Starting Back From Anxiety Attacks

[quote]Djwlfpack wrote:
Hey everyone,
Just got back from the gym and had a really good endurance workout. Did some rope skipping, medicine ball throws (which I love b/c people in the gym always stop and stare wondering what the heck I’m doing), a bodyweight circuit of hindu squats-pushups-mountain climbers (10 reps of each) and finished up with 5 rounds of sprints. Workout was around 25 minutes.

Had a great night of sleep last night. Actually fell asleep on the couch before going to bed. I did wake up briefly at 3:30, but quickly dozed back off before waking up for good at 7 a.m. Definitely liking the feeling of being refreshed and not sluggish, as I was when I was on Ambien.

Now, the next goal is try and start weening off my Xanax. For anyone out there that went through it, any tips or strategies? I’m taking .5 mg of the control-release. Still looking for a new therapist to help with this, but any tips for me to start weening off on my own before I find one would be great.

Not sure about getting to the gym tomorrow. I have to cover state wrestling and that’s an all-day thing. I should be fine for Muay Thai on Saturday, though.

Take care,
Dan[/quote]

Dan,

Congrats on getting off the Ambien!

It ain’t easy and I’m speaking from my personal experience of getting off of several different sleep, antidepressant and anti-anxiety meds.

The benzodiazipines(Valium, Xanax, Ativan etc.) can be quite tough if you’ve been on a significant dose for a relatively long period of time.
My advice is to take your time and drop slowly in the smallest increments you can. This will ease the possible reoccurrence of anxiety symptoms in the absence of the usual levels of the drug. You may need to get a pill cutter or just develop “mad skills” with a small, sharp exacto knife.

Because you’re on only .5 and it’s time-released, I suspect you’ll do fine. However, everyone is different so don’t be discouraged if there is a temporary rise in anxiety symptoms. That’s par for the course and should reside with time.
Good luck and just so you know, I’m trying to get off of Ativan and 2 other meds right now as well so I’m with ya all the way brother!

Cheers,
Kaleb.

[quote]Kaleb wrote:
Djwlfpack wrote:
Hey everyone,
Just got back from the gym and had a really good endurance workout. Did some rope skipping, medicine ball throws (which I love b/c people in the gym always stop and stare wondering what the heck I’m doing), a bodyweight circuit of hindu squats-pushups-mountain climbers (10 reps of each) and finished up with 5 rounds of sprints. Workout was around 25 minutes.

Had a great night of sleep last night. Actually fell asleep on the couch before going to bed. I did wake up briefly at 3:30, but quickly dozed back off before waking up for good at 7 a.m. Definitely liking the feeling of being refreshed and not sluggish, as I was when I was on Ambien.

Now, the next goal is try and start weening off my Xanax. For anyone out there that went through it, any tips or strategies? I’m taking .5 mg of the control-release. Still looking for a new therapist to help with this, but any tips for me to start weening off on my own before I find one would be great.

Not sure about getting to the gym tomorrow. I have to cover state wrestling and that’s an all-day thing. I should be fine for Muay Thai on Saturday, though.

Take care,
Dan

Dan,

Congrats on getting off the Ambien!

It ain’t easy and I’m speaking from my personal experience of getting off of several different sleep, antidepressant and anti-anxiety meds.

The benzodiazipines(Valium, Xanax, Ativan etc.) can be quite tough if you’ve been on a significant dose for a relatively long period of time.
My advice is to take your time and drop slowly in the smallest increments you can. This will ease the possible reoccurrence of anxiety symptoms in the absence of the usual levels of the drug. You may need to get a pill cutter or just develop “mad skills” with a small, sharp exacto knife.

Because you’re on only .5 and it’s time-released, I suspect you’ll do fine. However, everyone is different so don’t be discouraged if there is a temporary rise in anxiety symptoms. That’s par for the course and should reside with time.
Good luck and just so you know, I’m trying to get off of Ativan and 2 other meds right now as well so I’m with ya all the way brother!

