Anti Panic Attack Elixir?

[calvert79]

I've only ever had a major panic/anxiety attack once in my life a couple of years ago but since then I've felt myself on the edge a few times of going into one. I wondered if you were about to have a full-scale panic/anxiety attack, what would you ingest to prevent it?

In my mind I'm thinking sugar of some kind but what else? I'd really like to have a go-to should I ever feel close to it again.

Aspirin?

What else?

Thanks in advance!

 

[OccamzRazer]

I've only ever had a major panic/anxiety attack once in my life a couple of years ago but since then I've felt myself on the edge a few times of going into one. I wondered if you were about to have a full-scale panic/anxiety attack, what would you ingest to prevent it?

In my mind I'm thinking sugar of some kind but what else? I'd really like to have a go-to should I ever feel close to it again.

Aspirin?

What else?

Thanks in advance!

Red light every morning!

In my experience, this is enough to prevent needing an immediate solution in the moment.

If you still needed something fast-acting, tho, you could try vaping CBD or taking a CBD/CBDa tincture.

 

[Korven]

A bucket of ice cream with some salt sprinkled on top + 1-2 mg cyproheptadine + taking a bath in topical progesterone.

 

[calvert79]

Red light every morning!

In my experience, this is enough to prevent needing an immediate solution in the moment.

If you still needed something fast-acting, tho, you could try vaping CBD or taking a CBD/CBDa tincture.

Thanks for that. I've used red light for a few years. Funnily enough, when I had that attack I was in red light and I had to switch it off immediately as it was freaking me out more. I needed to put the 'normal' blue lights on to feel better! Weird, eh?

I took CBD gummies once and didn't sleep all night.

 

[calvert79]

A bucket of ice cream with some salt sprinkled on top + 1-2 mg cyproheptadine + taking a bath in topical progesterone.

Thanks. Haven't heard of cyproheptadine. I'll need to check that out.

I have progest-e and I've used progesterone cream in the past but it makes me feel woozy and not good

 

[OccamzRazer]

Thanks for that. I've used red light for a few years. Funnily enough, when I had that attack I was in red light and I had to switch it off immediately as it was freaking me out more. I needed to put the 'normal' blue lights on to feel better! Weird, eh?

I took CBD gummies once and didn't sleep all night.

Huh, that is kinda strange!

Yeah...CBD gummies probably aren't the best choice. They're not absorbed that well and can have weird additives. Vapes or sublinguals are the way to go. For some people low doses of CBD can be stimulating, so you may want to take it in the morning.

Have you tried pregnenolone? It can also be pretty calming.

 

[Korven]

Thanks. Haven't heard of cyproheptadine. I'll need to check that out.

I have progest-e and I've used progesterone cream in the past but it makes me feel woozy and not good

Oh okay yeah I know some people have weird reactions to pregnenolone and progesterone and the like. Probably best to stay away in that case!

Cyproheptadine is basically an older antihistamine (also a serotonin antagonist) and in my experience it can really bring relief if you're feeling tense, stressed and anxious. It kind of feels like soaking into a warm bath.

And yeah as you mentioned aspirin can be helpful as well! Magnesium, bone broth could also be good...

 

[Jessie]

Were you hyperventilating? I think panic attacks can be closely interwoven with hyperventilation. It may even be the trigger in some situations. Bag breathing, or a tsp of sodium bicarbonate could help bring your CO2 levels back up. Lowering serotonin will inhibit carbonic anhydrase and prevent the loss of CO2.

Besides that, I would just recommend eating plenty of carbs and nutient rich foods like liver, shellfish, eggs, red meats. Avoid gut irritant foods as they will increase endotoxin which in turn increases serotonin which in turn will result in an increase of carbonic anhydrase.

 

[calvert79]

Huh, that is kinda strange!

Yeah...CBD gummies probably aren't the best choice. They're not absorbed that well and can have weird additives. Vapes or sublinguals are the way to go. For some people low doses of CBD can be stimulating, so you may want to take it in the morning.

Have you tried pregnenolone? It can also be pretty calming.

Just started taking pregneolone. :)

 

[calvert79]

Were you hyperventilating? I think panic attacks can be closely interwoven with hyperventilation. It may even be the trigger in some situations. Bag breathing, or a tsp of sodium bicarbonate could help bring your CO2 levels back up. Lowering serotonin will inhibit carbonic anhydrase and prevent the loss of CO2.

