I know this situation intimately as well.
Biology
This anxiety you are having….that is…..building to a panic attack . . . This all gets down to your amygdala. It is putting you into fight or flight mode.
Then you get anxious because you feel anxious, afraid because you feel afraid…and undoubtedly you are having “Racing thoughts” where you feel like you are not in control of your own mind.
Once this gets rolling it acts like a computer virus and contaminates your sympathetic nervous system giving you seemingly an endless …bottomless. . .sense of searing panic.
You get an adrenaline dump that could put-down an elephant, as your body produces the worst experience of fear it can possibly achieve. (Like you mentioned….as if you are a soldier in Vietnam)
Well, biologically ALL this stops when medication is introduced…for example. . .
Xanax…will simply shut down your amygdala. It will prevent the amygdala from putting your sympathetic nervous system into panic attack mode.
Hypothetically, you could now become a free solo climber and go summit El Capitan in Yosemite National Park . . .if you felt so inclined.
Valium. . .it relaxes all of your muscles. You cannot have a panic attack if your muscles are relaxed. The feedback loop is totally interrupted.
Paxil. . .anti anxiety medication. . . it will correct the
misfiring synapses in your neural architectural structure. You simply won’t be able to have a panic attack.
You will look down that hallway where your mind goes to have a panic attack, but you won’t go down it this time. . .
You will look, and then say to yourself, “Yep, that’s the hallway, that’s were i use to go to have a panic attack. . .wow i am even saying the words panic attack. . .and not feeling the slightest fear that it is going to happen to me.”
“I am unable to walk down that hallway to go have my panic attack.”
So there are a few examples of medication that
PSYCHOLOGY
You have mentioned the ego defense mechanism “Depersonalization”
This comes from…Psychodynamic Therapy
PSYCHODYNAMIC THERAPY
This is the highest ground in receiving psychotherapeutic help…[with Cognitive Psychology a close second.].
Anxiety masks depression ALWAYS (unless it is biochemically induced)
Depression is anger turned inward
Anger is the root of it all. What is making you angry is the question to answer.
And Anger is the prelude to change.. .once you are angry …you will “re-decide” things…concerning your beliefs, or work towards pushing back an emotional frontier in life.
True change.
And that anxiety you are feeling will fall off like a stone.
There is no “Time” in the unconscious. . .if there were humps or bumps in your human development …they will remain in your unconscious until you have an “emotionally corrective experience” in psychodynamic therapy.
COGNITIVE THERAPY
This therapy has changed peoples lives. . There is no doubt it.
You would talk with a cognitive therapist and explore what are the irrational beliefs and irrational internalized sentences you are saying to yourself. . . that are causing you to feel panic.
Or if you are having a panic attack, what to say and do to calm yourself from your erroneous fears you are irrationally believing in at that time.
I hope this long reply will be of some use to you in your courageous fight against these anxiety issues and panic attacks.
Panic attacks are hideous
Chronic anxiety is insidious
You can be happy in life, and go from success to success.
PS
—i personally do not belief xanax is this unbelievably addictive substance that you need to be in a astronaut suit before you even touch it
— if anyone tells you that psychodynamic therapy is hooey….THEY DON’T-know what they are talking about!
Tell them to read
Johnathan Shedler
Or
Nancy McWilliams
And then get back to me
Gus
@Ian_Lord77@konstructivizm Thank you. I am glad you brought that up. At the next committee meeting i think we need to talk about Mars being so undependable.🧐
The last 2 Stones albums…and Paul McCartney’s new album were all produced by the hottest producer in town these days..Andrew Watt.
My friend, and well known Luthier (he built Princes “White Cloud” guitar which was in the movie Purple Rain)
Dave Rusan of Rusan Guitar Works got a call from Andrew Watt to order a guitar. He was sitting at a table in Florence having lunch with Mick Jagger….
then on another day he called Dave about his guitar order…and Andrew was sitting in Florence having lunch with Paul McCartney.
Wild.