X Factor: Katie Waissel wants panic attacks taken more seriously @ Unreality TV

Katie Waissel has complained that people don’t take panic attacks

seriously enough and said that she wants to raise awareness of the incidents.

The 24 year old singer, who was eliminated from The X Factor last night, was talking about an incident which occurred in Topshop last month, when she fainted after a panic attack

and the press accused her of attention seeking behaviour.

During an appearance on This Mornring, Katie was asked to clear up some of the press rumours and she told Ben Shepherd and Holly Willoughby:

I was actually really ill that day and I suffer from panic attacks. I think panic attacks should be taken a little bit more seriously, I’d love to make people more aware of how many people do suffer from them.

Waissel also denied reports that she had rowed with Cheryl Cole on Saturday, because she didn’t want to sing The Kings Of Leon anthem, ‘Sex On Fire.’ She added:

The papers have said so much over the past few weeks. Cheryl has been an amazing mentor and all of the judges are wonderful so no that wasn’t the case at all.

And on why she has been so badly received by the public and the press, Katie concluded:

I don’t know, I’ve honestly got no idea. I tried to keep my head down and get on with it each week and I wanted to show people it doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from, you just keep your head up, smile and just fight through it.

Were you glad to see Katie go last night? Leave your comments below.

via unrealitytv.co.uk

I vote for Katie on this one
cure panic attacks

Looking for women aged 22-30 to share their stories of dealing with anxiety or panic attacks

Summary:

Looking for women aged 22-30 to share their stories of dealing with anxiety or panic attacks

Details:

I'm searching for women aged 22-30 to share their stories about having dealt with anxiety or panic attacks. If you are dealing or have dealt with anxiety we'd love to speak to you about your experience and it's no problem to remain anonymous. Any help would be much appreciated.

Deadline:

29 November 2010 @ 5pm Eastern Daylight Saving Time

(Successful sources will not be paid.)

via sourcebottle.com.au

This could be useful to some of us
cure panic attacks

Panic Attacks Can Stymie Public Speaking | Help & Teach Our Children

It is often observed that many people’s top ranking fear is not death but having to speak in public. The joke is that these people would rather be lying in the casket at the funeral than giving the eulogy. Public speaking for people who suffer from panic attacks or general anxiety often becomes a major source of worry weeks or even months before the speaking event is to occur.

via usteacher.biz

A good joke... unless you are a sufferer!

cure panic attacks

She's worth £10m and has outsold The Beatles...So why is SuBo still terrified of stardom? | Mail Online

Let's just say that Miss Boyle, the endearingly scatty singing sensation who was discovered on Britain's Got Talent 18 months ago, has not exactly let fame go to her head.

Take, for example, the £300,000 'dream home' she has bought with some of the £10 million she's already raked in.

She may have kitted out the newly-built detached house in her hometown of Blackburn, West Lothian, 'all posh', as she puts it, with wall-to-wall Ikea fittings, a smart docking station for her iPod and a grand piano in her living room.

But her new quarters have remained largely uninhabited by the 49-year-old spinster. Instead, SuBo  -  as she is known to her millions of fans around the world  -  is to be found most evenings less than a mile away in the dingy terraced council house where she has lived all her life.

While smart enough, her new home would be far more fitting for, say, a successful young executive couple than the most successful recording artist in the world currently.

Even so, the fragile Susan admits she is yet to feel truly comfortable there. Family friends say she has panic attacks when left alone at the new house at night and worries that her beloved cat Pebbles has not settled in.

via dailymail.co.uk

Looks like fame and fortune doesn't help to cure panic attacks

Homeless veteran of Persian Gulf and Iraq wars is back from the brink | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Breaking News for Dallas-Fort Worth | Dallas Morning News

About 3,700 homeless veterans nationwide served in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, according to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans in Washington, D.C.

Experts expect those numbers to grow because of the lag before many veterans actually turn for help. Tammy Wood, a program manager at Veterans Affairs North Texas Health Care System, said besides housing, many veterans need jobs and mental health services, including treatment for addictions.

Officials stressed that help is available for veterans – and that they hope more are willing to seek the assistance they need.

Glass said he lived in his Jeep or hotel rooms and stayed at relatives' homes after he was discharged from the military in 2004 because of alcohol and other drug-related charges. He then worked odd jobs and tried to avoid people – all while experiencing more nightmares and panic attacks.

"I thought I was going crazy," the 40-year-old said.

via dallasnews.com

On the day we remember the fallen...

A BRISTOL defendant refused to travel 35 miles to court to be sentenced for harassment – because he has a fear of public transport.

The judge issued a warrant for Williams to be arrested and brought to court in a custody van.

Addressing a group of students observing court procedure from the public gallery, the judge explained: "Mr Williams advises that he suffers from anxiety and panic attacks if he has to travel on public transport.

"He says he is currently on medication for this, prescribed by his GP, so he is not coming.

"Uh uh, no good! He has had a month to work out how to get here.

"He is going to have a bigger panic attack in the dock when he does turn up. I have issued a warrant not backed for bail that says he is a wanted man and requires all constables to arrest him on sight."

via thisisbristol.co.uk

Sounds like the law is unsympathetic to panic attack sufferers as well...

Cure Panic Attacks

As filmmakers, veterans find creative outlet - SignOnSanDiego.com

The struggle for former combatants attempting to integrate into civilian life can include depression or survivor guilt, panic attacks or substance abuse — anything to blot out the images of dead friends or strangers playing through their minds like pages in a picture book that won’t stop turning.

via signonsandiego.com

Knowing the cause of your panic attacks doesn't always help to cure them

Cure Panic Attacks

"127 Hours": Film Causes Panic Attacks at Film Festivals

For Danny Boyle´s film "127 Hours" you need steady nerves. During early screenings, viewers fainted, vomited and had panic attacks.

Shown at the Telluride Film Festival and the Toronto Film Festival two months ago, people fainted and panicked during an arm-amputation scene. One viewer even had a seizure. Screenings in October evoked the same reactions.

“I would prefer that people not pass out; it’s not a plus. We don’t see a particular publicity value in it,” Fox Searchlight co-president Stephen Gilula said.

via shortnews.com

They don't want people to pass out but sounds like vomiting or having panic attacks is all right!

New Details Emerge About Katy & Russell's Wedding | PerezHilton.com

“One of the cutest things is that Russell rode into the ceremony on an elephant, but there was another elephant walking beside his because apparently they’re fraternal twins and can’t be separated or else they’ll both have panic attacks.”

via perezhilton.com

A couple of elephants having panic attacks sounds seriously scary!

Cure Panic Attacks

X Factor News Update: Has Katie really, finally, truly lost her marbles? : X-Factor : Specials

Word has it that after a series of panic attacks following the terrible of ordeal of having to sing for her survival last Sunday night, Katie's been spluttering hysterically into her pillow, and wouldn't even get out of bed earlier in the week.

via betting.betfair.com

Not very sympathetic are they?

cure panic attacks

Workplace Bullying: Don't Let it Destroy Your Current (and Future) Employment -- DETROIT, Nov. 2, 2010 /PRNewswire/ --

Workplace bullying tactics can range from the covert (behind-the-back sniping) to the blatant (public humiliation or physical abuse), but they are unquestionably harmful in all forms, often with alarming consequences.  Victims of bullying report decreased workplace productivity, loss of confidence, debilitating anxiety, panic attacks, clinical depression and even physical illnesses as a result of being bullied.

via prnewswire.com

Yet another cause of panic attacks

Cure Panic Attacks

Fear can be scary | WSLS 10

Extreme anxiety can cause disabling panic attacks, an intense fear that something bad is going to happen. The physical symptoms -- chest pain, dizziness, palpitations and a sense of doom -- can be mistaken for those of a heart attack.

"These are terribly frightening things," said Dr. Martin Buxton, chief of psychiatry at Tucker Pavilion at Chippenham Hospital.

"On the other end of the spectrum, you have things like generalized anxiety disorder, which I call the walking wounded," he said. "These are people who cannot relax and be in the moment. They are constantly worrying . . . What's been shown is these anxiety disorders untreated really can negatively impact peoples' overall health."

via www2.wsls.com

Some interesting examples of people overcoming their problem here

Cure panic attacks

Having a panic attack?

Try moving into the experience rather than against it... Cure Panic Attacks

X Factor's Cher Lloyd suffers from panic attacks before performances - mirror.co.uk

X Factor's Cher Lloyd suffers from panic attacks before performances

Cher Lloyd has revealed she suffers from panic attacks moments before she performs on the X Factor stage.

The 17-year-old says that each week she gets so nervous that she believes she won’t be able to sing.

However, Cher says her nerves disappear the moment the music starts.

She said: “To control my nerves I go into a little panic attack mode. I shut myself off from everybody and then I take a deep breath.

“Every time before I go on stage, I always think I can’t do it, and that I’m too nervous to do it, but as soon as the music starts a little switch turns on and I’m ready for it.”

via mirror.co.uk

Do you think she can win in spite of her panic attacks?

Cure Panic Attacks

Anxiety disorders affect smoking cessation

MADISON, Wis., Oct. 26 (UPI) -- Cigarette smokers who have a history of anxiety disorders have a harder time than others quitting smoking, U.S. researchers suggest.

Lead author Megan Piper of the University of Wisconsin Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention says the study offered free coaching and medications to smokers in Madison and Milwaukee. The study found the overall quit rates were high, but smokers with anxiety diagnoses were much less likely than others to quit smoking.

Out of the 1,504 study participants, 455 reported a panic attack in the past, 199 reported social anxiety disorder and 99 reported generalized anxiety disorder -- some reported having more than one diagnoses.

Smokers who said they had anxiety disorders also reported higher levels of nicotine dependence and withdrawal symptoms prior to quitting, Piper says.

In addition, study participants who had panic attacks or social-anxiety disorder experienced more negative feelings on the day they quit than did smokers without no anxiety disorder history.

The study is published in the journal Addiction.

via upi.com

Have you got a light?

cure panic attacks

Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush admit to paralysing stage fright | Culture | The Guardian

Young actors can take some reassurance from the words of Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush, who have been at the London film festival promoting The King's Speech – a wonderful, funny, moving film, rightly being tipped as an Oscar contender. The film is about the chronic stammer of George VI and his treatment with an Australian speech therapist. Asked if they had suffered from speech anxiety, both actors said yes. Firth recalled the appalling stage fright he had during his last stage appearance, at the Donmar Warehouse in 1999. With only two weeks of rehearsals, he got so terrified on opening night that he locked himself in the toilet. Then he decided he needed some air, and left the Donmar altogether, accidentally closing the fire door behind him, five minutes before he was due on stage. "So I had to go round the front, through the audience – the very people I was terrified of." Then he couldn't remember the pass code to get backstage and had to beg to get back in. Rush, for his part, said that in the early 1990s he went through a period of "dread-inducing panic attacks before going on stage . . . and then I got an international film career and they sort of disappeared."

via guardian.co.uk

I wish mine "sort of disappeared"!

cure panic attacks

Stupid Panic attacks!! - CafeMom

 So everything is finally becoming settled down in my life. I have gotten through a rough patch and we are doing great. I have recently started having panic attacks again and trust me I know what kind of things can cause them and I work hard to over come them.

  Today was a pretty cloudy day here, We are getting ready for snow to hit. Our weather has been great for this time of the year. SO my panic attacks were kinda a no show most of the day, I went and did laundry and had made dinner after words. I am settling down for the night. I get heartburn due to our dinner and of course nothing to take for it, so i am suffering from heartburn. My shoulders and upper back are sore and stiff due to weather changes and other areas of my body are effected and so now I am starting panic attacks. I can takew a trank if I need to. I really hate taking them though but I figure it is close enoough to bedtime in fact over and I am gonna take one soon. I just hate nights like this. I wish I could figure out a way to make them barable. I am so sick of them interrupting my life.

 I hope everyone else had better days. Please feel free to share them well I try and get control of myself so I can sleep.

via cafemom.com

good luck with that

cure panic attacks

The Witness

PIETERMARITZBURG mother Kalisha Rajcoomar (23), who with her husband, Amith Sewkarran (26), stands convicted of the murder of her lover, Sandesh Poorun, could not testify yesterday because she was suffering from “panic attacks”, anxiety and stress.

via witness.co.za

That's convenient, isn't it?

cure panic attacks

Earl of Sandwich appeals on behalf of valium victims (From Dorset Echo)

The Earl raised the issue during a House of Lords debate earlier this month and is calling on the government to speed up an ongoing review of people’s dependence on and withdrawal from benzodiazepene based medicines, which are often prescribed to treat insomnia, depression, alcohol addiction and anxiety.

He said the symptoms of withdrawal from these medications can include panic attacks, muscle fatigue and epileptic seizures.

via dorsetecho.co.uk

You're prescribed a drug to treat your anxiety then, when you try to come off it, you get panic attacks! There has to be a better way...

Cure Panic Attacks

Half of US teens have mental health issues | hc2d.co.uk | Healthcare News | teenagers | adhd | anxiety

The fact that children as young as six years old demonstrate symptoms of social phobia and panic attacks was among the surprising conclusions the researchers were able to draw from the data.

More than 30% of all teens had experienced either social phobia or panic attacks.

via hc2d.co.uk

It can start as early as 6 years old!

cure panic attacks

Sonia's battle with anxiety - Local News - News - General - Central Western Daily

She said, at their worst, the panic attacks would leave her so frozen with fear that she would be unable to move until the episode passed.

“There was never a clear-cut trigger and they would come without warning,” she said.

“If I was driving, I would have to pull over and get out of the car.

“I had trouble leaving the house sometimes, socialising, going out for dinner, shopping, just everything that you do every day.”

via centralwesterndaily.com.au

She's not alone in her suffering is she?

Cure Panic Attacks

Daniel Pink's Think Tank: Flip-thinking – the new buzz word sweeping the US - Telegraph

via telegraph.co.uk

Teacher Karl Fisch has flipped teaching on its head - he uploads his lectures to YouTube for his students to watch at home at night, then gets them to apply the concepts in class by day.
What could you flip-think about?
cure panic attacks

International OCD Foundation (IOCDF)

OCD Awareness Week | October 11-17, 2010

What

The International OCD Foundation and its affiliates from across the country will come together to educate their communities and the public as a whole about obsessive compulsive disorder and its treatments. Learn from the nation's leading experts about how they work with those who suffer daily from the debilitating disorder. Have the opportunity to hear testimonials from patients both recovering and just beginning treatment and learn about the different treatments and therapies that help people hold jobs, balance relationships with family and friends, and lead more typical and productive lives.

Why

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is an all-consuming, debilitating disorder that affects up to 4 million people in the United States. The disorder also affects millions more: family, friends and caregivers of those with OCD suffer along side their loved ones.

OCD Awareness Week is presented by the International OCD Foundation as a vehicle for support, advocacy and education to help end the stigma surrounding OCD and encourage sufferers to identify the disorder and / or seek treatment. The national Foundation has enlisted the support of its Affiliates nationwide to join in this education effort.

via ocfoundation.org

A lot of panic attack sufferers also have OCD so I thought I'd share this

Cure Panic Attacks

After 66 days underground, Chile's trapped miners greet their jubilant rescuers with the immortal words: What the hell kept you?! | Mail Online

THE MEDICAL PROBLEMS

 Most of the miners are suffering from some sort of medical condition.

Almost all of them have teeth ailments including bleeding gums and cavities.

Many have skin problems from the humidity and dirty conditions in the mine, including boils, acne, psoriasis and eczema.

Many also have chesty coughs from the dust-filled air.

The air quality has been judged ‘poor to severe’ since 700,000 tons of rock crashed down around them on August 5.

Chile’s health minister Jaime Manalich refused to comment on reports that some miners had become depressed during their ordeal but did concede: ‘We have sedatives like Valium available for those who need it.

‘We have one man, I cannot give his name, who suffers panic attacks in confined spaces.

'He has been OK so far but he is medicated and will almost certainly need to be sedated on the way up.’

via dailymail.co.uk

Good luck to the panic attack sufferer on the way up

Cure Panic Attacks

My analyst kicked me out of bed | Anna Blundy

My analyst told me we should start seeing other people. It was a strange experience. I first clomped self-consciously up the stairs in his Victorian (could be Edwardian) house in a grim area of North London when I was 25.  I had realised very slowly that my state of constant terror, insomnia and blind panic was actually something I needed to address. I lived on my own and, as my state of mind didn’t much affect anyone else, it was just something I gritted my teeth against until my teeth refused to grit any more.

Since then my ex (analyst)  has changed the carpets twice, painted the walls and woodwork, fitted a new bell, changed a painting from a Japanese mountain scene to a bright, childish abstract thing, moved a few volumes of Freud around the shelves and got fifteen years older. He may well have done other things too, but these are the things I know about. Actually, that’s a lie. I know he has published a lot of work, some of which is on the reading list for a course I’m doing. I’m nervous about reading it. Perhaps it will begin: ‘I had one particularly irritating and boring patient, a young woman who….’ etc. Or, since I am talking about these things, perhaps I am hoping I will star in his essays and papers and will be devastated to find that I do not feature at all.

via thecollectivereview.com

15 years in therapy! There has to be an easier way ...

Cure Panic Attacks

Hugh Grant - Grant Ran Away From Panic Attack Cure - Contactmusic News

Caption: Hugh Grant (Picture), Rob Brydon and Dougray Scott at the Leuka Mini Masters celebrity golf match in aid of Leuka London, England ....

Grant Ran Away From Panic Attack Cure

HUGH GRANT took up jogging in a bid to combat his crippling panic attacks, but quit when he realised working out gave him a sense of humour failure.

The Four Weddings and a Funeral star has long suffered from crippling anxiety issues and he started running after all other remedies failed to help.

But even though exercise successfully steadied his nerves, Grant gave up when he found himself getting grouchy.

He tells OK! magazine, "I get these panic attacks. So I have always tried to do everything I possibly can - herbal remedies, chemical remedies. Running was the only thing that really helped.

"It calmed me down, so I didn't have the panic attacks. But at the same time, I found it lowered my sense of humour. I lost my edge a bit. So in the end, I stopped running."

via contactmusic.com

Maybe Hugh should try this instead ...

Cure Panic Attacks

Carrie Underwood fought panic attacks over crowded malls : SFGate: Daily Dish

Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images

Newlywed country star Carrie Underwood has revealed she used to suffer panic attacks in crowded shopping malls and elevators.
The "Jesus Take The Wheel" singer, who recently revealed she likes to shop for groceries in empty supermarkets at midnight, admits she used to have a big problem with personal space when she was a teenager growing up in Checotah, Oklahoma.
She tells WebMD the Magazine, "I'm a big personal space person. You know, if you go to the restroom, you use the stall that's not near anybody. Or if you're in the gym, you go to the treadmill where there's space in between you. And it seemed like in crowded situations like that, people would just completely violate your personal space."
She tells the publication that Christmas shopping was "my worst nightmare" and reveals she still has moments when crowded elevators make her start sweating - like one that took place just a day before her interview.
She explains, "Every floor we stopped on, we'd cram more people in, and by the time we were done, there was just a ton of people.
"So I start thinking about all the bad things that can happen, and I'm like, 'I've got to get off the elevator, I need to get off the elevator.' I was just like, 'No more stops, please, no more stops!'"

via sfgate.com

Hmmm... being famous and not liking crowds sounds like a recipe for disaster.
Cure Panic Attacks

RTN The Favourite Free Newspaper For The Costa Blanca, Costa Calida & Costa del Sol - Panic attacks

The worst thing about panic attacks is the intense fear the person has that they will have another attack.  They become preoccupied with their own anxiety symptoms and dwell on thoughts of dying or other catastrophes such as a heart attack. Some will go to extreme lengths to avoid the situation where they had their first attack as they believe that particular situation or event caused it.

via roundtownnews.co.uk

How hypnosis helped a boy of 10 whose panic attacks were getting really bad

Overcoming Fear: The Only Way Out is Through | Psychology Today

Exposure, yes, but not this kind

via psychologytoday.com

Exposure is better than avoidance but maybe there's an even better way...

