Reddit reviews When Panic Attacks: The New, Drug-Free Anxiety Therapy That Can Change Your Life
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When Panic Attacks The New Drug Free Anxiety Therapy That Can Change Your Life
To start with Buddhism
Get a copy of the book "What The Buddha Taught" by Walpoa Rahula ( a Buddhist Monk )
It is an introductory book to Buddhist teachings.
It is written in very clear language and it is very short.
Despite being short (151 pages) it covers all of the most important teachings very well.
"What The Buddha Taught" is old enough to be in many libraries and used book venues.
You can also download a free PDF version of the book .
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For anxiety and anger have a look at these links from the wiki:
Dealing with Painful Emotions, Anxiety, Depression, or Panic Attacks
I've had this too. Start by learning to control your anxiety response.
You can also work on some cognitive-behavioral therapy to help you understand and deconstruct your fears. Here's a book that helped me.
Above all else get therapy.
Also do these self care things ( what works for anxiety will also work for depression and vice-versa )
Lavender oil capsules ( approved for the treatment of anxiety in Germany)
> I often feel like this in these type of group smoking situations and I'm tired of it. its like as soon as I notice I haven't said anything in a while it gets worse. Like I keep thinking of things to say or do, but nothing is ever good enough.
It sounds like you are feeling a little bit of social anxiety when you consume too much THC. If high amounts of THC make you a little anxious, it might be a good idea to not get that high in social situations.
You could also try taking some CBD, which helps treat anxiety, and it can also modulate the effects of THC, to make it less anxiety-inducing.
If you are interested in self-improvement, you could also learn some techniques on how to deal with anxiety by reading a book like When Panic Attacks.
>Does this sound like classic TMI stage 4 purifications? My equanimity is quite good on retreat and I don’t really have panic symptoms in daily life, rather some mild social anxiety.
Quite possibly. Or "existential anxiety" aka fear of (ego) death, which we are normally very good at avoiding in daily life through keeping busy and overstimulated.
>When I investigate chest sensations non-judgmentally they tend to swell and move, they always seem ready to burst upwards but there's little sense it's opening the heart area. Is this just the process of heart chakra opening?
Maybe, I don't know. Chakras are a weird concept IMO. I've definitely had bundles of sensations in many, but not all, of the standard chakra locations, on Goenka retreats mostly. And I don't know what to make of them in terms of meaning-making. Noticing sensations non-judgmentally is always a good idea though. :)
>Should I cultivate piti more to gladden my mind? I tend to get early stage piti moreso on the out breath.
I don't know about cultivating piti, but gladdening the mind never hurts. Definitely increasing your equanimity seems like it could be beneficial. Despite saying your equanimity is "quite good on retreat" you also say that the experience was "traumatizing," but my experience is that things are only "traumatizing" to my nervous system when I have insufficient equanimity. I went through a 2.5 hour dental procedure, awake, with lots of drilling and yanking of my teeth and copious amounts of blood and pain and it was not traumatizing at all because I had really good equanimity during that event, yet I've had minor disagreements with people that I could not shake for weeks or months because my equanimity was so low.
>Should I respect my trauma, or whatever ‘this’ is, and avoid longer retreats for now?
That's up to you. If you feel that is best, trust your own wisdom. Goenka retreats are particularly hard core, and there are also less intense options.
>Does this sound normal for someone with a history of anxiety and trauma?
Sounds like classic symptoms of panic attacks. See When Panic Attacks by Dr. David Burns, really good CBT approach to panic. I'd recommend working with that alongside meditation. Perhaps also practice some gratitude that you don't experience this in daily life too. :)
>Should I find a teacher, or should I find a therapist experienced in the intersection of trauma and vipassana?
Probably a good idea. I'm not a meditation teacher, but I do hypnosis and I have some ideas of things that might be useful. But find someone you resonate with.
>Is this classic dark night territory? Is increased metta meditation enough of an antidote to this? I struggle somewhat with generating metta but have a firm intention to persevere.
