have any of you guys had panic attacks

or generalized anxiety disorder? if you did, how did you deal with it? did you take medication, did you seek therapy?

how did your family deal with it? were they supportive, or did they turn away from you? i know there's this whole "rock of gibraltar" image men are supposedly supposed to live up to, or the stoic marlboro man type. how did you feel about it? if married, how did your wife react? cowrokers?

 

at times i do have anxiety problems. something i struggle with.

i go to therapy. for the most part, its a secret. my parents and some family know i see a councilor on campus to talk. only a select few of my best friends know i'm in therapy. i keep the "man" image up - especially at the type of school i go to. you can't be deemed a pussy. i'd rather hide it than have people at this school look down on me

 

does it kinda tick you off sometimes, that you can't just be honest about a chemical imbalance in your head because of some macho code?

 

of course it does. i dont' like it. i don't like the fact that when i am having a bad day or a couple days in a row - where its hard for me to even get out of bed, i can get punished for not going to morning formation. i can't tell anyone that. i just come up with an excuse. and then i'm told to man up, which only makes it worse

 

ugh. i mean, i've suffered with it for years, and yeah, women, mother's especially, have their own set of standards they have to live up to. within my own family, though, there are no women, if you know what i mean, it's "man up and shut up." but i'm not with my family anymore. and i noticed that i can actually talk about these things and admit to a vulnerability now, but i don't think men really have that option.

and i've learned that many of those men don't even have their women to talk to. what the fuck is that about?

 

i have had some where I felt I was having a heart attack. I told a few people and didn't feel weird about it.

The mental trigger that usually causes it is thinking of death

 

its terrible. man up and shut up - yea, let me repress everything. i've battled alcohol abuse - drinking was easy - was easy to just push my problems away. and it doesn't help that i feel like a failure because of things like this.

i was put in the friend zone with a lady i was interested in on campus for sharing some of my problems...that did a lot for my confidence

 

very very tricky stuff. they say women are twice as likely to suffer from GAD, but i wonder if it's because men aren't talking about it.

 

i don't think much men are talking about it - at least, not talking about it openly

 

I have had a few panic attacks, and they were horrible. I haven't had any recently, because I have realized what thought processes bring them on. When I feel it coming, I clear my mind and start thinking about something else. I haven't been diagnosed with GAD, but I do have social anxiety disorder, and that really sucks. I have been getting better with that, too, recently. I used to take meds for it, but they didn't really do anything for me.

 

No I’ve never experienced a panic attack


If anything it’s the exact opposite, I feel more at ease with large crowds of people surrounding and encapsulation me, or standing in front of a large group or contingent of people for the express purpose of communicating my life experiences or expertise.


hotwater

 

im a chick who has panic/anxiety attacks... i recommend deep breathing and yoga. yeah, i know yoga sounds a little less than manly to some, but theres some yoga for strength type things (rodney yee has a video called that and hes great) that you can do... stretches you out, makes you pay attention to your breathing, and distracts you from that which panics (or at least, thats what it does for me, yay)

 

i know my father suffered from them. he still has bajor social anxiety. and it's funny, because i know this only from my experience and behavior that so closely matches his. i know what my symptoms are, and i can see them in him. it's funny that it explains SO MUCH of his behavior and decisions over the years. his father was brutally abusive for a very long time, until he got sober. but i don't think my father had any idea of how to deal with his own anxiety and fell into the same patterns.

 

Nope, but it ruined my father's life.

 

it's doubly hard, too, because of how people go about finding a mate. women typically need someone more emotionally stable than they are, typically. so for a man to admit to having a panic disorder has to be very difficult. like fitz, they end up in the "friend zone." i don' think this is a maliciousness on women's part, it's just how we find partners. in addition to that is men's relationships with other men not being as "oh, you poor little thing, what can i do to help you?" it'd typically end up being "aw, is the poor little baby bleeding out his pussy?" (yes, my father said that to my brother once.)

so basically, for unintentional reasons, men aren't getting support for emotional or mental health troubles they're experiencing. i think it has a huge role to play in how many male suicides there are. after all, women go for attention, knowing they'll get it and not lose anything for being vulnerable. for men being vulnerable is nearly a social and sexual death sentence.

 

A big question. Maybe I'll answer more of it later.

But I had both a panic attack streak in adolescence and medicated GAD later on in life. In early adulthood it drove me to alcoholism and tobacco addiction.

At the time of the GAD I was living with someone. Supportive, for sure. But we settled into roles: she was the care-taker and it had an adverse impact on our relationship.

I wasn't raised to be macho, though I'm not unfamiliar with the pressure to or with a sense of inadequacy for being a "gentleman."

I've been medicated and went through psycho-therapy. The GAD was accompanied by severe depression. I'm the fourth generation on my paternal side to have this problem.

I'm at a stage now that makes me almost thankful for the experience. I grew so much as a direct consequence of depression and panic.

It's probably futile to try to sum GAD/depression in a few words but I'm going to attempt it here: I think it comes down to being avoidant of adverse feelings rather than taking heed of the cues they provide.

P.S. I think GAD/depression has had a role in my inability to find as many partners as I wanted (I'm still a little above the norm for a guy in the U.S. though), and that's something I still struggle to come to terms with.

 

Ok, well I've never told anybody about this but I guess I will know because nobody here knows me...

So last semester at school this kid who is older than me was picking on my friend who is younger than me. I told the kid to shut up or I'll have to beat him up, the kid actually had the nerve to say something back to me, now I'm thinking Oh shit, is this kid crazy or just stupid? So the next day we et in an argument and he runs up from behind me an starts hitting me, so then I just flip out and beat him up. But like badly, I felt like I was awsome after but then at lunch I thought.....I just embarrased that kid so much ion fron of everyone, how is he ever going to forget that?

So ever since then ......I just compleley forgot what I was typing lol..

Ok so I was just so ashamed of what I did, then I realized that now people are going to think I'm crazy. And I just cant stand to see this kid because I dont know why but Im just embarrased of it, So I stopped going to that class.

Then About two months later the school phones and says I have to go see a social worker....Ah soon as I heard that I just snapped because this happened to my friend before and he got taken away and moved into a group home. So I broke all of my stuff in a rage and then ran away. Then I had to go back home a week later because I had no money or food and it was freezing out. I saw the social worker and they said If I didnt go I'd get charged and then have to get taken away from my family, I dont know why but whenever I hear that I just flip out. I told the lady to fuck off and call the cops and then ran away again.

But things are better now sort of.. I think Im gonna quit smoking pot and be clean for a bit. Because I never used to be like this, I just get so mad sometimes were I can want to kill myself, I even tried once but then I couldnt do it because my parents would miss me.

I think I've fucked my life up because I've done so many things that I'll never be able to forget.

And when Im like that I cant think for some reason, I do stupid things that.

I dont know what to do anymore, I cant live like this. I know it sounds like I just want attention but I really just hate everything.

 

dude, just remember, being a teenagers sucks ass so badly...BUT it only lasts a few more years. i thank god for every day i get older, because it's one more day between me and teenagerness. just hang in there, man.

 

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yea, being a teenager sucks balls. but it ends...

and dude, that was a fight...don't beat yourself up over a fight. no one is going to remember that shit.

 

Was that the kid in the other thread you posted? The one you allegedly sacked so bad he had to get his crazy guys amputated?