Panic attack Thursday. Steps to mitigate this 2023.

[oak]

Dental update for Mental Fairy
My comprehensive plan for facing and reducing anxiety going forward

Dental update for Mental Fairy

Ask them to take a PA x-ray to check the apex of the root and make sure there is no dark area around the apex of the root.

Mental Fairy, they did just as you suggested. The X-Ray was negative, and after a few pokes and prods, she guessed that it may have been some plaque/gingivitis.

My comprehensive plan for facing and reducing anxiety going forward

Friends!

Per my dear Bourne Anxiety Workbook, I have a two-fold plan to reduce anxiety going forward:

1. "Problem-solving": directly facing the situations/difficulties/faults that are actively causing my anxiety. Example: if I am lonely, then go to a swing dance. If my tooth hurts, call the dentist. Direct action, promptly effected.

2. Everything else: breathing, light therapy, counseling, exercise, stretching.

The fact is that I had a mental breakdown: I couldn't do "ordinary" aspects of life; in this case, work.

I am thinking of spending 75% of my anxiety-reducing efforts on #1, and if things start to decline spiral, then switch to mostly #2.

Does this sound reasonable, friends? Am I missing anything? Do you think my percentages are off?

[manuel_moe_g]

from my understanding of anxiety and panic attacks, breath patterns can take one into panic/anxiety and can take one out of panic/anxiety

i would move "being very intentional about breath patterns" into #1

please take care, you deserve wild success, Oak!

[manuel_moe_g]

https://www.google.com/search?q=breath+patterns+anxiety+panic

[oak]

Thank you for the encouragement, and resources, Manuel Moe. I am already applying what I've learned from the Google link you sent.

I think I'm really going to take a hard look at how the following contribute to my anxiety:

Breathing
Posture
HALT
Showering/shaving/clean clothes
Exercise

One of the few good things from my 2023 breakdown is that I can't pretend it wasn't a breakdown. Any good idea, including many in what you sent me, are on the table.

The physical and mental are so closely related.

[snoringdog]

Hello Oak,

Breathing yes! Learning that myself. Our breath is always there and is always in the moment. When you concentrate on it, you'll be in the moment too.

My anxiety seems to be coupled to overthinking and rumination. And I find it reduces when I'm taking some physical action, or by forming a concrete plan to address whatever it is that's the trouble.

Anything beyond that leads to a round-and-round rabbit hole of overthinking and anxiety.

Manny's suggestion about "thought boundaries" also helps. I can tell myself - "Hmm.. That thought just popped into my head, but I don't need to dwell on it at the moment...it's not helpful."

[Mental Fairy]

Hi Team

I agree with the breathing yes, i also am aware of the types of breathing techniques that can be used to sooth the mind, however there is a lesson to be learnt about when to implement them also.

In times of panic and loss of control you need to be able to put your mind into the low gear in stages. Please take the time to listen to episode 10 of the Huberman Lab Podcast. He explains this very well.

If say i went for a run over maybe 5km then got home and began the Wim Hoff method breathing, there is a strong possibility i will end up in a very bad state! I have actually done this a couple of times and passed out, just to prove a point to myself. If i do it the other way around and do the breathing before a run i get a much better response in my running due to the blood oxygen level.

Meditation, visualization, yoga and exercise can only do so much. You need to work out your triggers, your management of those triggers. Going back to what SD said about how he feels physical action helps, this is indeed a brain response to the chemical release. I can honestly hand on heart say that working out has saved my life and the people around me. When the panic or anxiety starts to climb i have to make a decision about what i am going to do. Tap into the body, assess and plan. What is the weather like, do i go for a walk and listen to podcasts to distract? do i feel bad enough to need a jog or run. Or get on the bike and peddle away. Weights are good as resistance training helps you see changes overall. You work out according to how you feel. You then marry that up with good rest, nutrition and hydration. Overthinking is a beast. The intentions of overthinking and planning are well meaning but you can end up being washed downstream as you try to grab onto every mental health branch on the way downstream. When all you need to do is swim to the side and reevaluate what works for you.

As for the tooth, please incorporate the flossing and mouthwash. There may have been a little bit of resin under the gum from when they put the filling in the back of the tooth. That then gets buried below the gum and gives the kind of pain you mentioned.

Hang in the my friend.

[oak]

Snoring Dog and Mental Fairy: thank you for your advice.

I am already applying it. Breathing, watching for mental-spirals, physical exertion, and facing my issues: all good stuff that I will bring to my short-term counselor tomorrow.

Today is my last day off of work. Tomorrow I return to my ordinary life.

Or is my life fundamentally changed?

That's the beauty of being left with nothing but ashes, with having nothing left to defend:

"When you ain't got nothin', you got nothin' to lose" -Bob Dylan

I am preparing thoughts for tomorrow's counseling session:

1. A frank assessment of why I had a mental breakdown in Jan 2023.

2. The many similar reasons I had a mental breakdown in Mar 2017.

3. How I can act differently in the next five months (see below), especially with nutrition, sleep hygiene, and regular exercise.

4. Can I forestall another breakdown until June 1, when I hope to have many more professional options?

(Said another way: in addition to loneliness, (1) a lack of professional options- just like in March 2017, has (2) lead me to stay at bad jobs, which has (3) lead to immense anxiety, which has caused (4) mental breakdowns in both March 2017 and Jan 2023.

Thanks for listening friends. I'll post more after tomorrow's counseling session.

Breakdowns are dangerous things, and upsetting. But every descent is an exit.

[Mental Fairy]

Breakdowns are something to learn from, rise from and grow from.

[oak]

Breakdowns are something to learn from, rise from and grow from.

Well said, Mental Fairy.

Well friends, I appear to be on my way out of this situation:

1. My short-term EAP counseling is going very well.
2. I return to regular, full-time work today, and back into the (hybrid) office tomorrow.
3. I am working with my EAP counselor on skills to focus on my professional-skill building efforts this winter/spring, so I can be hired in summer.
4. I am hoping/planning to spend some time around feminine energy.
5. There are the first hints of winter just starting to wane.

I am working with my EAP counselor on why I had a breakdown, and tools/skills to prevent and mitigate future breakdowns, many of which Snoring Dog and Mental Fairy were kind enough to share above.

I am at once both scarred and renewed by this experience. I fully face something happened, and I have a pretty clear idea of why it happened.

[Mental Fairy]

gosh i loved that post Oak

I want to know all about the swing dance too please once you go. All the details, don't miss a thing.