Jayne5
member
Reged: 28/06/2008
Posts: 19
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Can anyone offer advice on how to help my seventeen year old son. He has been suffereng from panic attacks and extreme anxiety for three months. Medication has not really helped and therapy is slow.All we want to do is help and understand!!
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OzzieKez
member
Reged: 21/06/2008
Posts: 2622
Loc: Queensland, Australia
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Welcome Jayne5.
This is an Oz book, but maybe you can find a similar UK one or your Health Care professional has access to it:
OVERCOMING PANIC - A Complete Nine-Week Home-Based Treatment Program For Panic Disorder. by John Franklin.
Published by The Australian Psychological Society Ltd.
An excellant program of exercises designed to overcome the physical effects of panic. The short answer is that the key to Panic Disorder seems to be in the breathing. To control the feeling of panic you need to breathe in to the count of 1 2 3 and out 1 2 3 4 pause and repeat. This really does help but it helps to progress through the excercises. Good Luck!
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lizalou
member
Reged: 01/02/2008
Posts: 553
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Sorry to hear about your son, I've no real experience of this, hopefully someone else who has will reply.
However,my oldest daughter, age 16,does panic under certain conditions. Apparently,it had been going on at school for some time and I just assumed she was a bit nervous, like everyone gets.
But it all came out during her mock GCSEs,, when she lost the plot completely in a couple of exams, with dire results. This made her, us and the school take notice. With a lot of talking, we worked out which situations actually caused the problem (its not the exams, but the environment, and has caused lots of problems in the past as we thought she was just being attention-seeking)
We havent solved the underlying problem but in her real GCSEs, she was allowed to sit in a different room-- with no major panics at all.
And she agrees that, in unimportant situations, she will try to cope with the discomfort she feels (eg sitting in the middle at the cinema) Again, the deep breathing helps.
So,in our case, it was 1st talking about what the situation REALLY was (not what she or I thought it was). Then avoiding the serious situations, while practising coping with the more minor ones.
Good luck!
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jenny1
member
Reged: 30/08/2006
Posts: 122
Loc: Belfast
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Jayne
My daughter at 16 started having panic attacks. She got some mild form of beta blocker - I think- although she didn't know obviously that is was an anti- depressant. It broke the cycle for her and with lots of encouragement she started to relax.. i suffered them for years myself so I can empathise. I was referred to t'therapy' through the NHS and the thing that made me stop and think was - 'Whats is the worst thing that could happen' If its not life threatening them the only thing to fears is the fear itself.
I still have to 'plan' outings in my head which you are not supposed to do. I think it is a self esteem thing. I take Kalms when I feel 'wobbly' and you probably know about Rescue Remedy - I haven't tried that.
I'll be thinking about you all - I know how horrible and inexplicable it can be, but the good news is that it can be conquered..
Lol Jenny
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OzzieKez
member
Reged: 21/06/2008
Posts: 2622
Loc: Queensland, Australia
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Just a thought, I wonder if your son was given SSRI antidepressant medication? This works with the brain physiology and takes around 8 weeks to "work". It is a slow process and the skills he learns in therapy really will help him but it does take time. Part of the process is realising that the dire things he is thinking may happen, won't.
Thomas Jefferson-"How much have cost us the evils that never happened!"
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Jayne5
member
Reged: 28/06/2008
Posts: 19
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Thank you for your reply, I realise now that its all going to take a lot of time and patience as there is no quick fix.
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Jayne5
member
Reged: 28/06/2008
Posts: 19
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Thanks for your reply. Its good to hear that we are not alone in all this and someone out there understands. We realise that it is going to take a long time and a lot of patience. The mild beta blockers did not break the cycle for him and things just got worse, hopefully now with therapy things will improve.
Jayne5
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marymary
member
Reged: 16/05/2007
Posts: 728
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No Jayne, you're not alone - our daughter (17) is also suffering with anxiety and panic attacks. She's on anti-deps and having therapy. The thing that seems to have helped most is being taught how to handle the panic - a specific procedure to adopt when she has an attack (with us out of the way (!), a paper bag, counting to xxx, etc). That seems to have taken some of the fear out of having a panic attack because she knows she has the ability to control them.
The other thing that seems to help her is writing down anxious thoughts when they arise, so they are less likely to churn around her head, growing bigger all the time.
Wishing you and your son lots of patience and a resolution that won't drag on for too, too long.
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Jayne5
member
Reged: 28/06/2008
Posts: 19
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Thanks Marymary,advice much appreciated. I advised keeping a diary, but boys being boys he just laughed if off. Does seem to be contolling things better now. I'm trying not to think how he will cope at Uni if he ever gets through the A level exams(he's determined to still go!!) I hope your daughter is coping better and life is becoming less of a chore and more of the joy it should be for a 17year old.
Take care Jayne5
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Belcat1
member
Reged: 05/07/2008
Posts: 15
Loc: N. Ireland
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Dear Jayne
Just read your post and advise you get Self help for your nerves by Dr Claire Weekes. Can`t recommend this doctors work with anxiety and panic disorders enough. Many years ago now, I too began to have panic attacks before exams as a teenager. Later on this led on to dreadful anxiety/panic attacks after my children were born. If you read the book and do exactly what she says it really does work. You can be cured from these dreadful attacks.
Now I`m going through the menopause and find anxiety rearing its frightening head again. So I`ve have just started re reading her work ( she`s also written other books) and I`m finding that just like before it really does work.
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