Metta is never a bad idea. :) I personally would recommend something like Core Transformation, which is in my opinion a kind of metta that also leads to change of specific issues.
>Is it normal to have such strong energetic phenomena and intense sensations of panic even though my thoughts are quite calm and I’m not spiralling into story/narrative worry?
Very normal...or is it? Dun dun dun, tune in next time to find out! Just kidding, yea the body can do really weird stuff, and there isn't always any content to it.
>It’s tough for me to have much metta or see too many fruits from the practice when I encounter such distracting/strong experiences from my chest area and I’m so aware of my heart.
Again, this is a classic symptom of panic attacks. I'd put it this way: meditating brings up panic attacks for you. You are able to sit through them with a fair degree of equanimity, but they keep happening. There are ways to work with this. You are not broken or weird, ok maybe a little weird but so is everybody interested in hard core meditation haha. I'm certainly pretty weird. And yes, be gentle and kind to yourself and don't push through like a madman necessarily, but also don't avoid meditation entirely out of fear of panic attacks (that's also a symptom of panic attacks, avoiding things that cause them, which makes them worse). Find a middle path.
\> This is not a financial problem, this is a trauma problem.
Perfectly said.
OP, in therapy you can talk about your experiences growing up with financial worries. A good therapist can help you explore how those experiences affected you and help you identify the narratives you tell yourself as a result.
It sounds like the financial hyper-awareness has actually served a very useful purpose for you so far. You did well in school and worked your way into a good career. But there's a saying: "What got you here won't get you there." Now your anxiety around finances is holding you back, and you would be better served by spending less energy worrying about finances while still putting a plan in place to responsibly manage your finances.
A therapist can also help you retrain your thinking. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is one type of therapy which is aimed at retraining negative automatic thoughts. You identify negative thoughts and write them down, then apply techniques from the CBT toolbox to understand why those thoughts are distorted and replace them with more adaptive thoughts that better reflect reality.
The key point is that your brain won't let you simply choose to stop thinking a negative thought, because there's usually a kernel of truth. You need to replace the negative thought with a new thought that also true but is more adaptive.
So for example, when you think:
\> I'm suddenly gonna lose all my money at the blink of an eye
You can write that thought down, then look at a list of cognitive distortions and identify things like "all or nothing thinking" and "jumping to conclusions". From there you can identify potentially useful CBT techniques. Some techniques work better for certain types of cognitive distortions. So you might try techniques like exploring "What's the worst that would happen? How would I need to react if I actually lost all my money?", or you might try keeping count of unwanted thoughts to make yourself better at noticing them as they appear. There are dozens of techniques.
I'll note that studies have actually shown that CBT from a book can be just as effective as CBT with a therapist. I'd recommend finding a therapist if you're able, because they can help in ways that a book can't. But it's worth mentioning for anyone who isn't able to see a therapist, or isn't sure whether their therapist is any good.
You can just open up the book, start reading, and do the exercises. The key is that you can't just skim the book. You have to actually do the work and write down your answers.
Here's a good book on CBT:
https://www.amazon.com/When-Panic-Attacks-Drug-Free-Anxiety/dp/076792083X
Here is a good blog post on how to find a therapist:
https://blog.valerieaurora.org/2016/04/17/howto-therapy-what-psychotherapy-is-how-to-find-a-therapist-and-when-to-fire-your-therapist/
Finally, one way to feel more in control is to learn more about managing your finances. I'd recommend reading a good book on personal finance, like this one:
https://www.amazon.com/Bogleheads-Guide-Investing-Taylor-Larimore/dp/1118921283
And then I'd recommend writing out an "investing policy statement". Basically it's a written statement describing your financial goals and long term plan of how to attain them. You're effectively writing instructions for your future self. This can help put worrying to rest. For example, you can consult the statement to remind yourself that you planned to save $___/month toward a house and $___/month toward retirement. If you are meeting your goals, you shouldn't feel guilty about spending money on things you enjoy.
Here's a blog post describing an investing policy statement:
https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/how-to-write-an-investing-personal-statement/
I get panic attacks when I exercise too. The increase in heart rate is a trigger for the anxiety to overwhelm my mind.