Cheers,
Kaleb.[/quote]

Kaleb,
Thanks for the advice. Being only on .5 mg is going to be helpful in terms of getting off the meds since it’s such a low dosage. The only downside is that since it is low, there’s not much there to ration off. A pill cutter would be nice, since I didn’t do so well trying to split my Ambien pills.

I’m trying to not put pressure on myself to do this by a certain date. When I went off the same medication last year, I did it WAY too quickly and relapsed about a month later. This time I’d like to do a longer weening off period and I think that will help reduce the rebound anxiety.

Best of luck to you in getting off your meds. We both know it’s a tough road but I think it’s a road worth at the very least, exploring.

Take care,
Dan

Man, this is an interesting thread Djwlfpack!

I was on SSRI drugs (effexor) for quite a while for anxiety related issues (OCD, GAD), but a few months ago started taking GABA and 5HTP daily and feel way calmer. I started with 200mg of 5HTP at night before bed and 750mg of GABA twice daily.

The GABA is an inhibitory neurotransmitter which blocks the lymbic system from getting overwhelmed with anxiety provoking stimuli, and 5HTP is a precursor to serotonin, giving you more of it. And up to now with those dosages, there are no sides.

I posted this as a response to withdrawing from Xanax; I read recently that GABA is used frequently to detox the body from high, long-term doses of benzodiazepines. There is more about it here:

http://www.mindbodyconsult.com/about/prot_gaba.html

[quote]doctor negative wrote:
Man, this is an interesting thread Djwlfpack!

I was on SSRI drugs (effexor) for quite a while for anxiety related issues (OCD, GAD), but a few months ago started taking GABA and 5HTP daily and feel way calmer. I started with 200mg of 5HTP at night before bed and 750mg of GABA twice daily.

The GABA is an inhibitory neurotransmitter which blocks the lymbic system from getting overwhelmed with anxiety provoking stimuli, and 5HTP is a precursor to serotonin, giving you more of it. And up to now with those dosages, there are no sides.

I posted this as a response to withdrawing from Xanax; I read recently that GABA is used frequently to detox the body from high, long-term doses of benzodiazepines. There is more about it here:

http://www.mindbodyconsult.com/about/prot_gaba.html [/quote]

Thanks for the link, Dr. Neg, I’ll check that out.

Hey everyone,
Been away for a few days from the site. Had a busy weeekend with state wrestling going on out here, as well as swimming. Had two girls win titles in swimming and almost had a winner in wrestling. A lot of work, though. And, to top that off, I’m battling a pretty nasty head cold that seems to making its way through the office. Need to go in tomorrow and power clean everything in my area.

Sunday was birthday (28) and I had a good day, despite the nagging of my cold. My wife surprised me with tickets to the Colorado Mammoth, which is an indoor lacrosse team. The game was phenomonal and the atmosphere at the Pepsi Center was well above what I experienced during the Nuggets, Avalanche or Colorado Crush. Very alive and into the action and the game itself was quite good. I’m a huge college lacrosse fan but was never sure of the indoor game until now. Now, I am a fan and will be paying more attention to the league. Got some good presents but no need to go into detail. My wife also baked my cake, and it turned out really, really good. She’s the best!

Haven’t been to the gym since Thursday but that’s okay. I think I’ll be ready for a light home boxing workout tomorrow and then Wednesday I hope to be able to get through an endurance workout.

Sleep-wise I’ve been doing great. The ZMA-Melatonin works wonders, as I’ve been getting a full night’s rest just about every night, even with my cold.

Anxiety-wise I’ve been doing good. Still trying to come up with the best way to taper off the Xanax.

Well, that’s it for now.

Take care,
Dan

I had a button nose until I broke it playing lacrosse…
:slight_smile: But I still love a good box or field game.

Happy belated birthday to you!!! What kind of cake was it?
SO glad to hear that the ZMA-Melatonin is working well for you. It’s my combo of choice, although I’ve got the ativan option… I’d prefer not to use it unless it’s really absolutely necessary.

Hope your head cold clears up and glad you had a great birthday! Sounds like a fun game and a wonderful day.

[quote]proxy wrote:
I had a button nose until I broke it playing lacrosse…
:slight_smile: But I still love a good box or field game.

