Stress Center Peer Support

Hi..I'm only beginning my second session..

If I start feeling a PA coming on and I'm in the middle of a meeting at work, should I excuse myself and leave the room, or, just stay and begin the six step process, right in front of everyone??

Thanks,

Pat from Ohio

Dear Pat, Instead of immediately excusing yourself, play the time game, tell yourself you will just stay 5 more minutes and the leave, then try another 5 minutes etc, this lets your mind know that you are in control and can leave whenever you choose, that 5 minutes at a time may enable you to stay the entire meeting, in the meantime focus on the speaker and breath, and hey if you have to leave after the lst 5 minutes that you allowed yourself, that is fine , but i bet you wont, i have tried this and it works.

Try doing the breathing exercises while at the meeting-they won't be able to tell.

This is the worst feeling I have ever had, yet beatable.

Try the time game as suggested here or really try and dig into the material you are discussing.

In my enviroment luckily most of my meetings are via teleconference and I can mute out and pace. That seems to help.

As for those face to face encouters, I have gotten through a few of them and I have a close friend at work who even said he didn't even notice. I even had to speak during the panic attack, I just cleared my throat a couple of times as if I had a cold.

Don't just run away, cause if your mind thinks it can beat you, it will do it everytime!

Thanks so much!!

I love you all!!

It worked...I wasn't in a meeting, but, I actually
applied the skills from the workbook at work today and it worked... I'm stunned!!

Have a good weekend!!