What happens when you have a panic attack?
For me, I have the thought that I'm going to die; I focus on one specific thing that might be wrong, maybe a strange spot on my arm or a non-specific symptom like dizziness, then I convince myself I have cancer or that I'm having a heart attack. I've found the only way to get over panic attacks is straight through. I don't fight the freak out, I let the anxiety wash over me and eventually it goes away (the body only has so much stress hormones to release at one time so it will always dissipate.)
Something that has helped me with anxiety is the book When Panic Attacks by David Burns. It describes Cognitive Behavioral Therapy techniques to handle anxiety/depression. One I found particularly helpful is called the Downward Arrow Technique. When I'm relatively calm, I reflect on the thought driving my panic attacks. It looks like this:
"I'm going to die!"
-Why is that upsetting?
"I'm too young to die."
-Why is that upsetting?
"I haven't accomplished what I want to in life."
and BAM I know what is at the root of my anxiety, so I know where to start working to relieve it.
I applaud you for flushing the benzos. They're evil and I've been prescribed them for eight years. I've been tapering off with a new psychiatrist for three months and I've only cut the dose by a third.
I'm also in my late twenties and pretty miserable. But I want to work for a better life. I'm going back to school so that I can change careers and do something that probably won't make a lot of money, but hopefully will make more content. I say "content" and not "happy," because I don't believe that consistent happiness is an attainable goal, but contentment, that seems like something I could work with.
Oh, and that girl that reacted in disgust when you said you didn't drink, she's an idiot and not worth your time. She did you a favor by not hiding her true self.
Hey,
Congratulations on your decision to get help! You can do it. In you post history, I can see that you struggle with depression.
First, where are you located? Are you in Europe, in the US, somewhere else? In most places, you can find therapists. Are you still in school or studying? Many schools and universities offer free mental health councelling. Check those out! Depending on your situation, you might be able to qualify for government assistance. I am not in the US, but I believe you can check HealthCare.gov to find out if you qualify and take your next steps from there. If you don't qualify, there is a very cool blog post by a psychologist on how to get mental health care on a budget: http://slatestarcodex.com/2018/04/25/mental-health-on-a-budget/
Let me quote from that article:
"This section is on ways to do therapy if you cannot afford a traditional therapist. There may also be other options specific to your area, like training clinics attached to colleges that charge “sliding scale” fees (ie they will charge you less if you can’t afford full price).
1. Bibliotherapy: If you’re doing a specific therapy for a specific problem (as opposed to just trying to vent or organize your thoughts), studies generally find that doing therapy out of a textbook works just as well as doing it with a real therapist. I usually recommend David Burns’ therapy books: Feeling Good for depression and When Panic Attacks for anxiety. If you have anger, emotional breakdowns, or other borderline-adjacent symptoms, consider a DBT skills workbook. For OCD, Brain Lock.
2. Free support groups: Alcoholics Anonymous is neither as great as the proponents say nor as terrible as the detractors say; for a balanced look, see here. There are countless different spinoffs for non-religious people or people with various demographic characteristics or different drugs. But there are also groups for gambling addiction, sex addiction, and food addiction (including eating disorders). There’s a list of anxiety and depression support groups here. Groups for conditions like social anxiety can be especially helpful since going to the group is itself a form of exposure therapy.
3. Therapy startups: These are companies like BetterHelp and TalkSpace which offer remote therapy for something like $50/week. I was previously more bullish on these; more recently, it looks like they have stopped offering free videochat with a subscription. That means you may be limited to texting your therapist about very specific things you are doing that day, which isn’t really therapy. And some awful thinkpiece sites that always hate everything are also skeptical. I am interested in hearing experiences from anyone who has used these sites. Until then, consider them use-at-your-own-risk." (end quote)
There are also sections on prescription medicine and on supplements in that article. Check it out!
If you are in a particularly bad spot or just need somebody to talk, there are lots of phone lines and services where you can call in for free. One example: https://www.crisistextline.org/depression/ (US-based).