Happy belated birthday to you!!! What kind of cake was it?
SO glad to hear that the ZMA-Melatonin is working well for you. It’s my combo of choice, although I’ve got the ativan option… I’d prefer not to use it unless it’s really absolutely necessary.

Hope your head cold clears up and glad you had a great birthday! Sounds like a fun game and a wonderful day.[/quote]

Proxy, thanks for the birthday wishes. Hope you are doing well. My cake was chocolate with chocolate icing…YUM!

I’m glad that the new sleep combo is working, too. It feels good to be off Ambien. I definitely feel more rested and more alert now than I did when taking the sleeping pills…weird, huh?

I’m sure the cold will clear itself up in a few days. I always get this bug at least once a year and it usually takes 5-7 days to work its way out of my system. I’m on day 4 now and can tell it’s getting better.

Take care,
Dan

Hey everyone,
Well, the head cold is still lingering. Definitely feeling better than I did on Friday, but still congested and kind of icky feeling. Did manage to get in a 25-minute home boxing workout, though. Didn’t ramp up the intensity too much and mostly just focused on footwork, hand positioning and technique. Did 5, 3-minute rounds along with some shadowboxing and jumping jacks and ended with some light stretching.

Figured one more day of light exercise would be good and hopefully if I’m feeling better tomorrow, I can hit the gym with more intensity for my endurance workout.

Looking forward to when the weather warms up here. I have some new workout ideas in mind. I need to get a sandbag, though and need to possibly buy some cleats to do some hill running if it’s going to be muddy for a while.

Take care,
Dan

Just wanted to say that i have been reading this since i joined T-Nation…

Dude u are an inspiration!

[quote]Agent Frost wrote:
Just wanted to say that i have been reading this since i joined T-Nation…

Dude u are an inspiration![/quote]

Thanks man, I appreciate that very much.

Hey everyone,
Just got back from the gym and had a good endurance workout. Head cold is still lingering, but I was well enough to put forth good effort in the gym.

Started with 5 minutes of rope skipping, which went ok but could’ve been better but I was having some soreness in my right shin so that hampered my speed a bit.

Then moved on to 3 sets of barbell complexes. Used 75 lbs. and did 6 reps of:
Deadlift
Hang cleans
Front Squat
Military Press
Bent-over rows
Romanian DL

After that it was on to a bodyweight circuit. Started off with tying a resitance tube to one of the squat racks and then working my shots (5 on each leg), using the bands as a form of resistance. Followed that up immediately with 10 jumping jacks, 10 push-ups and 10 squats. Did this for 5 minutes straight w/o rest.

Finally, finished up with some sprints. Only did 4 b/c I was spent by this point and didn’t want to over extend myself on my first workout back.

Tomorrow I’m going to get in another home boxing workout. This one will be longer and more intense than Tuesday’s. Then I’ll follow that up with a strength training workout Friday and Muay Thai on Saturday.

Take care,
Dan

Hey everyone,
Just got back from the gym and had a really good strength workout. Changed things up a tad, switching to snatch-grip DL from sumo-style. Also did some farmer’s walks at the end to address my grip issues.

Here’s the stats:
1A. Jumping Box Squat, 5x3: BW
1B. Clap push-ups, 5x3: BW
2. Max. Reps Partial snatch-grip DL 1x120%: 315x3
3. Max. Reps 90% snatch-grip DL: 275x3
4A. Single-leg squats, 3x3: BW
4B. Shoulder press (machine), 3x3: 210, 220, 230
5A. Dips, 3x3: BW + 65
5B. Hammer Curls, 3x3: 50
6. Farmer’s Walks, 3 sets: 70

Did some stretching for 10 min. afterwards.

My sleep has been a little off the past two nights. I fall asleep on the couch but when I go back to bed, I have trouble falling back asleep. I end up with 6-7 hours so it’s not like I’m not sleeping at all, just not getting a full night’s rest. I’m pretty sure the problem is eating too late at night. I’ve been snacking at like 8:30 p.m. and that’s not enough time for my food to digest before taking ZMA, which needs to be on an empty stomach. So, I need to be stricter in my eating in the evening and cut everything off by 7:30 p.m. at the latest.