Besides that, I would just recommend eating plenty of carbs and nutient rich foods like liver, shellfish, eggs, red meats. Avoid gut irritant foods as they will increase endotoxin which in turn increases serotonin which in turn will result in an increase of carbonic anhydrase.

I'm not hyperventilating when I feel it coming on. I'm not really doing anything when I get the sensation that I'm about to freak out. Maybe alternate nose breathing would be an idea? Doesn't that activate the parasympathetic system?

 

[Mauritio]

Very high salt intake .

 

[cjm]

A bucket of ice cream with some salt sprinkled on top + 1-2 mg cyproheptadine + taking a bath in topical progesterone.

A progesterone bath! LOL. Sounds good, sign me up. Short of the bath containing progesterone, these are good suggestions.

If you're really truly in a pinch and are just reaching into your pocket for this elixir, I would recommend cromolyn sodium. I reached into my pocket for this at a wedding and it shut off a crippling mental dialogue. It may have stimulated my appetite, too, but salt/sugar at the same time can't hurt. Nasalcrom is the only cromolyn sodium I can find locally and I have ingested large amounts of it during panic attacks, up to 1000mg, which is a full bottle. Not cheap at $15-20 but it's mechanism of action is not sedative in the least. I can attest cyproheptadine and benadryl work for panic attacks but at the expense of your mental drive, especially if have high histamine.

I've been experimenting with hypertonic enemas of salt and sugar but couldn't recommend them yet.

Very high salt intake .

+1. I keep a salt grinder at my desk these days. A full turn of the grinder yields~75 mg of sodium. I have a swollen tongue that soaks it up. I panic from not being able to verbalize at the speed my brain thinks, and the salt has a very local vitalizing effect on my tongue, but it also seems to increase heat and muscle pliability, comforting things on their own.

 

[calvert79]

A progesterone bath! LOL. Sounds good, sign me up. Short of the bath containing progesterone, these are good suggestions.

If you're really truly in a pinch and are just reaching into your pocket for this elixir, I would recommend cromolyn sodium. I reached into my pocket for this at a wedding and it shut off a crippling mental dialogue. It may have stimulated my appetite, too, but salt/sugar at the same time can't hurt. Nasalcrom is the only cromolyn sodium I can find locally and I have ingested large amounts of it during panic attacks, up to 1000mg, which is a full bottle. Not cheap at $15-20 but it's mechanism of action is not sedative in the least. I can attest cyproheptadine and benadryl work for panic attacks but at the expense of your mental drive, especially if have high histamine.

I've been experimenting with hypertonic enemas of salt and sugar but couldn't recommend them yet.



+1. I keep a salt grinder at my desk these days. A full turn of the grinder yields~75 mg of sodium. I have a swollen tongue that soaks it up. I panic from not being able to verbalize at the speed my brain thinks, and the salt has a very local vitalizing effect on my tongue, but it also seems to increase heat and muscle pliability, comforting things on their own.

Very high salt intake .

Thanks, these are great!

 

[Mauritio]

I can only recommend ray peats article on salt . It's one of his best !

 

[InChristAlone]

If red light brought it on sounds like a blood sugar crash.

 

[maillol]

I went through a period of panic attacks when I was a teenager. Once I realised what they were I got over them quite quickly. When I felt one coming on I would tell myself it's just a panic attack. You could try thinking something like 'hello panic attack'. I know this sounds a bit daft but I really think the key is acceptance. The real panic attack is the stress created in trying to not have a panic attack if that makes sense.

 

[Ben.]

I can see some benefits in ingesting something to counteract the "attack" but it is not an issue of lacking nutrients or energy but it is a a stimulus picked up by one of the senses that triggers this response as a reaction towards the situation associated with a severly stressfull event, most of the time a very intense emotional one.

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This is gonna be long and is not what you asked for but i feel like adding this anyway:

Having had my own share of these attacks (which i do not wish upon anyone) i would advise 2 things besides food/supplements to deal/work towards this:

1. Build a counter trigger that activates feelings of happiness, wellbeing and security. For instance find a point somwhere on your hand/arm that you can pinch or stroke. When you do this you need to remember and feel deeply into a memory that was good for you. A one of love recieved in childhood, maybe a awsome family event, maybe the first time you held your very own child in your arms or maybe it is a memory of a best friend and an unforgettable day you had with them or the first time you fell in love and had your first kiss. It does not matter what it is aslong as it has alot of emotional value to you and allows you to "feel good" when thinking about it.