There are also subreddits like /r/depression where you can get help from people who actually know what they are talking about.
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Good luck and hang in there!
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Nauseous from anxiety? I've totally been there.
When I first started having panic attacks (after smoking too much pot) I was unsettled by the panic attacks themselves, but once I learned that what I was going through was not all that unusual I was able to move past the actual panic attacks themselves.
But I had exactly the same issue you are describing, even when I was completely calm, I would feel nauseated and shitty. The one thing I can tell you for sure is that it will pass with time. I really can't say how long, because anxiety is a completely subjective experience, but I can assure you 100% that the nausea will pass over time. Any other side effects from anxiety will pass as well.
Some great literature on how to deal with panic attacks is Panic Away! and The Linden Method e-books (they can both be found on various torrent sites) and When Panic Attacks
Good luck, I am confident you will get through all this and be stronger for it.
This was my first holiday home after discovering and coming to grips with the fact that I was raised by a uBPD mother. It was difficult for me too, but I feel like being armed with that information opened the door for growth. I'm also finding (as a 30 year old man) that it is painful to start processing all of this now, but I think in the long run it will be worth it. Even just reading Surviving a Borderline Parent is stressful and makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
You're not alone, and I'd even venture to say that your reaction is pretty normal. It's going to be important to establish some healthy outlets to deal with the anxiety you're feeling. I suggest:
I can't recommend those two books highly enough. The former is better if you're feeling more depressed, the latter if you're feeling more anxious. Both are basically Cognitive Behavior Therapy for dummies.
You should look into learning CBT to counteract the negative thoughts and perceptions that arise in you.
There is a really good book on CBT for anxiety here. CBT is among the gold standard of treating this sort of thing, and self treatment is possible.
Agreed that you sound like a good person. Depression is terrible, and as hard as it might be, I wouldn't take any of his behavior too personally. It's such a painful and life-sucking thing to experience that it can be difficult to be anything other than aloof and inconsiderate.
As someone else said, dial it down a bit, but keep in contact. I'm sure he appreciates your presence and doesn't want you to leave, or anything. I'm getting into the mental health field starting this fall, and if he's not familiar with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), see if he can find a therapist who specializes in it. Many people find David Burns' CBT books very helpful as well (Feeling Good, When Panic Attacks) if you want to get him a copy.
Even though "therapy" isn't the answer you want, I'd like to state that Dialectical Behavioral Therapy specifically helped me. It's a specific type of cognitive behavioral therapy more focused on skills learning and behavior training than what people generally associate with therapy (aka psychoanalysis/psychoanalytics). TBH, as someone who's been through a ton of therapy, a bit of advice on if you've considered trying or have been discouraged: the therapists who merely help you "talk about your feelings" without offering skills learning are shits who hurt people rather than helping them. Seriously though, cannot recommend behavior training/thought reinforcement enough. Pointing out negativity and actively changing it to positivity may be hard, but it makes SO MUCH DIFFERENCE.
Also, DBT/CBT practices are something you don't even need to pay people for! You can learn them from a book! Ex: https://www.amazon.com/When-Panic-Attacks-Drug-Free-Anxiety/dp/076792083X
Edit: mention of bibliotherapy option for help in skills training
Does she like to read? Maybe you could get her a great book written by a psychiatrist called When Panic Attacks.
http://www.amazon.com/When-Panic-Attacks-Drug-Free-Anxiety/dp/076792083X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1410563306&sr=8-1&keywords=when+panic+attacks
The skills you would benefit from learning don't really lend themselves to a quick comment in a Reddit thread. Do yourself a favor and invest the time and effort (and a small amount of money) to buy and read a book by an expert on the subject.
Here's a good one, written by David Burns, M.D., a plain-spoken and compassionate therapist with several decades of experience. It's titled When Panic Attacks: The New, Drug-Free Anxiety Therapy That Can Change Your Life.