Going to Muay Thai tomorrow and looking forward to getting back into it.

Take care,
Dan

Hey everyone,
Had a intense Muay Thai class today. Did 8 rounds, starting off with some mitt work, then moving to the Thai pads for some crazy combos of leg kick followed by either a hook-cross-kick or cross-hook-kick. Had good energy throughout but did start to cramp up a bit towards the end as I was unable to breath through my nose due to my cold, but other than that, I was fine.

Had another iffy night of sleep last night. Fell asleep fine but was woken up about an hour later by one of our neighbors coming in and out from the balcony and slamming their door every time. Then, a person’s car alarm went off twice. Eventually I dozed back off and slept in till about 8 a.m.

I think another problem I’m having is that I feel the need to go out to the living room and watch TV before going to bed, but this is proving to be pointless, as most nights I go out there, pop in a movie and 5 min. later I’m asleep on the couch. That’s when I start to have the problems of falling back asleep after waking up. Some nights I can do it, but others I end up being more alert and it takes longer to fall back asleep. So, I’m going to eliminate going out to the living room and watching TV, unless I really am not sleepy.

Have a basketball game to go to tonight for work. Tomorrow will be going to church in the morning and might hit the gym in the afternoon, depending on how I feel.

Take care,
Dan

Hey everyone,
Just got back from the gym and had a great strength workout. Changed a lot of exercises up, so here’s a look at what I did:

  1. Front Squat, worked up to 2-3 rep. max: 185x2 (could’ve gone higher but was working on using the clean grip and can’t handle that much weight yet)

  2. Max. Hold BB Bench Press: 265

  3. Max. Reps 90% BB Bench Press: 225x3
    4A. Hindu Squats, 3x12: BW
    4B. Preacher Curl (plate-loaded), 3x3: 100

  4. Wide-grip seated rows, 3x3: 180

  5. DB Shrugs, 3x5: 100

Ran 1-mile afterwards and checked in at right around 6 min., so was very happy with that.

Had a great night of sleep last night after a horrible night Sat. night. Earlier in the day I took a 2-hour nap which is rare for me, as usually I’m in the 20-30 min. range. But, I still managed to get a solid 8 hours in. The wife and I went out and bought earplugs and that really helped drown out the excess noise. Sat. night I was woken up twice by some retard’s car alarm. And, as I type this now from home, this same vehicle has had its alarm go off 6 times in 15 minutes! I left a note on the truck so hopefully he’ll adjust the settings, as it seems to be getting tripped off by the wind. Very annoying and kind of sad that we had to buy earplugs to get a decent night’s sleep. I hope we can find a new place to live and soon. This apartment is becoming a real hindrance to my sanity.

Take care,
Dan

Hey everyone,
Just got back from the gym and had a draining endurance workout. Tried out CW’s new routine detailed in his article from last week. It kicked my ass, for sure. I did the intermediate level, which consisted of 3 circuits. Workout was around 30 minutes, which included brief rest periods between exercises, as prescribed by CW.

Here’s a look at the workout in detail:

Loaded walk for 10 steps forward and backward with a load AHAP: 90

Rest 25s

Clap push-ups for AMAP: 15, 15, 14

Rest 10s

Elevated wide-out drops for AMAP: 25, 20, 15 (hips were sore by 3rd set)

Rest 25s

Quadruped run for 20 feet forward

Rest 25s

Plate abduction for 10 reps on each side with a load AHAP: 25-pound plate

Rest 25s

One-arm DB row on each side for 5 reps with a load AHAP: 80

Rest 10s

180 lunge on each side

Rest 25s

Run sprawl for 10 cycles (5 with each standing leg forward)

Rest 60s and repeat twice more

Did a light half-mile jog/walk afterwards just to stay loose and work out the lactic acid built up from the circuit.

Uusally I do my endurance work on Wed. but decided to switch to Tues. so I can get a second workout in on Thurs. I think not doing as many workouts has also been leading to my cramping issues in class.

