Today I'm neither Angry nor Happy about....

[TANGODANCER]

Don't remember either of these. I lived on Eskrick Street (opposite the Bowling Green) between 1970 and 1980 so only knew the City Hotel down that end. Moved to Astley Bridge in 1980 until I moved down her in '89

Problem solved GtE and Monty. It's fifty years ago so hoping my memory lapse can be forgiven.
I had a mental walk throught the area and realised my error. We did indeed go in The Queens, but it was (as the pic said) on Darley Street (which runs at right angles to Eskrick Street). The one next to the post office on Eskrick Street (which we also went in regularly) was The City pub. The pic was right and my memory had a night off.

[Bruce Rioja]

I tend not to talk about this stuff, and am in absolute awe of Kinty and the candidness with which he discussed his issues freely on here. It's 10 years since I last had a panic attack and 10 years since I went through psychotherapy, but there isn't a single day that goes by without me fearing another (there, I've said it). It doesn't mean you're weak - it just means that you've taken all that you can. This piece that I just read, I think, absolutely nails it.

Last year, I started to suffer from anxiety. And I'll be totally honest with you about this. It bloody shit me right up.

The only reason I'm telling you about this is because I've just read a short but magnificent book called Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig, which is all about his experiences with the aforementioned bastard blighter. I used to think the whole idea of coming out of the mental health closet was an embarrassing and self-congratulatory thing where everyone gave each other pitying strokes on the arm - partly because I didn't think it was something I might have to ever consider doing. But Matt Haig's book has made me see things differently.

It made me realise that talking about mental health is a bit like refusing to call Voldemort You-Know-Who. Suddenly something absolutely pant-wettingly terrifying becomes normal and everyday and unremarkable. Because probably the most helpful thing when you become a walking shit show of torture, doubt, terror and pain, is finding out that you have never been and never will be the only person on the earth who feels like this.

If I told you why I think my anxiety came about it would be so intimate and personal it would be like forcing you to hold my boob in your hand whilst I make direct eye contact with you for ten seconds without speaking. But the main thing is, I've always been outgoing, optimistic and un-embarrassed by things, with a chin that's taken so many things it's basically got iron reinforcements. The fact that my mental health might one day go south was never even a consideration for me.

So the first time that I had a panic attack, other than the fact I knew that obviously I was definitely dying, I had a strange out of body experience, where some other detached and unscathed self said, 'Really? You're having a panic attack? But this sort of thing never happens to someone like you! You're joking around yeah? Oh. No. You're actually hyperventilating. Sorry.'

And then I started to wonder why this didn't happen to me at other times in my life, which were also pretty high on the trauma richter scale. Like when I worked in retail, or I had a gigantic needle stuck in my hip bone, or when my boyfriend dumped me on our anniversary, or when I was forced to read out a poem about my invisible pet gerbil in the year two leavers assembly. Why now, just because one of my mates has sent me a Whatsapp message asking what I've been up to?

But you don't realise what a luxury just being is until you can't do it any more. Do you remember that time when you could just sit and eat a sandwich and look out of the window and possibly walk across the room and pick up an old newspaper and absentmindedly turn the pages? In hindsight, weren't those times the absolute nuts? Because there's absolutely no chance you'll be doing that any more sunshine.

Naturally, after several weeks of thinking that I might fall out of my own stomach, I quickly accepted the fact that I was never ever going to be normal again and that was the end of the matter. I thought to myself that it was a bit of a shame because I'd worked quite hard these past twenty-four years to learn about things and talk to people and build relationships and have interests and passions, and now I was going to have to forget about all of that and either be sectioned or at the very least never leave my house ever again. I looked at around at everyone else and wondered how it was that they managed to be normal, even though it was only the other day that I myself had too been normal.

I always thought that if I was ever going to gain back the person I used to be, it would happen in tiny little increments - but one day she was suddenly just there. And although the ever-present fear that these invisible world-tilting sicknesses might come back lurks there all the time, at least now I know that not only was my small but joyful life salvageable, other people salvage theirs all the time too, and that's like having someone give you a box full of courage with a bow on it.

Through all of this, one of the best things I've learnt is a rule that I think I always knew but was scared to live by, until Matt Haig wrote it down and put it in a book - work out the things that make you feel happy and do them as much as you can. For me, I like a strange place called the theatre where you sit in the dark with people you don't know. I like conversations with people I don't see as often as I'd like to. I like swimming. I like reading on the train. And I really really like getting lost in words.

