me out even more and pushes me to want to cut and other things that i am trying to stay away from... i feel that cutting is the only way to breathe during an attack...