So, my schedule should look like this:
Sun: off
Mon: strength
Tues: endurance A.M./BJJ P.M. (hopefully starting back in 2 weeks)
Wed: Muay Thai
Thurs: endurance
Fri: strength
Sat: Muay Thai

So, tomorrow I’m going to get in a home Muay Thai workout, probably first thing in the morning since I have to drive 90 minutes up north to cover a girls basketball playoff game in the mid-afternoon.

The wife and I are going to look at a 2-bed, 1-bath duplex for rent tonight. Looks nice from the photos and is only about 10 min. away from our current residence, so I’ll still be close to work and the gyms. Wish us luck!

Take care,
Dan

Hey everyone,
Just finished up a hybird Muay Thai/endurance workout. Since I had to skip my MT workout yesterday due to the weather, I decided to get it in today and since it’s still cold outside, I figured why not throw in some endurance/conditioning work as well, so I don’t have to go to the gym. Workout was fun and was 45 minutes. Started out with 6 min. of jumping jacks and rope skipping, then 5 min. of shadowboxing. After that I threw the gloves on and went to work on the bag, working my punches first, then working punch-knee and punch-kick combos. Each round was 5 min. and immediately after the round instead of resting I’d throw in 25 sit-ups or push-ups.

I finished up the workout with a 5 min. resistance band circuit, doing a lot of shoulder and arm exercises.

Kind of fun when you just throw stuff together at the last minute. Workout was hard and intense and that’s the way I like it.

Tomorrow it’s back in the gym for another strength training workout and then Saturday I’ll be in Muay Thai class.

Take care,
Dan

Hey everyone,
Just finished a nice strength training workout. Switched up some exercises, so here’s a look at what I did:

  1. Rack Pulls (snatch-grip), work up to max of 2-3 reps: 335x3
    2A. Shoulder Press (machine), 3x3: 230x3
    2B. Hindu Squats, 3x12: BW
  2. Decline DB Triceps Ext., 3x3: 45
  3. BB Curl, 3x3: 85
  4. Plate Pinchers, 3xmax: 35 lbs. in each hand (50, 40 sec.); 25 lbs. (65 sec.)
  5. Reverse Wrist Curls, 3x15: 40, 50, 50

Did some foam roller work and stretching afterwards.

Take care,
Dan

Hey everyone,
Had a killer Muay Thai class today. There were only 6 of us there, so we upped the intensity a bit since there were no newbies and went 8 rounds straight. First 4 rounds were working the mitts and the last 4 rounds were on the Thai pads. Pretty similar stuff from what we’ve done the past two weeks in terms of punch combos and punch-punch-kick-punch-punch-kick or punch-punch-knee etc. combos. Only difference was we went 5-minute rounds instead of 3 and kept our rest to 30-45 seconds. Very tough but I felt good throughout (no cramps this week) and my striking felt very crisp; I even got several comments on how my strikes have improved from the instructor.

Well, I’ve got to go into the office today and get some work done. Trying to finish this spring preview section up, on top of all my regular work from the week, which consisted of covering basketball playoffs.

Going to take it easy tomorrow. Go to church then if the weather cooperates, take the dog for a nice walk and then hopefully get in a nap.

Take care,
Dan

I’m also in recovery. Look for the stresses: Environemental= people around you who bring you down (ex. my wife is an alcoholic); food= caffeine, carbs, etc.; chemical= get all the old man tests= testosterone (extended), adrenaline, etc.

Where to start, build back to the normal routine quickly. You need to get your confidence back and reduce your depression. Excercise is known to reduce the chemicals causing hormone based depression. It is very important to be happy with yourself.

Most important is number 1, find the root revealer of the depression, and get rid of it. Remember, the cause is you, you are not handling a situation properly, what seems like the cause is just what brought out your inability to handle the stress.

Randy Friggin’ Couture!

Even before last night’s fight he was my hero, but that performance just cemented the fact. At 43, Couture is a huge inspiration and he’s amazing in the fact that everytime he’s given no chance to win, he comes through with the fight of his life, defies the odds and wins.

Talk about motivation to work extra-hard in the gym…seeing that fight last night had me pumped up and I’m still giddy today.

Thanks Randy!