Dear everyone and support specialist,
There are two parts to this discussion:
Firstly, the symptoms I mostly find distressing is the tight, stiff muscles and the associated constricted breathing muscle tightness during panic attacks and now during exposure work. I have been to a doctor and physio to deal with the muscle tension problems which it seems are not entirely anxiety driven. I usually consiously try to relax my muscles during stressful times or anticipated stressful times and this helps me cope. But when I am really faced with a high panic situation, this relaxation is harder to do and calm thoughts like I WILL BE OK, etc don't really help and the tight muscles just trigger panic. So what do I do, when I can't relax the muscles as well and the calm thoughts just annoy me because I DON'T FEEL OKAY. I need some better coping skills or realistic thoughts or distraction. Distraction works well at the moment - but has anyone else been in similar situations or can help.
Secondly, I seem to find that having to draw up exposure plans, analyse the anxiety thoughts and describe the panic attacks has actually made my mind somewhat preoccupied by this topic. I had years back worked with a CBT expert who told me to challenge the thoughts and do exposure work etc. My experience was not good as it almost brought on 'thought flooding' and I became preoccupied with anxiety and fear and got really bad. I seem to be getting more and more 'thought flooding' experiences and I don't think this is good. I am aware that there are some experts who are all for 'thought flooding' and some not. I am working with a psychologist at the moment as well and we are exploring other solutions which seem helpful. I just don't want to be too preoccupied with panic attacks. I want to do more exposure work, in fact before this program I was doing more exposure work. However, I don't know why when I see it addressed in a clinical setting even on-line as in this program, it upsets me and triggers painful memories. Hope someone can help. Thanks.
Thanks. :confuse:
