[Axel19]

Just suggested this in the comment and suggestions section. Thought I'd start us off. By the way I am a firm believer in the effectiveness of CBT techniques.

Apart from the mental arithemtic stuff I was going on about in my other post. there is one technique I find can help.
As opposed to holding your breath in, I find holding my breath out to be a lot better. Firstly holding your breath in can be done for longer, allowing those thoughts to come creeping back whilst you're actually holding your breath.

So try this:
-Breath all the air out of your lungs.
-Suck your stomach in as far as it will go.
-Hold for as long as possible, between 10 and 20 seconds for most of us.
-Repeat for as many times as you want.
-You'll actually develop a smaller waistline :lol:.

The thing is you'll be concentrating on the fact that you have no air in your lungs which is quite a suffocating experience. So this will take your focus off the intrusive thought (it's best for intrusive thoughts, I don't know about panic attacks).
It's ok I guess.

thanks, Alex

p.s.Sorry if discussing the technicalities of breath holding seems absurd on a mental illness forum.

p.s.s Keep thinking about your ever shrinking waistline girls (and guys).

 

[[rula]]

very interesting technique. but my 2 cents...this method would definitely stop intrusive thoughts, but it could end up making dp/dr symptoms worse. any time a breath holding technique is used we have tendency to breathe faster afterwards, and that's basically hyperventilation = more dp/dr. so you just have to remember to keep your breath slow and steady after releasing it.

btw Alex, Dr. Buteyko would say that if you can only hold your breath for 10-20 seconds, you are a chronic hyperventilator. a healthy range is above 40 seconds.

(it's best for intrusive thoughts, I don't know about panic attacks). It's ok I guess.

i was taught a technique to stop panic attacks, they say it even works for heart attacks too (if you can get the person to cooperate.)

- hold you breath as long as possible 'till it hurts (usually over a minute)
- breathe out; for the next 2 minutes take very short tiny breaths from the stomach only, it should look like you're not breathing at all.

it slows down the heart beat, and kills a panic attack quick. doesn't do much for the waistline though. :roll:

-ru

 

[Axel19]

Rula, good technique.

About holding your breath, you can hold your breath in a great deal longer than you can out. Holding your breath out, as I suggested, is more difficult meaning you can do it for less time, therefore when you do breath again you wont' hyperventilate as much.

 

[[rula]]

Alex,
agree, the 40 secs count I was referring to is on a half way exhale, not inhale. Buteyko's research show that if it's low, your brain and several other organs in your body are not getting enough oxygen. dp/dr is one of many symptoms.

peace,
rula

 

[Inflammed]

My god, I can only hold my breath for 10 seconds...
Am I Dying ?
:shock:

 

[[rula]]

My god, I can only hold my breath for 10 seconds...
Am I Dying ?
:shock:

jf,
no you're not dying i know someone who was at 7 seconds, and she worked her way up to 30+. if you're really at 10 secs, it's very likely that a lot of the symptoms i've heard u describe like shortness of breath, palpitations, dp/dr are coming from your breathing, not from benzo withdrawal. look into the Buteyko method, it works! email me if u want links...

-rula

 

[Guest]

I copied this from another thread because I thought it was very good info re: CBT approach to thinking.

But ShaneSutherly found this article, not me...so didn't want to steal credit!!

I read the cbt article that i was going to post a few weeks back. It actually was very good. Here is what I found out:

If you think that your dp/dr will lead to insanity,losing control ect. then your anxiety will increase. Then you will do something that maintains the cycle such as avoiding situations that may cause dp/dr, acting like you are normal or monitoring yourself in order to see if you actually will go insane. You have to look at your dp as if it will not hurt you. And this is true. What are you really afraid of? Your mind makes you believe you should be afraid. You have to normalize your dp/dr. It is normal to have these feelings. They also say that you should not avoid social interactions, and that you should not pretend to be someone your not. Example, saying the right thing,keeping still,not making eye contact. You should try to not do these things, and then think whether doing them actually helps you or hinders you.

Task Training and Attention Training

In attention training you should evaluate how much time you spend monitoring yourself, how much time you monitor external situations that are irrelavant. and how much time you monitor external situations that are task related. You should try to increase monitoring external task related activity. (focusing outward).

You should also ask yourself, what will happen if i do have a real bad episode of dp/dr? Will I go crazy, will i lose control? and when you do have a bad episode, see if that really happens.

There is more and I will post it later on.