Giving a Shit

[tyrannosaurus vex]

speaking of giving a shit but being unable to express it properly


how the fuck do you help somebody out of a panic attack, without resorting to bullshit like "think about rainbows and unicorns" or "just try to breathe" ?

Find a place for them to lie down.

Get out of the way.  Panic attacks are a physiological reaction to stress.  Nothing you can say will improve the situation.

Yeah that's what bugs me. It feels like I should be able to help - if not with the panic attack itself, then with the environment that leads to them.

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

I agree with roger for the most part. Sometimes I had luck getting my ex-wife out of panic attacks by doing something absurd or unexpected... surprise would sometimes reset whatever was going wrong.

Mostly though, just having them lie down and that they know someone is there seems to be the best route.

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

We also give tons and tons and tons of shit about things out there in the world that we cannot change, and we give shit about people who are lost in their ignorance and refusing to wake up.

I find that when pressed, a lot of the shit labeled "things in the world we cannot change" actually turn out to be things that can be changed, they just require a high frustration tolerance, collective action, and eschewing instant gratification. So it turns into a sour grapes rationalization, "That person's mind or tough issue just couldn't be changed, so I can give up now." 

[Luna]

speaking of giving a shit but being unable to express it properly


how the fuck do you help somebody out of a panic attack, without resorting to bullshit like "think about rainbows and unicorns" or "just try to breathe" ?

Find a place for them to lie down.

Get out of the way.  Panic attacks are a physiological reaction to stress.  Nothing you can say will improve the situation.

Yeah that's what bugs me. It feels like I should be able to help - if not with the panic attack itself, then with the environment that leads to them.

Whoops.  There's a difference between something that LEADS to a panic attack, and what you can do to help once the attack has already started.

Want to see me have a full-blown panic attack?  Drop me in six feet of water.  (A few people have seen me in that much water on purpose, but that's with me in control of where I am, what I'm doing, and it's usually "fuck you, fear, you don't control me" and the panic attack held off by force of will.)  There's a difference between "just don't fucking push me in the deep end of the pool" and "haul my ass out of the water, give me a towel, and get the fuck away from me while I get my shit together."

[The Good Reverend Roger]

speaking of giving a shit but being unable to express it properly


how the fuck do you help somebody out of a panic attack, without resorting to bullshit like "think about rainbows and unicorns" or "just try to breathe" ?

Find a place for them to lie down.

Get out of the way.  Panic attacks are a physiological reaction to stress.  Nothing you can say will improve the situation.

Yeah that's what bugs me. It feels like I should be able to help - if not with the panic attack itself, then with the environment that leads to them.

Whoops.  There's a difference between something that LEADS to a panic attack, and what you can do to help once the attack has already started.

Want to see me have a full-blown panic attack?  Drop me in six feet of water.  (A few people have seen me in that much water on purpose, but that's with me in control of where I am, what I'm doing, and it's usually "fuck you, fear, you don't control me" and the panic attack held off by force of will.)  There's a difference between "just don't fucking push me in the deep end of the pool" and "haul my ass out of the water, give me a towel, and get the fuck away from me while I get my shit together."

That sounds more like an anxiety attack response than a panic attack response.

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

speaking of giving a shit but being unable to express it properly


how the fuck do you help somebody out of a panic attack, without resorting to bullshit like "think about rainbows and unicorns" or "just try to breathe" ?

Find a place for them to lie down.

Get out of the way.  Panic attacks are a physiological reaction to stress.  Nothing you can say will improve the situation.

I've been talked out of a panic attack.

However, I also have extensive practice with breathing techniques, otherwise the person trying to help me could have made it much worse. A lot of people are uncomfortable with even being aware of their breathing let alone modulating it.

The unfortunate part about that is how breathing patterns are strongly linked to the physiological stress response. When you alter the breathing component, you're directly effecting your physiology. But it takes prior practice to be able to apply it to extreme situations.

I'm not sure there is a one-size-fits all approach to severe anxiety issues—what helps one person may cause another to freak out even more. Assuming you know the person who is having the panic attack, it's probably best to rely on your intuition about what is likely to be helpful to that specific person.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

We in the Best of the One True Churches™ occasionally develop a pretty high opinion of ourselves.  We assume that because we can laugh at horror, we're somehow smarter than the average monkey.  This is of course patently false...I'm a dumbass, and so are you.

No, what makes us different is that we GIVE A SHIT.  After all, if you don't give a shit, then what is the point of learning to think clearly in the first fucking place?  If you DON'T give a shit, then – and this is only my humble opinion – perhaps you would be better served by joining the Calvinists and shitting on people from a great height.  It's your soul.

Now, 99% of the time that you hear people say they don't give a shit, it actually means that they do in fact give a metric ton of shit (the other 1% are politicians or hedge fund managers or other damage cases).  Either they refuse to admit giving a shit because it doesn't fit in with their ideas about masculinity or toughness (This is the John Wayne syndrome that causes poor men to vote republican), or they've never learned how to express giving a shit, and may give up after a few clumsy attempts.

Hell, almost all the hostility and bitching and petty slights done on this board are based on giving a shit.  If you didn't care about someone in one way or another, you wouldn't take the time to slam them or slight them.  This is a way of making someone else demonstrate that they give a shit about you, if only in a negative sense.  Thing is, I think we can do better than that.  There is no need for superior mutants to wallow in such primate behavior.

The short & skinny is, either you give a shit or you don't.  And if you DO give a shit, then at least give a shit enough to communicate without shitting all over your fellow mutants.  This goes for everyone, including myself.  If you DON'T give a shit, then at least don't give a shit enough to NOT tell us all about how much you don't give a shit, because none of us give a shit about you not giving a shit.

That being said, I'm not giving up my noob addiction, and you can't make me.  So shut up.

A FUCKING men!