Likewise, another very important rule is if you know there are things that make you unhappy, definitely avoid doing them. For example, I don't really like sleeping in tents. I don't like going for drinks with guys I don't really fancy. And I really don't like going to Oxford Street on a Saturday afternoon.

Who would have thought that through this vortex of seasickness and jeopardy, you could actually learn more about who you are and what you want to do and be, and all that bottomless sadness and worry and pain would make all those things become so much richer? If anyone had said that to me at the time, I'd have told them to take a long hard look at themselves. But it's true - it does. Like I told you, it was absolutely wank and I'm terrified of going through it again. But as Matt Haig says, 'if it's the price of feeling life, it's always a price worth paying.'

[Prufrock]

Hear hear.

I started having them about 18 months ago, completely out of the blue. Had all sorts of tests at the hospital because I thought something was physically wrong with me. Doctors kept suggesting it might be panic attacks but I was adamant it couldn't be as I've never had any problems like that, and I've never been an anxious person or a worrier. After the tests kept coming back negative I started to think there might be something in it and finally bought the book they'd recommended. Only had one in the six months since. That piece is excellent.

[Bruce Rioja]

Hear hear.

I started having them about 18 months ago, completely out of the blue. Had all sorts of tests at the hospital because I thought something was physically wrong with me. Doctors kept suggesting it might be panic attacks but I was adamant it couldn't be as I've never had any problems like that, and I've never been an anxious person or a worrier. After the tests kept coming back negative I started to think there might be something in it and finally bought the book they'd recommended. Only had one in the six months since. That piece is excellent.

I've just ordered the book on the back of the article. Panic attacks are, as you know, fecking horrendous. I've never been so convinced that I'm about to die, not even when I wrote a car off at 70 mph on the East Lancs.

[Prufrock]

Aye. I found knowing they were panic attacks meant they happened much less frequently, but it didn't help while they were actually happening, if that makes sense.

Sorry, the book I meant, that "they recommended", was the one the doctors did - "Overcoming Anxiety". Helped, though I'm not sure it said anything wholly different than any of the other books on the subject you could get would. Haven't read the one in that piece you quoted.

[Montreal Wanderer]

Aye. I found knowing they were panic attacks meant they happened much less frequently, but it didn't help while they were actually happening, if that makes sense.

Sorry, the book I meant, that "they recommended", was the one the doctors did - "Overcoming Anxiety". Helped, though I'm not sure it said anything wholly different than any of the other books on the subject you could get would. Haven't read the one in that piece you quoted.

Is a panic attack when you panic or become very anxious but there is no discernible cause?

[TANGODANCER]

Is a panic attack when you panic or become very anxious but there is no discernible cause?

Strange things and can be frightening. Wife has had a couple, thankfully not for a long time. She loses her breath completely and can't breathe. First time it happened she couldn't tell me what the matter was so I rang the ambulance. Medic gave her a paper bag to breath in and out of slowly. It cured it fine and we've done that once since. Son in law also has suffered a few of these but he just wants to get home from wherever we are.

[Bijou Bob]

I see a lot of clients in my clinic who suffer from panic attacks, theyre incredibly common, yet most clients find them very isolating and frightening. Whilst I deal with the symptoms and aim to reduce their prevalence, I also think it's worth looking for the cause. It isn't always obvious and it is usually part of a much bigger jigsaw. I find mindfulness techniques invariably work well with commitment and practice

[bobo the clown]

I see a lot of clients in my clinic who suffer from panic attacks, theyre incredibly common, yet most clients find them very isolating and frightening. Whilst I deal with the symptoms and aim to reduce their prevalence, I also think it's worth looking for the cause. It isn't always obvious and it is usually part of a much bigger jigsaw. I find mindfulness techniques invariably work well with commitment and practice

^^

I find bursting an empty crisp bag from behind them helps here.

[Always hopeful]

I see a lot of clients in my clinic who suffer from panic attacks, theyre incredibly common, yet most clients find them very isolating and frightening. Whilst I deal with the symptoms and aim to reduce their prevalence, I also think it's worth looking for the cause. It isn't always obvious and it is usually part of a much bigger jigsaw. I find mindfulness techniques invariably work well with commitment and practice

Don't be so judgemental.

[Bruce Rioja]

I see a lot of clients in my clinic who suffer from panic attacks, theyre incredibly common, yet most clients find them very isolating and frightening. Whilst I deal with the symptoms and aim to reduce their prevalence, I also think it's worth looking for the cause. It isn't always obvious and it is usually part of a much bigger jigsaw. I find mindfulness techniques invariably work well with commitment and practice

Duuur. Yes. When you're unable to breathe, sweating. your pulse is racing like a fecked clock and you're absolutely convinced that you're about to drop dead, it does actually feel somewhat isolating and frightening, Sigmund.

