Would it help you if you could know a panic attack was going to happen before hand?

[mypsychteam]

Would it help you if there was some way that you could know you were going to have a panic attack 30 to 60 minutes before the actual attack occurred?

(If you could accurately know before hand so that you could prepare for the panic attack... and also so that you could take control of the uncertainty). Would this help you?

Please only respond if you have had, or have, recurring panic attacks.

Thanks!

[jayj404]

Somewhat. It depends on where I am and what i'm doing. If I know I'd be doing something in the next hour and there's no way I could escape it, it would just make me panic more. If I was at home resting, It would be better because I could just take a sleeping pill and sleep it over.

[Dahila]

It could, there is a few ways to make it easier. If I was home I would chose to exercise, or meditate, if in work I would take a pill . The worst is to let the panic take over you, unfortunately it always does :(

[Olive Yew]

It helps me a bit to know when it's coming. When they just blind side me, i don't exactly have time to prepare any defenses and so my mind starts reeling and my logic is desperately trying to go "IT'S ANXIETY GOSH DANG IT! pull yourself together!" However if I can feel it brewing... Like a thunder storm... No not like a thunder storm. They're too pretty.... More like a painful stubborn zit..... When you can feel it festering and you know it's gonna be a big one.... Those I can usually wrap some defenses around me and prepare my brain for it. Already talking myself through it and telling myself that "it's just anxiety and it's all gonna be fine. Find someone to talk to because you know that can usually divert the flow. Make sure you're relaxed and realize that even if you pass out from fear, SOMEONE will notice take care of you." (Always harder when I'm alone.) ... And then I wait... And it's like watching a tsunami come rolling in. And when It hits, sure it's bad but I know what it is the whole time and I have a mindset of "daaaang brain. What got your panties all in a twist? You realize that nothing is gonna happen to you, right?" But my body is going haywire trying to find SOMETHING legitimate to be afraid of. When it comes up with nothing, it relaxes. Think Marlin the clown fish when he's convinced that something's wrong with Nemo and he asks the stripe question. Nemo is my logical brain, Marlin is my anxiety.

Marlin- "QUICK! how many stripes do I have?!"
Nemo- "3 -.-"
Marlin- "YOU'RE WRONG! YOU SEE?!?! I HAVE 1.... 2,3... That's all I have? Oh.... Okay.. You're fine."