New member, help in keeping myself calm - Asthma UK communi...

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New member, help in keeping myself calm


Hi all I'm a new member looking for some help , as a asthmatic and in the current state of the world with covid -19virus , I'm having panic attacks and hyper-ventilating & my poor wife is trying all sorts too calm me down . My question is how does everyone else keep calm and their mind on other things . Any help would be extremely helpful.

Be safe and take care everyone

Wolfie 4371

14 Replies

That's a good question! I would say try to not listen to the news too much which can be hard to avoid when even music stations have the news every hour. Try to find other things to focus your mind on. It's not easy and probably why so many of us are lying awake here in the middle of the night. Audio books are good if you can't focus on reading. Wishing you all the best.

Some good advice there from Hufflepuff. Avoid putting on the tv when the news is due. There is nothing else we need to know.

Find activities to do that empty your mind or fill it with something else.

It sounds stupid but colouring in empties the mind, doodling on a piece of paper. Play a mindless computer game. Learn a foreign language. Read a good book. Listen to CD. If you live in a quiet area do a spot of gardening.

Anything to keep your mind engaged in other things.

And remember, if you and your wife stay home and keep the door locked, you are safe.

in reply to Troilus

Thanks Troilus for something different but equally excellent ideas . Thank you appreciate it .

Wolfie 4371

Thanks HungryHufflepuff for your help I am truly grateful , I'm going to take as many helpful points into consideration and try them & I'm hoping that by doing that it's taking my mind off things that are stressing me out . Thank you for your help Wolfie 4371

I found watching on BBC I player No9 was calming as it was hilarious though the first episode was rubbish :)

There are lots of apps you can download for mindfulness, I find them really useful :)

Last week, I suffered badly with anxiety, it started with an aching pain in my sternum and then at its worse my whole chest was aching, my heart rate started hitting the 90s, last thursday night, I got it into my head that I had the virus as I was convinced my breathing was unproductive and I couldn't get to sleep, as I got to the verge of dropping off, I'd force myself awake and the next morning, my heart rate was hitting 120 and I had the familar sleep Apnea headache that I hadn't had for a long time. Over the course of the day everything calmed down as I pulled myself together and I was left with a bit of achiness, but that's subsided since.

What contributed to it all was that constant reviewing of local news, bbc news, twitter and reddit, watching Boris on the TV along with having a page open with the worlds case/death rates.

I just switched it all off and will now only occasionally look at the local news, which is more important to me at the moment.

It's always going to be there in the back of our minds, but music and distractions really do help. I haven't tried any apps yet, but having the radio on has been great and I'm still working from home, so I'm taking it as an opportunity to gain some new skills incase the worse happens job wise.

You're not alone and certainly make the most of anything that can distract you from your enemy - thinking about the worse.

My reasoning is, if you're going to get it, you'll get it, so why worry. If you're NOT going to get it, you won't. So why worry either way?

Maybe you feel like that because of your religious beliefs, poems?

Try remain positive if we all follow guidelines re social distance and hygiene, staying at home the chances of coming into contact with the virus must be minimal

Hi CaptInterceptor thanks for your help , my wife has now put a limit of an hour a day and only on non covid -19virus stories ie sport , which you can imagine I'm not seeing much of the television the past 3 days,but it's on even on the sports channels and I've now got a 1 hour daily limit on TV for my mental health well-being as it was just stressing me out and if I heard any suggestions of symptoms I'd be getting more and more worried as the day went on , but now I've been banned from news watching and only programmes that are interesting non covid -19virus I'm watching as of Monday.

Thank you for your help from.

Wolfie 4371

No worries, to be fair it isn't going to be long until I break out my sons lego box and start tinkering with that ha ha

Hi I’ve had the same problem I think it’s just anxiety mixed with it making your asthma symptoms worse. There are lots of great YouTube videos where the person will talk to you & talk you through it! I’ve found those very helpful in headphones :) hope this helps

It’s impossible to stop thinking about something unless you have something significant to replace it with.

Don’t just try to think about something else. Find something else to do.

For example, buy some watercolours and a book on watercolour painting (perhaps from Amazon if the shops are closed) and engross yourself in making abstract watercolour paintings. Think of a ‘state of mind’ and try to recreate it in abstract patterns and colours.

Just one example. DO something else.

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