[Hoboh]

I see a lot of clients in my clinic who suffer from panic attacks, theyre incredibly common, yet most clients find them very isolating and frightening. Whilst I deal with the symptoms and aim to reduce their prevalence, I also think it's worth looking for the cause. It isn't always obvious and it is usually part of a much bigger jigsaw. I find mindfulness techniques invariably work well with commitment and practice

Duuur. Yes. When you're unable to breathe, sweating. your pulse is racing like a fecked clock and you're absolutely convinced that you're about to drop dead, it does actually feel somewhat isolating and frightening, Sigmund.

I've seen people have them and it's bloody frightening enough to watch, only ever had one and I knew the reason, smoked something I shouldn't have done, lay in bed thinking my heart was going to burst, never again
Mental health is a real issue that is one and probably the only thing I ever agreed with Clegg on.

[Dujon]

Another sufferer here. After decades of attacks I have not managed to suss out a trigger or triggers for them. They seem to arrive quite at random: sitting down to morning coffee and first fag of the day; walking up to the shops; trundling around the office building to attend a one-on-one non-stressful meeting; having a chat to a friend. It's quite incomprehensible to me. The 'attacks' can come in different forms as well. Hyperventilation is one of them. This means you are 'over breathing' and is why the paper bag is handy as it forces you to breath your expelled air, rich in CO2 and poor in oxygen (well, I think that's what it does). Another is that the heart races and hot and cold sweats turn you into a wobbly mess. The worst for me is the 'whole body' weirdness which is often accompanied by an uncontrollable shaking of the body. Funk? I don't know, although I've usually been able to talk to doctors or ambulance people in a normal manner whilst the loss of some limb control is still evident.

They can be dreadfully life limiting. The fear of fear I suppose.

[Prufrock]

Bored, so I'm defending David Cameron on the Another Angry Voice page on Facebook. This is an odd feeling.

[Bruce Rioja]

Is this a fecking joke?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-32844276" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Bijou Bob]

I see a lot of clients in my clinic who suffer from panic attacks, theyre incredibly common, yet most clients find them very isolating and frightening. Whilst I deal with the symptoms and aim to reduce their prevalence, I also think it's worth looking for the cause. It isn't always obvious and it is usually part of a much bigger jigsaw. I find mindfulness techniques invariably work well with commitment and practice

Duuur. Yes. When you're unable to breathe, sweating. your pulse is racing like a fecked clock and you're absolutely convinced that you're about to drop dead, it does actually feel somewhat isolating and frightening, Sigmund.

Different people experience them differently and with different symptoms. Most of my clients can learn to live with them and deal with them quite effectively even if we can't reduce their incidence completely. Others are big drama queens

Now, THAT'S judgemental AH

[Harry Genshaw]

Is this a fecking joke?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-32844276" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Jesus wept. Of all the feckers I'd least like to see get a knighthood, he's bloody way up there the fat 5hit

[Bruce Rioja]

I see a lot of clients in my clinic who suffer from panic attacks, theyre incredibly common, yet most clients find them very isolating and frightening. Whilst I deal with the symptoms and aim to reduce their prevalence, I also think it's worth looking for the cause. It isn't always obvious and it is usually part of a much bigger jigsaw. I find mindfulness techniques invariably work well with commitment and practice

Duuur. Yes. When you're unable to breathe, sweating. your pulse is racing like a fecked clock and you're absolutely convinced that you're about to drop dead, it does actually feel somewhat isolating and frightening, Sigmund.

Different people experience them differently and with different symptoms. Most of my clients can learn to live with them and deal with them quite effectively even if we can't reduce their incidence completely. Others are big drama queens

Now, THAT'S judgemental AH

Have to be honest, Bob, I'd be amazed if anyone was a drama queen when it comes to anxiety and panic attacks - it's such a personal thing and it feels like an individual failing. I really did beat myself up over it. My GP gave me two choices, Beta Blockers or Psychotherapy. I worked on the notion that one simply deals with the symptoms whereas as the other has a chance of dealing with the cause, so I went with that.

And as for being judgmental, you bald c*nt.

[Bijou Bob]

[Hoboh]

Is this a fecking joke?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-32844276" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Jesus wept. Of all the feckers I'd least like to see get a knighthood, he's bloody way up there the fat 5hit

Slice of cheese and a touch of salad we could have a ploughman's, that is if he ain't eaten it all!