You can see it here at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/When-Panic-Attacks-Drug-Free-Anxiety/dp/076792083X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1524105630&sr=8-1&keywords=burns+panic
Anxiety, and panic attacks, are quite common. Don't feel that there's something terribly wrong with you. But it's good to educated about what's going on with your body, and what you can do to manage these episodes. And a book like the one mentioned can take you a long way toward that goal.
Best wishes to you.
Thanks for this!!! And you can add another book from David Burns called "When Panic Attacks" which is more about anxiety and other disorders and it's more recent.
Link to amazon
I would recommend [this book] (http://www.amazon.com/When-Panic-Attacks-Drug-Free-Anxiety/dp/076792083X/ref=pd_sim_b_4). It has really helped me. It provides you with a multitude of techniques that can help. There is a very good chance that at least one will help you dramatically.
The first step may be to write down your fears as they are happening. If you wait until after, you won't get to the root of your problem. Once you find the root cause, you can 'put the lie to it'. After that, you can basically laugh at the fear and move on in your life.
I've had similar issues. I changed my diet and implemented daily exercising. Feeling better physically can help your mental state almost immediately.
Lastly, I would recommend breathing techniques. There are many found on the internet. I would try them out to see which works. The key for me was to use them during the earliest forms of anxiety. If I waited for a full blown attack, I was less successful.
While I've never had relationship anxiety, I have been in a relationship for 14 years. I think the best advice I can give is: you will never be happy if you have to pretend to be someone else. You have to reach a point where you feel comfortable enough to be yourself. Know that if it is meant to be, she will accept you for you for who you are. The good and the bad.
I would say if this behavior turns into something impulsive and it takes up your thinking for a huge portion of the day, grab some compulsive-obsessive anxiety books and look into some of the techniques in them. What you described matches many of the examples I read in this book: https://www.amazon.com/When-Panic-Attacks-Drug-Free-Anxiety/dp/076792083X
He has methods for people to use to help alleviate compulsions like the one you describe.
Once again, if this issue doesn't go away and it bothers you more and more, please look into that book.
You should look into cognitive behavioral therapy as well. It has a pretty well proven track record for anxiety and depression.
You can see a therapist for it but its also possible to self learn the techniques from books, etc.
The books by Dr. David Burns are pretty good ones on this subject. This one is all about anxiety.
Hi! I'm really sorry you're going through this, but please know it is (sadly) really common, but people just don't talk about it. I've had pretty bad panic attacks for at least 1 year (was also under medication), but now I'd say it's more under control (not 100% free, but I know what to do when it happens). Some recommendations:
Just remember you'll be okay after a panic attack (even though it sucks) and you can always ask for help if there's someone around you. Keep fighting! :)
Hey! I grabbed it off of Amazon. The copy is an older edition but was untouched, fortunately.
Here's the link:
When Panic Attacks: The New, Drug-Free Anxiety Therapy That Can Change Your Life https://www.amazon.com/dp/076792083X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_8zy6BbXNNC11F
Therapist told me to use this in conjunction with TFGH. I figured it was a companion project by Dr. Burns; it is a separate workbook. Regardless, Dr. Burns' TFGH and this piece work well together for me.
Sorry for any confusion. Hope you dig it.
As someone who suffered from anxiety for several years, I know that recovery can often be a personal journey and that what works for 1 person may not work for others. I can only tell you what worked for me and hope that some parts of it also work for you.
I did a bit of therapy, saw several doctors, was put on anti-depressants as a means to reduce anxiety. Was pretty miserable for 2 years, couldn't drive without a panic attack, couldn't watch TV, I would often wake up with panic attacks. It was bad.
I eventually found this book by David D. Burns, M.D:
https://www.amazon.com/When-Panic-Attacks-Drug-Free-Anxiety/dp/076792083X
The gold mine of this book is the framework for the mental exercises that you are to do, it was in doing these exercises that I was eventually cured. It wasn't instantaneous, it was gradual, I had to put in the work, but it was worth it and only cost me my own time. The main guts of the book are explaining cognitive distortions, which are patterns of thought that are fictitious in some way.
