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Having Panic Attacks at Work? Do This First · Dr. Rosen Reveals- Real Medicine. Clear answers

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: If you've had a panic attack at work, the worst part may not even be the attack itself.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: It may be going back the next day wondering if it's ever going to happen again.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Your heart starts pounding again, you can't seem to get a full breath, maybe your hands start tingling and you feel lightheaded, and suddenly you're sitting at your desk thinking, is this going to be as bad as the last one?
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe even worse?
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: Do I need to get out of here right now?
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: And now you're trying to act normal because your boss is 10 feet away and you have a meeting in 15 minutes.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm Dr.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Heather Rosen-Turley.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a board certified family physician and I've treated mental health issues for many years.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I've had panic attacks myself.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: So let me show you what I want you to do first if this is ever to happen again.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Then I'll share how I find out what the underlying cause is with these attacks in the first place, because that's the part I don't want you to ignore.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: First thing, stop fighting the panic.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: When you're in a panic attack, your body can make you absolutely believe that something terrible is happening.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Your heart pounds, you feel like you can't breathe, you may even get dizzy.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: Your hands tingle, your brain immediately starts filling in the blanks.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm having a heart attack.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna faint.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: I need to get out of here now.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: And the more dangerous these sensations feel, the stronger the physical response can become.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: So if you've had these symptoms evaluated before and you know you're prone to panic attacks, you do not have to force the attack to stop immediately.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: Your body has hit the alarm button.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: Your job is to stop adding to the alarm.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Start with your breathing.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: When people panic, they tend to breathe faster and harder because they feel like they're not getting enough air.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: But that can make the lightheadedness, the tingling, and strange disconnected feelings even worse.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, take a gentle breathe in breath in through your nose and let it out a little more slowly than you took it in.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: If counting helps, try something like four seconds in and six seconds out.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: But don't make this complicated.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: You do not have to have perfect breathing technique while you're sitting in the bathroom trying not to panic.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: And here's the part I really want you to understand.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Your mind does not have to calm down first.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: Think of your breath like a conductor in a symphony.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Your mind can still be going crazy telling you something's wrong.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Get out of here.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: This is getting worse.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to win that argument right now.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: Keep slowing your breathing anyway.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: When the conductor slows down, the orchestra starts to follow.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Your thoughts may still be racing, but your body can begin calming down out of that alarm response.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: And as those physical sensations settle, your brain has less evidence that there is an emergency.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: So don't wait until you feel calm to breathe calmly.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: Let your breathing lead and give the rest of your body a chance to catch up.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: If you can, sit somewhere safe, put both feet on the floor and bring your attention back to what is actually around you.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Feel the chair underneath you, look at the desk, notice the temperature in the room.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: Anything that gets you back into the present can help because panic can take my heart is racing and turn it into I'm gonna pass out this meeting and completely embarrass myself.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: And don't make a career decision while you're panicking.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: The other thing I do not want you to do is to do something like quit your job or decide never to give another presentation because you've panicked during this one.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: One of the rules I use with patients is to give yourself some time before you react.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: When you can, I usually like 24 to 40 hours.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: Get yourself settled first and then go back and ask, what actually happened here and what do I want to do about it?
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because one of the biggest problems with panic is what happens afterwards.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you had one during a meeting, so now meetings make you nervous.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: Or you've had one while presenting, so you start avoiding presentations altogether.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Pretty soon you're making decisions around the possibility of another attack and your world starts getting smaller and smaller.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's when I really want you to get help because now the fear of the panic attack is starting to have a much bigger control over your life than the actual attack itself.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: And if this is helpful so far, please take a second to like this video and subscribe.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: This is a new channel, and I'm going to be talking a lot about anxiety, depression, panic attacks, stress at work, and the physical health issues that can get missed and everything is to blame on stress or anxiety.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: So if that sounds useful, subscribe and stick around.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: So why did this start happening?
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Once the panic attack is over, I want to ask a completely different question.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: Why did this start happening?
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Because you're anxious is not always enough of an answer for me.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a family physician, so when somebody tells me, I never used to feel like this, and now my heart races, I feel shaky, I can't sleep, and I'm suddenly having panic attacks at work.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not only thinking about anxiety, I want to know what else has changed.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: How are you sleeping?
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: How much caffeine are you using?
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: Did you start a new medication or supplement?
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Are there other physical symptoms happening at the same time?
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: If you're not looking at the whole picture, it's easy to just blame anxiety.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: But sometimes anxiety is not the whole story.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things I would want you to consider is your thyroid, because thyroid problems can cause symptoms that overlap with anxiety.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: You can feel jittery, your heart can race, and you can have trouble sleeping, and it can feel like your nervous system is constantly turned up too high.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: For women, especially in their 40s and 50s, I also want to know what is happening hormonally.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: If you've always handled stress reasonably well, and suddenly you're telling me, I don't even feel like myself anymore, and I'm anxious and I'm irritable, I can't sleep, I'm having hot flashes, and now I'm panicking at work.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to ask a lot more questions.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: Perimenopause and menopause can affect mood, sleep, and anxiety.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes women spend a long time thinking they're suddenly becoming emotionally unstable when their body is just changing underneath them.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: That doesn't mean that every panic attack is hormonal.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: It means I don't like dismissing anything.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: You're stressed.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: Try to relax.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: That's not enough for me.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: I also pay attention to nutritional deficiencies.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: Vitamin D is one that I see a lot, and depending on the person, B vitamins may be worth looking at too.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: If you're exhausted, barely eating well, or skipping meals all day because work is crazy, that's also part of the picture.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes the answer is that you are dealing with anxiety or panic disorder and you just need treatment for that.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: Therapy can be extremely helpful, especially cognitive behavioral therapy.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: Medication may also make sense for most people, but I'm not against medication.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: I use it.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm also not interested in giving somebody a prescription and never asking another question.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: If you're having repeated panic attacks, I want to know whether we're treating the whole problem.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: When it may not just be panic, there is one important exception.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: If this is your first episode and you generally do not know what is happening, or you're having new chest pain or pressure, severe shortness of breath, you faint, or the pain is going into your left arm, back, neck, or jaw, do not just sit at your desk trying to diagnose yourself with anxiety.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: Get medical help.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Panic attacks and heart problems can overlap in some of their sensations.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I would much rather somebody get evaluated and find out their heart is fine than decide, ah, this is probably just panic when it isn't.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: Don't become afraid of your own body.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: Once you've been evaluated and you know you're dealing with panic, I don't want you becoming afraid of your own body.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: The sensations feel awful, I know.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: But the more afraid you become of feeling your heart race, getting dizzy, or feeling that rush of adrenaline, the easier it is to create a cycle where the sensation scares you, the fear creates a more sensation, and the panic just builds from there.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: So yes, learn how to get through the panic attack.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: Slow your breathing, ground yourself.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: Give this physical response time to just calm down and don't make a major decision while you're in it.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: But afterwards, ask the bigger question: why is this happening now?
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: Did something change with your stress, your sleep, your health, your hormones, your medication, or your nutrition?
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: Or have you developed an anxiety problem that just needs further support?
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: Because the goal is not to become really good at panic attacks at work.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: The goal is to understand what is contributing to them so they can stop controlling what you do.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: If you're dealing with panic attacks, anxiety, or other mental health symptoms, and you want someone to look at both the mental, physical side and what's happening to you, you can use this link below to contact me.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: And if you find yourself overthinking a lot, watch this next video.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'll see you there.