Your chest will explode in 10 seconds...9...8...7...
Graumagus had a scare at work recently. Glad he's doing OK. He's got enough worries without his own health acting up.
His experience really sounds familiar. I was at work a few years ago (back in the tech-support era of my life), when my pulse shot up to 140+ bpm, I started feeling all woozy & 'rubbery', cold & clammy, sick to my stomach, my ticker felt like it was skipping beats, and I just knew I was gonna die. I had experienced this a couple of times before, and actually thought it was food poisoning at the time, even though I never yakked or ran a fever.
Went to the emergency room (only a $50 trip, since I drove an extra 20 miles to get to the 'in network' hospital. Goddam HMO's), and experienced sharp piercing pains under my sternum as I was driving. At that point, I was certain I was phuct.
Well, guess what. Diagnosis of premature atrial contractions, anxiety attacks, along with excess stomach acid production and high blood pressure.
The P.A.C.'s, as it turns out, can be brought on by excess caffeine, stress, etc., but are harmless. However, when they kick up after a long period of dormancy, this can be really alarming, and you start to stress. Your BP spikes, your heart rate goes up, which stresses you more, and you enter a self-fulfilling cycle of stress until you just wig out and have a full-blown anxiety attack.
Now, there was no freakin' way I was going to go onto the zombie-pills just to reduce stress. I got on the HBP meds, and forced myself to relax more. This basically boiled down to deciding that no job was worth my health or life. Also, I made a conscious effort to drink more single-malt Scotch! Roll up a jay every so often. Go sit outside and feed the birdies. That sort of stuff.
I quit doing things that stressed me out. Just flat out quit doing 'em. It was kinda fun, actually. Here's a sampling:
"You need me to cover an extra shift, then turn around and come in early tomorrow, then stay late again the next night? OK, tell you what. That's 3 'above & beyonds' all at once. Pick any two, and only two and I'll do 'em. And don't give me any of that 'team player' garbage, I'm already here 65 hours a week as it is."
"No, Mom, I won't be driving 200 miles to come home for Thanksgiving, then another 300 miles to take you to see your daughter, then try and drive myself home all in one weekend. She can come see us, or you can Go Greyhound!"
You have no idea how liberating that particular refusal was.
Or, "Hey, Cap, can ya help us move? We need your truck, and can you stop by the U-Haul place and rent us a trailer too? Our credit kinda sucks." Hmmm. Lets see... you've known about this move for 4 months. You're just now asking me one day in advance, AND I gotta throw down my own cash as part of the deal? Hmmm, sorry, dudes. Got to go to Dallas this weekend. Gee, I didn't tell you? Musta slipped my mind...
(Don't get me wrong, I love to help out friends... however, real friends are courteous, plan in advance, and have their shit squared away when the time comes to do the deed. Plus, they buy the beer.)
So, does the "just say no' approach work? Seems to. Haven't had a full-on anxiety attack in 6 years now. A little knowledge of what your body's actually doing is a good thing. You feel that little hiccup in your chest, and your first thought now is "Back off the caffeine, idiot" instead of "Cap'n! She canna take anymore! We're gonna breach the containment field!"
Your mileage may vary, but it works for me.
His experience really sounds familiar. I was at work a few years ago (back in the tech-support era of my life), when my pulse shot up to 140+ bpm, I started feeling all woozy & 'rubbery', cold & clammy, sick to my stomach, my ticker felt like it was skipping beats, and I just knew I was gonna die. I had experienced this a couple of times before, and actually thought it was food poisoning at the time, even though I never yakked or ran a fever.
Went to the emergency room (only a $50 trip, since I drove an extra 20 miles to get to the 'in network' hospital. Goddam HMO's), and experienced sharp piercing pains under my sternum as I was driving. At that point, I was certain I was phuct.
Well, guess what. Diagnosis of premature atrial contractions, anxiety attacks, along with excess stomach acid production and high blood pressure.
The P.A.C.'s, as it turns out, can be brought on by excess caffeine, stress, etc., but are harmless. However, when they kick up after a long period of dormancy, this can be really alarming, and you start to stress. Your BP spikes, your heart rate goes up, which stresses you more, and you enter a self-fulfilling cycle of stress until you just wig out and have a full-blown anxiety attack.
Now, there was no freakin' way I was going to go onto the zombie-pills just to reduce stress. I got on the HBP meds, and forced myself to relax more. This basically boiled down to deciding that no job was worth my health or life. Also, I made a conscious effort to drink more single-malt Scotch! Roll up a jay every so often. Go sit outside and feed the birdies. That sort of stuff.
I quit doing things that stressed me out. Just flat out quit doing 'em. It was kinda fun, actually. Here's a sampling:
"You need me to cover an extra shift, then turn around and come in early tomorrow, then stay late again the next night? OK, tell you what. That's 3 'above & beyonds' all at once. Pick any two, and only two and I'll do 'em. And don't give me any of that 'team player' garbage, I'm already here 65 hours a week as it is."
"No, Mom, I won't be driving 200 miles to come home for Thanksgiving, then another 300 miles to take you to see your daughter, then try and drive myself home all in one weekend. She can come see us, or you can Go Greyhound!"
You have no idea how liberating that particular refusal was.
Or, "Hey, Cap, can ya help us move? We need your truck, and can you stop by the U-Haul place and rent us a trailer too? Our credit kinda sucks." Hmmm. Lets see... you've known about this move for 4 months. You're just now asking me one day in advance, AND I gotta throw down my own cash as part of the deal? Hmmm, sorry, dudes. Got to go to Dallas this weekend. Gee, I didn't tell you? Musta slipped my mind...
(Don't get me wrong, I love to help out friends... however, real friends are courteous, plan in advance, and have their shit squared away when the time comes to do the deed. Plus, they buy the beer.)
So, does the "just say no' approach work? Seems to. Haven't had a full-on anxiety attack in 6 years now. A little knowledge of what your body's actually doing is a good thing. You feel that little hiccup in your chest, and your first thought now is "Back off the caffeine, idiot" instead of "Cap'n! She canna take anymore! We're gonna breach the containment field!"
Your mileage may vary, but it works for me.
posted by El Capitan | 5:02 AM
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