The Road to Health & Happiness

Anyone who’s ever lived through a panic attack or a severe anxiety event knows the suffering it causes, both physical and emotional.  The panic can seem overpowering and while there are also physical symptoms that make many people think that they’re going to die. For some people, the physical symptoms of panic attacks are the worst part of it

they’re convinced they’re trapped and would give anything to find relief from the anxiety and overwhelming fear. Even worse is living with the fear that another attack might suddenly come suddenly, anytime,anywhere.

This extreme fear causes sufferers to into isolation.  They want to avoid situations where they feel at risk. Gradually their their fear gains increasing control over their life. Obviously anyone in this situation wants release. 

When they seek help from a health care professional that help often comes in the form of a pill.  There’s no doubt that medications are helpful, especially in the short term.  However, ideally they are only temporary measure, something to ease the symptoms while the underlying cause is addressed.

Since panic attacks feel so overwhelming, people almost automatically assume that they need to fight against these feelings and the experience they’re having.

This is very understandable.  The physiology that drives a panic attack is the stress response to a physical threat – the response that prepares us to respond to a physical threat by either running away or doing battle. 

The bodily reaction is preparing us for to defend our very existence, so naturally we feel like we should fight.

However with these episodes, that’s exactly the wrong response.  By resisting them, we’re giving them more power that they really have.

The clever response that allows you to over come panic attacks is to accept them, even challenge them to do their worst.

That may sound counterintuitive.  Or perhaps it seems too scary.

The key is that with a panic attack, there’s no terrible consequence.

If you’re attacked by a dangerous animal and do nothing, you’ll die.

In contrast, you won’t die as a consequence of a panic attack.  The sense of danger is an illusion, a paper tiger.

The way to see that is to open yourself to the the panic attack and all the sensations that go with it and even welcome them.  Dare them to do their worst.  It’s scary when you start, but less so as you do it more often.

What many people find is that this actually leads to the symptoms subsiding, sometimes almost immediately.  As the saying goes “What we resist persists”.  Accept a panic attack for what it is and it loses its power.

Although this approach is straight-forward, it is a learned skill.  Practice and coaching help to become proficient at it.  But the beginning is realizing that the risk from a panic attack is more illusion than real.

If you want to find out more about panic attacks Panic Attack Release is a great site.

And there’s a good review of a product that teaches this sort of approach at Panic Away Review

As Dorthy found out when she got to Oz, illusions can seem more powerful than they really are.

Tags: anxiety attacks, overcoming panic attacks, panic attack treatment, panic attacks