Now this is the hard part, you have to do "workouts" this way on a regular basis. Eventually, the body will be able to recall and trigger this memory because you build a deep association with the pinching so that whenever you do it, it triggers the memory and the good feelings with it. Basicly you start building a highway to access this memory/feeling in your brain.

Now this doesn't have to be a stroke or a pinch, you can build this association with any of our senses. You could try to do this workout with a smell or a picture. Basicly you can build a trigger/stimulus on your own.

This allows you, after many many "workouts", to use this whenever something shakes your world and it will also be a tool that you can resort to in times of a panick attack to counteract the fight or flight response/ or fleeing/paralysis response. Like a button that you can push in case of emergency.


2. Relearn/Overwrite the response to the trigger that is causing your body to act like that. This is basicly the opposite from above. Some people get a panic attack in a bus or a night club. Most of the time its because theres many people there that one does not know and it triggers some stressfull event one had in the past with groups of strangers or mobbing or something like that (it is very individual, the trigger could theoreticly speaking be anything, sometimes it can be the building, a room or a smell, a colour or a specific social situation etc.)

What we want is to relearn and reteach the body that the situation/the trigger is not harmful anymore. This is hard work. It could be "forcing" one into the situation and building new associations/memories that teach you that the very thing that caused the panick attack is not a big deal afterall.
It could also be mental workouts where you try to let go of the past, tell and teach yourself with your inner voice the things you need to hear and need to say to yourself to calm you down and remove the bad habits, thoughts and reactions that still linger inside you. This requires repeated effort, especially in these moments where you feel the stress or panick attack coming. This is also only effective with constant work. When you do nothing like this and the panick attack hits you, telling yourself in your inner voice that all is okay wont be enough for your body to calm down or stop this unbelievably horrid attack.

I would suggest searching different trauma release therapys/approaches and try one that fits you well. The "face your fear" approach is a high risk high reward one for example. But we do not want it to backfire ofcourse.

Another good one that i found interesting is, before sleeping, go and try to visualize the situation that is problematic to you, but you imagine the situation like a movie scene where things work as you think they should, without a panick attack. Then you try to go trough this "movie scene" of yourself being the star in it with each sense that you have individually. Close your eyes and try to imagine the scene with your eyes but try not to "hear" or "feel" or "smell" anything. Then after that you go trough the scene but without images, just the sounds that would happen. Then another go but this time you dont "see" or "hear" anything but you imagine how the scene would feel for you, is it joy? is it a man/woman that touches your hand or hugs you? You will realize how hard it is to seperate our senses, even in a imaginary movie scene that you made up in your head. This will build a "new programm" for that situation that the body/brain has access to, once the situation happense again.

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Maybe this helps someone, i personally don't think in this case diet/supplements is a solution but only a stimulant getting you "trough" it, like coffee that builds the illusion of the body/brain not being tired.

 

[youngsinatra]

I had a severe panic disorder during my ketogenic days. I think it always was triggered by chronic stress, fasting, hypoglycemia, low CO2, elevated lactate.

I had good experience with eating plenty of carbs and eating frequently, like every 3-4h in the beginning.
Supplement-wise I like niacinamide, because it has benzo-like anti-anxiety effects at dosages 1g+ at once, probably by increasing the NAD/NADH ratio and lowering lactate. I use a stack of thiamin HCL (activate PDH, lower lactate, increase CO2), magnesium (activate PDH, complex V in ETC, lower HPA activity), CoQ10. (for supporting ETC functioning), niacinamide (NAD+ precursor) and trimethylglycine (to ensure normal methylation of niacinamide) once or twice a day with a big meal each.

 

[NodeCerebri]

I didn’t read all the posts and so I don’t know if anybody said already what I am going to say:

to find your “elixir” you’ll have to find the cause for your anxiety attacks first. With “cause” I mean: neurochemically, biochemically, or something within these ranges. You can get adverse reactions from things that are anxiolytic to others because your anxiety comes from somewhere else. It is like l-theanine being beneficial for some and detrimental for others. Just a clue to help you on this way.

 

[Yucca]

Just breathing exercices, using intermittent breathing.
Look at Buteiko, but there's many others. And yes, you have to get higher Co2 levels, and breath LESS.