"I genuinely thought I would never feel better or happy again"

About: Inclusion Matters Liverpool

(as the patient),

The care provided to me by my therapist got me through a time where I genuinely thought I would never feel better or happy again. I thought the panic attacks I was experiencing would never end. However, she made me understand what I was going through – how the different aspects of my thoughts and feeling all linked to each other.

As simple as it sounds, one of the statements that helped me the most was “your sense of panic – the adrenaline/pounding heart/fast breathing, are all normal feelings that help us in the right situation. ” Mine were just out of sync right now! This helped me to understand I wasn’t going crazy, I just needed to bring things back into control.

My therapist gave me the tools to start attempting this. Over the 6 weeks I was seeing how the severity of my symptoms decreased and I started to have the odd days where I felt like my old self, the frequency increased. I was soon having almost no days where I woke up with a panic attack and my appetite started returning.

I did have a ‘blip’ that I wasn’t expecting which scared me but my therapist told me this was normal – some days wouldn’t be great, but not to beat myself up about it.

The key to my improvement was learning how to relax again because my brain and body somehow forgot. This makes everything else come more easily.

My therapist was really fantastic and got me through a very difficult time.

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Responses

Response from Tracey Murden, Inclusion Matters 10 years ago
Tracey Murden
Inclusion Matters
Submitted on 04/03/2014 at 17:41
Published on Care Opinion at 20:42


Many thanks for your positive feedback about your experience. Panic attacks can be very distressing, especially when you feel like they are never going to end, and don't really understand what is happening. I am pleased that with the help of your therapist, you have been able to understand what was happening and learn ways of coping with it. You are absolutely right, it is normal to have occasional "blips" but hopefully these don't happen often and your relaxation skills will enable you to cope.

I am glad that your therapist was able to help you through a very difficult time and wish you all the very best for the future.

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