Ever start to get anxiety symptoms when you're not worrying about anything?

Or ever worse, right when you think you've beaten it and you're not even worrying about anything, you get a quick dizzy spell or a quick bout of nausea, just enough to set things off again!

My anxiety hit me the worst when everything in my life was "perfect." I don't think anxiety discriminates unfortunately.

In my case I was having anger attakcs for years that all was calling panic/anxiety attacks. It bothered me since I owuld have them when life was good and peaceful. My counselor hit on this and felt that maybe it was bottled up anger from the past that brought these attacks on. Once we went in that direction I have bee attack free for months now.


JMO,
ICC

That is one of the most frustrating things with anxiety and panic, everything can be going just great and without warning boom it hits you! I learned in cbt that you have to treat the underlying thoughts that cause anxiety if you want to eliminate it. The key for cbt to work is to do the exercises every day to retrain your brain and eliminiate the thinking errors that are at the root of the problem. The book we used in my group called been there, done that? do this! by sam obitz is really good and illustrates the tea form thought countering exercise quite well. The main thing is that you are willing to work at helping yourself to get better if you want cbt to work. People that are self motivated and dedicated to doing the exercises daily probably do not need to spend a lot of money on sessions with a cbt specialist as it is the truest form of 'self-help' I have come across and the specialist still puts the onus on you to get yourself better in my experience.

I spent many, many years with severe panic attacks and anxiety. YES, it comes on in the calmest of times. I started to get agoraphobia (literally "fear of the marketplace", and wanting to stay home all the time. It hit in church, in stores, reading a good novel to the point I thought I was going to die. I believe it is a chemical problem in the brain and many times genetic. I never took meds for it, but finally I just got tired of the attacks and disgusted with myself, and forced myself to not be afraid of it. That was the lst battle won. Then when I would feel an attack coming on I would force myself to relax, stand still, and wait it out. The attacks finally subsided to a tolerable level, and I have been panic free for 10 years now, but I still have to deal with a big level of discomfort in situations like meetings, malls, etc. But I'm coping.

Great job facing your fears Barb! That's the first step in overcoming anxiety and panic. I would suggest that you take the next step and learn to identify the thinking errors you are making that cause the anxiety and counter them in a tea form to get additional relief now:)

yes, that happens to me very often. I told my therapist this and she said that it may be that I didn't even process the trigger....It could be that I saw, thought, or heard something, even just for a second, and it brought on the feelings of anxiety and I didn't even realize what happened until its too late.

when that happend to me I try to write out what i was thinking or doing right before the nervous feeling started, this way I can hopefully see a pattern over time

sometimes there is an obvious cause, other times there is non or impossible to identify, they are all random I think.

Yep. This happens to me a lot. Just recently as a matter of fact. It is very frustrating.

I get the physical symptoms of anxiety at these times. It's like, I have no reason to be anxious and I don't emotionally feel anxious but the physical symptoms flare up. I am having them right now and I don't know why.

My Anxiety/Panic Attacks happen when I am seriously have the best day. I might have had a trigger months ago and I held it inside. Plus I tend to build up all my stress and not release it when it happens. Unfortunaley anxiety attacks dont discrimnate.

That is one of the first things they asked me when i sought help, do any of your attacks come from out of the blue? Apparently that is one of the telltale signs of panic disorder. Like some have already mentioned cbt is a great way to get control of your anxiety. I use my tea forms first thing in the morning and whenever I am under stress to gain some relief.

yes, that happens to me very often. I told my therapist this and she said that it may be that I didn't even process the trigger....It could be that I saw, thought, or heard something, even just for a second, and it brought on the feelings of anxiety and I didn't even realize what happened until its too late.

when that happend to me I try to write out what i was thinking or doing right before the nervous feeling started, this way I can hopefully see a pattern over time
This is an excellent idea, writing out your thoughts at those times. If you can't find the thoughts that are triggering your anxiety and panic there is no way to counter them in a tea form and identify the thinking errors you are making. I hope and think you will eventually find success this way:)