Sanguine

Hi, just a quick question about anxiety. I'll try to be brief. I have had panic attacks before, but not many -- rather, I tend to experience a low level sense of anxiety out of the blue, even when bored or just feeling somewhat antsy. The feeling builds gradually, and appears not connected to anything other than thoughts and fears about the consequences of this stressful feeling if I can't control it. Thus, in effect a fear of the stress or fear itself.

I did have a panic attack at an early age, and I believe the fear associated with it is to blame for this anxiety -- as if I fear a lack of control over the anxiety itself will result in panic, a breakdown, whatever. As such, I seem to create the very state of anxiety that I fear -- almost in a self-fulfilling prophetic way. Does this make sense? It's a general feeling of insecurity not tied to any one thing. I think because I hate the sense of cloudiness and disorientation associated with the anxiety, I tend to panic a bit about it. It seems very bizarre, and no doubt the result of an inability to cope with that experience long ago. I experienced a state of panic over several days once when under a lot of stress with work and college several years ago, and that sort of brought it back. Since then, it has come and gone periodically, and follows the same pattern typically.

Anybody have any advice? I've attempted some counseling, which has been helpful to the extent that it has shown me that it is likely rooted in childhood pressures, etc., which have never been appropriately dealt with. However, it still seems a bit mysterious.

Any advice/experience/suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks.