If you don’t want to use drugs, why not give acupuncture and/or herbal medicine a try?
I am an acupuncturist in Taipei and I recently treated a foreign patient who suffered from panic attack with acupuncture and herbal medicine. The cause of his panic is the withdraw syndrome from alcohol. After 1-2 weeks treatment, he feels better and thankfully the panic is under good control. He still comes back for acupuncture twice a week and takes herbal medicine daily.
Since you are in Taiwan, why not give it a try? I would take a detailed history in your first visit and do the differential diagnosis. If necessary, I would refer you to other specialists in our hospital (in Neihu or Gongguan). If you have further questions, please let me know.
I’d always recommend seeing a psychologist before a psychiatrist if you’re concerned about taking meds. They’ll usually tell you whether it’s severe enough to refer you to a psychiatrist. And the psychologist could help you find the underlying cause, so it’s a better long term solution even if they do recommend fast acting anxiety drugs.
How is this going for you? Did you get a prescription of benzos? NTU general medicine department will help. They will prescribe enough for months, unlike many western countries where it’s almost impossible to get. But be warned, benzos are deadly and habit forming. Use in emergency only.
Apart from that, the following will help: exercise, stopping caffeine, sweets, alcohol and heavy foods. Lots of exercise.
Regrettably I have yet to go to the doc for this, but it’s been manageable for the past week so I’m not super worried. I did just have an enormous flying roach land on me in my own house though so I’m feeling pretty mentally frail at the moment. Between this and the six-legged huntsman I had here the other day…feeling pretty traumatized.
Interestingly and admittedly annectdotally, all the people I know who get panic attacks exercise a lot, barely drink and eat well. My friends who enjoy drinking and eat plenty of junk food never have issues. I guess the active social lives of the latter group plays a big role in preventing anxiety.
Good, but I’m pretty introverted so I don’t need a lot of socializing to feel content. It’s not a social anxiety thing, either. I think it’s just some kind of inborn problem.
This gif has been helpful to me when I feel my anxiety spiking.
I must confess I have yet to see a doctor for this. But I’ve also had it a lot more under control lately. I think during the summer I was experiencing a big pile-up of grief from my grandma’s decline and death that didn’t have a proper outlet, so it was manifesting as panic attacks. At this point I’ve accepted that it will hurt forever and that that’s just how it goes.
