Any advice on son's panic attacks?

[Hanna]

Mom4Life, when you say "anxiety medication," do you mean a benzodiazepine like Xanax or Ativan? Or are you talking about Prozac, Zoloft, Pamelor -- antidepressants that are used to treat panic disorder?

[great lakes mom]

Glad to see a thread on panic disorder, as we have been dealing with it in my family as well. My son went to the ER several times thinking he had anaphylaxis, before being diagnosed with panic disorder. So far he has avoided meds by taking a multi factoral approach. No caffeine, sufficient rest, meditation, exercise, healthy diet, therapy. Meditation he has found especially helpful. In the year before his diagnosis, he was in a major car accident, and recovered from a rather serious injury related to that accident. Had ACL surgery in addition. He is doing fairly well right now. Given the family history, I do think that meds might be advised. But am proud that he is working on lifestyle choices that will only keep him physically and mentally healthier in the long term.

[DonnaL]

Anyone would be anxious and depressed in your son's situation. I really hope he's able to get the help he needs.

I've had fairly severe anxiety problems most of my adult life (that is, anxiety disproportionate to what one might think is reasonably appropriate to the situation, and difficulty making myself stop thinking about bad things that almost happened or could have happened -- usually to my son, of course! -- even if they didn't), and began to have really severe panic attacks, the kind where you can't breathe and think you're having a heart attack and you're going to die, during the course of my five-year divorce process. (The first one I remember was when I was paying bills one Sunday afternoon and suddenly became completely overwhelmed with fear and anxiety about my financial situation.) For a while, I got by with klonipin, an anti-anxiety medication -- it worked very quickly, so I could take half a pill when I felt an attack coming on, and it almost always calmed me down.

For the last 2 1/2 years, I've been taking lexapro, which, of all the SSRI's, seems (from what I hear talking to people) to be the one prescribed most often for anxiety, as opposed to depression alone. (After all, they may be related, but they're not really the same.)

It's helped a lot, both with the panic attacks -- I haven't had one in a long time -- and in lessening the generalized anxiety. Even though I'm still not the most happy go lucky person you could meet! It has some side effects that aren't so wonderful, but that's something to discuss with a doctor.

But I still make sure I have some klonipin in my medicine cabinet, just in case. Just knowing it's there if I need it helps, I think.