more on panic

I have been suffering from anxiety and panic since I was 13. Luckily, over the years I have had long stretches of time where I am virtually symptom free. However for the past three weeks or so I have been having panic attacks that include all of the symptoms I listed in the previous post, and it is absolutely horrible. My shrink has prescribed medication for it but it is not 100% effective. I have cut back on caffeine and am trying to walk every day. In addition, I am looking into alternative methods for combatting this nightmare such as biofeedback and acupuncture. If anyone has any experience recovering from anxiety and panic, especially regarding alternatives to medication, I am all ears.

welcome to my world

A Panic Attack is defined as the abrupt onset of an episode of intense fear or discomfort, which peaks in approximately 10 minutes, and includes at least four of the following symptoms:

a feeling of imminent danger or doom; the need to escape; palpitations; sweating; trembling; shortness of breath or a smothering feeling; a feeling of choking; chest pain or discomfort;

nausea or abdominal discomfort; dizziness or lightheadedness; a sense of things being unreal, depersonalization; a fear of losing control or "going crazy"; tingling sensations; chills or hot flushes.

ADAA

future serial killer

Yesterday I overheard a lovely conversation between two of my co-workers yesterday, one of which is a dumbass married guy (MG) who keeps emailing me. The other guy was telling MG that a neighborhood cat had been crapping in his lawn to which MG responded, "Just put out a bowl of antifreeze, no more cat problem!" So I emailed MG and said he should watch what he says at work, that I had a cat die of antifreeze poisoining and that it is a terrible way to watch a pet die. He wrote me back and "apologized" but said something snarky about how I hadn't responded to an earlier email from him. I wrote him back and said I don't care to be friends with someone who thinks poisoning animals is funny. To which he replied, "I never said it was funny." People like him scare me very much.

gross

I hate it when people clip their fingernails at work. Every time I hear the distinctive snip-snip-snip sound my skin crawls as I imagine the simple squamous cells being tossed carelessly around the office. What if one of those germ-infested half-moons lands in someone's coffee?! Once when I worked at Starbucks a customer started clipping his fingernails right by the espresso machine. I just knew we were going to get a latte returned with a little sliver of scariness floating in the foam. I think personal grooming and hygiene should be kept where it belongs, in the privacy of our own bathrooms.