Cure Panic Attacks

Childhood anxiety can be prevented with early intervention

Anxiety disorders are among the most common forms of mental illness in early to middle childhood. Developmentally, the common pattern is for anxiety to precede depression. Depression begins to show a dramatic increase around middle adolescence with children and adolescents, who already have an anxiety disorder, at greater risk of developing depression during adolescence and early adulthood.

However, Rapee and the research team found that with a parent-focused intervention at an early stage when children first begin to exhibit characteristics of anxiety, the trajectory can be reversed.

via physorg.com

Perhaps more research like this could help prevent anxiety disorders like panic attacks developing in the future.

Cure Panic Attacks

Ryan Reynolds - Voice Coach Coaxed Reynolds Through Panic Attacks - Contactmusic News

RYAN REYNOLDS has publicly thanked a smooth-voiced acting coach for helping him control panic attacks while he was locked in a coffin on the set of his new movie.

via contactmusic.com

I think that would have set me off too!

Playboy model tried to open airplane door in flight. - National Trendy Living

Playboy model Tiffany Livingston tried to open an airplane door while it was flying from Orlando to Newark. The 21 year old model reportedly jumped from her seat and charged the plane's exit. 

A source told the New York Post that she had extreme anxiety and was on medication for the panic attacks.

An unnamed source told the paper that it was a bad case of high anxiety.

"She said she's gone through this before, but never this bad, and didn't have...her medication,"

the source told the newspaper.

Charges are still pending from federal authorities against Livingston, from Merrimac, R.I. She was taken into custody yesterday

Livingston was featured as the centerfold for the Singapore version of Playboy, VIP, in 2009. In the magazine, she was described as "not just another pretty face."

UPDATE: TMZ updated their site with new information saying that the feds did interview Livingston after the flight and don’t think she was trying to open the door. Police think she was trying to calm herself down during her panic attack caused by the plane’s turbulence.

via examiner.com

Was the 'high anxiety' pun intended?

Cure Panic Attacks

Panic Attack Sufferer Lived in Car in Hospital Parking Lot - AOL Health

A woman plagued by panic attacks was so afraid to be away from doctors that she spent four months living in her car in a hospital parking lot in Scotland.

via aolhealth.com

Good old National Health Service :)

Cure Panic Attacks

Fear strikes out

Imagine existing in a world full of fear.

Not a fear of anything in particular. More a fear of fear itself. Knowing that at any moment, your mind will trick your body into thinking something horrible is about to happen.

This is the reality for people suffering with panic attacks, according to psychologist Dr. Maureen Whittal, of the University of British Columbia and the Vancouver Cognitive Behaviour Therapy Centre.

“A panic attack, by definition, is a variety of physical sensations — shortness of breath, dizziness, blurry vision, chest pain, nausea, wobbly legs, sweating,” Whittal said. “It’s feeling like you’re not really there.”

The sensations come on fast, in a few seconds or minutes, peak quickly and tail off over a few hours.

For a time last year, this was the terrifying roller coaster world of Cincinnati Reds first baseman Joey Votto.

via nationalpost.com

I know exactly how he felt... except for the baseball bit!

Cure Panic Attacks

Don't Panic!

Don’t Panic!

My latest free ebook on the thorny issue of social anxiety, fears, phobias, panic attacks, public speaking etc is now available available to my newsletter readers.

It’s a 45 page guide that really gets under the hood of fear and all it’s cousins to help you deal with it more effectively.

There is also a section on public speaking in case you are one of the millions of people that would rather shove a red hot poker up their behind than deliver a presentation to an audience.

After you read the book you can safely dispense with the poker, unless that is, you don’t really want to.

via adaringadventure.com

The advice about brown bears is definitely worth remembering :)

Cure Panic Attacks

Did I have a panic attack? What are panic attacks? by San Diego Therapist: Regina Huelsenbeck

via ritualsofhealing.com

...Finally they came back and told us that all the results were normal. My heart was fine...

That is exactly what happened to me when I had my first panic attack

Cure Panic Attacks