The primary goal that the book is driving you towards is to be able to take a negative thought, break it down, find the cognitive distortions in it and turn it into a positive thought that is true that you actually believe.
For instance, if I try to summarize your thought from your post:
Negative Thought: "I'm abnormally tired and think my liver is failing"
Percentage that you believe this: 100%
We might find the following cognitive distortions behind this thought:
Once you've identified distortions you try to put the lie to your original negative thought. You might combat it by saying: Although I do feel abnormally tired, I have been making many changes in life that may take time for my body to adjust to. The test results I got show that my liver is ok. Just because I feel tired right now does not mean that I am dying.
Then you revisit your original negative thought and say, hmm, maybe I only believe this 5% right now and I believe my new positive thought 85%. The goal is to stop believing your negative thoughts. Anyways, rough breakdown of some of the types of exercises the book would guide you through. I highly recommend it.
This is called cognitive flooding. Very common and effective technique in psychiatric therapy (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy particularly) for dealing with traumatic experiences and deep-rooted anxieties.
For anyone looking further into this subject, I highly recommend When Panic Attacks by David D. Burns, MD. As hokey as the book may seem at first glance, the material provided is ridiculously effective.
I actually went through a period of about 2 years where I didn't drive. I think it was triggered by a relatively minor accident I was in. A few weeks after that, I had a panic attack while driving, and then it just became a vicious downward spiral.
The insidious thing about panic attacks is that they themselves become the greatest cause of future panic attacks. Your mother isn't afraid of driving (just like I wasn't) - she's afraid of having a panic attack while she's driving. This fear gets her nervous system so amped up that by the time she gets behind the wheel, it's almost inevitable that she'll have another incident.
The reason she was able to drive cross country that one time is that she had a bigger issue to distract her from her normal fear. She was more focused on her distraught friend than she was her own anxiety. This is all a mind trick.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy can be incredibly effective in helping people with phobias and anxieties. I highly recommend the book, When Panic Attacks for a way to both understand the issue and to begin addressing it.
I know she's against medication, but a short-acting benzodiazepine (Xanax, Klonopin, etc ...) could also help her reduce her anxiety level enough to get behind the wheel for the early part of her recovery. Most general physicians will prescribe them and the generics run less than $30 for a month+ supply.
And, yes, your friends are right. Ultimately, the longer you let your mother use you as a crutch, the more she'll avoid driving and the deeper her anxiety will run. I started driving again because I had to. I didn't want to, but it was out of necessity. At first I would only take short trips down side streets. Once I was comfortable with that, I moved on to larger roads and, eventually, I was on the freeway again. It didn't happen overnight, but each small success built on the one before it. Your mom can do this too. I wish you both the best of luck.
Note on worrying
For some reason Feeling Good doesn't tackle anxieties and worrying. I remember that Dale Carnegie's How to Stop Worrying and Start Living deals with it effectively.
Anxiety attacks are terrible, they are probably worse than usual procrastination binges. I hope cognitive therapy has something in its arsenal against anxiety attacks.
Actually, David Burns has a book When Panic Attacks published in 2006. He also tackles anxiety, fear and phobias in part 3 of Feeling Good Handbook.
I would suggest NoFap and some help for best results.
I'm going to parrot a few others and suggest /r/needadvice.
In the interim, if SRS isn't an option, is there another relative in town that has a more stable environment that you could move in with for a while?
Regarding you anxiety, if you haven't looked into cognitive behavioral therapy, I would highly recommend it. It basically teaches you how to look for the triggers to the anxiety, and helps to disarm the anxiety before the situation gets out of hand. It helped me greatly with my PTSD and subsequent anxiety to the point that I'm 99% med free. The book When Panic Attacks by David Burns helped me a lot.
Hope this helps.
1.
It looks from here like trazodone is more popular than competing antidepressants. Possible side effects of trazodone are listed here. You won't experience every side effect. And, even if you do experience a side effect, it may diminish with time.
Trazodone can also reduce anxiety and depression.
