Panic Attacks

trailerfitter

Hi, I was reading on here a while ago that some of you guys and girls suffer from panic attacks. How common is this in the JWs? The wife had a bible study today and I was sort of listening looking for a discussion point. Didn't take long to find one. I see the BS teacher earlier in the afternoon rub her chest like she had indigestion but after out teenage boy came in and had a ding dong in the kitchen with his mum the BS teacher had a full on Panic Attack. My wife is suffering from disaster type dreams involving earthquakes. Is this something my partner may be heading for??

Scarred for life

Stay away from the JWs. Panic attacks and disaster type dreams are a part of it. I had those kind of dreams throughout my childhood.

sd-7

I had more panic attacks on the way out than while I was in. Bein' in a constant state of fear anyway, at that time, panic attacks would've been redundant.

--sd-7

Unlearn

True story: one of the little supplemental factors in helping my wife to leave were sudden, unexplainable panic attacks.
my wife had NEVER has a panic attack...so the first one really scared us: i was hoping she wasn't having a heart-attack.
It got to the point where she would have one every time we walked in the hall....followed by a very heavy headache.
Towards the end, she missed weeks of meetings because of this...and part of the way through, she put it together.
Strangely, after we were both unified in our stand, and going to meetings for that last 5 or 6 months (until we could formulate our dastardly plan to get the hell out), she had very little of the attacks...maybe a mild breathlessness or dizziness. I think it's because her body and mind had relaxed...knowing what this place was and our relation to it. Those last few months were great (we would play all through the meetings...writing little notes to each other when we heard 'crazy' comments).
People would file into that KH so depressed....the only 'happy' folks there were people who had completely detached from reality...the ones who were 40 years old and living in a studio apt. and working part time with some brothers janitor company, so they could pioneer. Their 'joy' was manufactured.
I remember giving a talk on one particular evening when everyone seemed to be haggard and worn...and I talked about how we shouldn't beat ourselves up and 'take it easy' on ourselves, or we will wear out. After the meeting, of course, a fellow elder pulls me aside and suggests that I dont use that term 'take it easy' with the freinds. he said that 'this is not the time for us to be telling the flock to take it easy on themselves'. i politely told him that even Jehovah sees us as sheep...and he and his son, the shephers, definitely don't want us beating ourselves up about things which he has already forgiven us for. his reply was that i should 'study the way the faithful slave instructs us'. By this time, I was pissed, and told him he needed to 'study Jesus'.
We never talked much after that.

Panic attacks? You bet. You've got a group of people on 'high alert' all the time. A firecracker can't go off without a JW somewhere wondering if it's the first gunshot that will lead to the great tribulation...

notjustyet

Funny, I just posted this info over on JWR a few minutes ago,.. and maybe I am having these panic attacks,.. just did not know what they were.

___________

Since I have been deeply doing research (reading this forum) even before, for the last few years I would say I have been having small burst of anxiety, maybe for a second or so each time.

I would only be able to compare it to the feeling when you almost fall backwards in a chair, and you catch yourself.
That rush you get knowing that you almost fell, it's like that but on a lower scale. Seems somehow that feeling is less if you actually fall, not sure why.

But if that feeling, in the chair, was a 10 on a scale of 1-10, then these feelings are about a 5-6 for about a second or so. I've even had a slight body jerk, or twist, kinda like when you are chilled. Get this, even have made a slight vocal sound when it is worse.
Many times, all throughout the day I feel like a 1-2 for hours at a time.
I'm able to function normally but am wondering if this is somehow tied to what I'm discovering about the WTBTS?
Anyone else have any type of physical abnormalities during the time that you were, or are now, finding out the truth about the truth?

Scarred for life

Exactly, unlearn. You hit the nail on the head.

JimmyPage

Years ago I was the WT reader and had a panic attack onstage. If anyone noticed they never said anything. I know it was a product of all the pressure being a JW puts on you. I also know that going to a meeting or assembly makes my shoulders knot up. Thank The Flying Spaghetti Monster for massage therapists!

EmptyInside

It seems like all the panic attacks I ever had involved meetings or field service.

Nice_Dream

Once I started having doubts about "the truth" my heart would race when we got to the meetings and wouldn't slow down until I left the Kingdom Hall. Once I stopped going to the meetings, I didn't feel panic anymore.

Lots of JWs are on medication for anxiety and depression. It's difficult trying to be someone you're not, and knocking on people's doors when you're super shy! I hope your wife decides to stop studying.

Scully

I started having anxiety and panic attacks with postpartum depression after my youngest was born. They often happened at Meetings™ or while in Field Service™, and naturally the Elders™ assumed that my illness was because I was Demonized™ not because of an imbalance in my brain chemistry. They even sent someone to my house to scope it out for signs of Demons™ (without my knowledge or consent), and had that person pretend they were visiting out of concern for me. When I found out, I was outraged and seriously offended. Of course, that played right into their little mindgames about Sister Scully being Demonized™, because nobody in their right mind would be offended over the Loving™ Provision™ of a home-Demon™ inspection, now would they??

It certainly didn't help my anxiety or panic attacks either. I mentioned this incident to the psychiatrist I was seeing at the time, and his recommendation was that I needed to find a different church. LMAO

Panic Attacks

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