floracortez

Hi — I know that this topic was active about a year ago, but I’m hoping that someone can still respond to my inquiry.

I’ve been practicing Bikram Yoga for about a year now, and a believer of all the benefits and blessings that it brings. I do get the occasional panic that occurs inside the hot room, especially when I become overly aware of my heart rate. I’ve been able to manage those moments alright when they do come up during class.

But last Wednesday after class when I arrived home, I started to get the worst anxiety attack I’ve ever had. The peak lasted 4 hours. It’s so hard to describe how I was feeling – but I was definitely scared for my life. I fought desperately with myself not to go to the emergency room. I ended up taking an anti-anxiety pill to help calm down; but it didn’t help much. It lasted through the next morning.

I have gotten anxiety attacks in the past, especially during very stressful times and when flying on a plane. For these emergency situations, I will take anti-anxiety medication, but this probably occurs 3-5 per year. I work as much as I can to not resort having to take a pill, but sometimes I must.

Having gone through that last one on Wednesday, I am now fearful of going back to class. I don’t understand what happened. The class itself wasn’t very hard. In fact, I got pretty distracted during the class. I even stayed for an extra long last savasana to help get my heart rate down before leaving. I don’t want to stop my bikram practice, but I never want to experience that again. I don’t know what to do.

I’ve tried looking for sources online about this, and it’s been pretty hard. Any references I’ve found of “bikram yoga” to “anxiety/panic attacks” is that yoga helps with managing the attacks. Nothing really talks about attacks occuring AFTER class, and what to do.

Any thoughts/advice you have would be great.