Just had a panic attack today. It felt awful, like I was going to die. What stopped it was laying down, trying to stay calm, and breathing normally. Is it okay to have a panic attack while fasting? I haven’t had one in awhile. Last time I had a panic attack was when I weighed my most at 178 lbs, I had several in a week, and I’ve never had them before that. Part of the reason I am fasting is because I figured that the panic attacks were a sign of bad health. I haven’t told my doc, I don’t want to be on meds. I’ve had around 10 of these now in the last 2 months, so I’m starting to understand how to stop them. I’d like to know what caused them, they’re really scary. Out of nowhere it gets harder to breath and your heart races and you definitely feel like you are going to die.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapist here. You’ll tend to find that the more you fear your symptoms, the more panic attacks this actually causes. We often look at what we call catastrophic misinterpretations e.g., it’s our perception of the symptoms that cause further panic, kind of what mentioned about feeling like you’re going to die or another example of this might be feeling dizzy and then assuming this means I’m going to faint when in actuality the symptom itself is caused by anxiety which is not a good indicator whether somebody is going to faint or not. Basically don’t run away from those symptoms, run towards them, accept them and sit with the discomfort becuase it will pa’s son its own eventually, don’t try to control your symptoms through breathing, sitting down etc. Obviously easy for me to say this and it’s another thing to do it, nothing can replace actually seeking professional help and I would urge you to do this if it becomes more of an issue.
Yes!
I’ve had a couple of panic attacks and was wondering what the deal is.
Basically my mind had conspired with my body against me, through a series of cascading thoughts, that I must break my fast and do it now or calamity will ensue.
I had to zen myself out and breather through it, accepting that this is what’s happening, this is the physical reality no matter what’s going on inside me.
The panic transposed into sadness and I was able to cry it out in one instance.
Everything that the user Mayington wrote resonated with me.
Good luck on your fasting journey.
I don’t know how to tell you this, but people of all shapes and sizes have panic attacks. It’s a (crappy) way your body deals with anxiety.
I know many people fast for mental health benefits, but also, low sodium levels in your body trigger increased cortisol production, which means if you’re not supplementing electrolytes, you could be making your anxiety temporarily worse.
My mom and I fast with each other for support and she recently was having heart palpitations and we went to the emergency room! Several things at play
I highly recommend seeing someone to help you with anxiety, I am currently seeing someone and have been off and on for the past decade and has highly helped me overcome a lot of shit. Your dr may prescribe meds, but someone who specializes in it can help you many times without medication. You get out what you put in. There’s also a book I highly recommend “The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook”, has helped me tremendously. It even addresses anxiety triggered by low/high blood sugar.