Alcohol withdrawal can cause temporary insomnia. It's up to you whether or not it's worth seeking trazodone (at least for a few days). But trazodone definitely might help to reduce the insomnia.
If you wish, you can get a prescription, fill it for $4, then decide later on whether or not to actually try the drug.
2.
No problem!
3.
> Earlier this year, I tried to go to therapy for my Complex-PTSD and the therapist literally told me I had too many problems and she couldn’t treat me.
Oh. :( I hope she recommended someone else.
> I haven’t been able to work in several months because the anxiety and trauma make it hard to walk into the grocery store or get out of bed, let alone apply to a job somewhere.
Here's a list of anxiety-friendly jobs. When you eventually go back to work, the list might be useful.
I clicked on your user profile. If you're still in an abusive living situation, please keep in mind that there are quite a few domestic-violence shelter beds around — and that you can live there for free.
A) Anxiety and addiction can isolate a person. Currently, do you have any friends? If not, do you have a partner and/or some family members who you hang out with sometimes?
B) [Edit: Methadone treatment may reduce heroin cravings.] It also might (or might not) help to reduce anxiety, depression, and insomnia. But it may cause various side effects, and the frequency of clinic visits can be a hassle. Also, it can be too painful to quit it unless you gradually taper your dose down to zero. Have you ever tried methadone?
C) Even a few months of DBT can be helpful. What did you think of it? What made you quit it?
Maybe you might want to read some therapy self-help manual, such as When Panic Attacks (which teaches CBT). You might find it easier to do the exercises together with someone else, such as a friend or family member who also has anxiety. If you have trouble getting out of bed, you could keep the book (and a lamp) next to your bed, so that at least you can read in bed.
>(for example, I'll be thinking something normal like 'Oh look, that person is playing with their kid!' and then immediately 'What if I'm only thinking about them because I want to lure them into the woods and murder them? What if I'm secretly a murderer?'), and just will NOT STOP
:-( My ex-bf goes through something like this. Have you tried CBT? You need to work on it every single day for several months.
http://www.amazon.com/When-Panic-Attacks-Drug-Free-Anxiety/dp/076792083X
So where are your parents in all of this?
Do you go to therapy for this problem? What about medication? Are you taking any to help with your problem?
I think Niknax9 is right that you have agoraphobia or some kind of social anxiety disorder.
Also, you may want to order this book: www.amazon.com/When-Panic-Attacks-Drug-Free-Anxiety/dp/076792083X
If you like reading, you may be able to help yourself out.
Mind over Mood is a good one.
Edit: David Burns is a big name in CBT and it looks like he wrote a book just for anxiety called When Panic Attacks.
The book, "When Panic Attacks" did wonders for me. https://smile.amazon.com/When-Panic-Attacks-Drug-Free-Anxiety/dp/076792083X?sa-no-redirect=1
There are a lot of great breathing/focusing tips here but I thought I'd chime in with a more long-term fix for preventing the panic in the first place. I saw a therapist for a couple years for panic attacks and she turned me onto this book and this doctor's CBT techniques that have been proven effective. It helps you understand where the anxiety is coming from and change your thinking. Hope you find relief!
Hey, you should read this book in the meantime, it's about CBT for things like social anxiety and panic attacks, and it's proven to actually help if you practice the techniques.
There was a study that took people with social anxiety and had them do a 9 week self directed online CBT course, and they found that afterwards they all had actual physical brain changes in the parts of their brains associated with fear, and had less anxiety. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/02/160202185552.htm
CBT has been shown to work better than medications, and especially in the long run, because you are learning workable skills and changing your brain in the process.
I wish you the best of luck!
Check out this book.
Or look at this website. Best of luck!
Or "When Panic Attacks" which helped me tremendously.
If you're interested in self-help towards getting rid of your anxiety try reading this while you're stepping down to 0. Great book for anxiety/depression.
Read it. I have no advice to give other than to read it.
http://www.amazon.com/When-Panic-Attacks-Drug-Free-Anxiety/dp/076792083X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1346650611&sr=8-1&keywords=when+panic+attacks