PANIC AND ANXIETY ATTACKS
what is a panic attack?
Anxiety is the body's physical response to a situation which has filled the mind with fear. Fight or flight syndrome goes back millions of years to the time of cavemen and the human mind still retains the capacity to have an impact on the physical body.
It can be a very useful response - if the caveman saw a dinosaur his mind would be filled with terror. This in turn, would send a flood of adrenaline flushing through his system, helping him run faster or fight harder. Equally, when in the jungle and faced with a roaring lion, you have two choices - kill the lion or run away - fight or flight.
In today's world, faced with such fear-inducing situations, we may have evolved more sophisticated protection, so fight or flight might never be options. But the body prepares itself anyway, just as it has done for generations, releasing a surge of adrenaline into our bloodstream. back to top
physical symptoms
The physical symptoms that we experience as a result can also be disturbing. We begin to sweat, our breathing rate increases alongside our heart beat which speeds up to such an extent that some of us we may experience palpitations. We may have pain, experience the sensation of 'butterflies in the stomach', feel the urge to go to the toilet, suffer light-headedness, dizziness or nausea, numbness, tingling or tremors. You might stutter or your voice may shake. Your face may flush. Some people have just a few of these symptoms, some have all of them. But whether they are mild or severe, they are still described as a panic attack.
What makes things worse is the lack of an obvious reason for such fear. Even identifying the kind of situations that trigger panic attacks is not the whole answer. But it is a start.'Normal' fears are straightforward and logical. We become afraid when under threat by something or someone whose destructive potential we clearly understand.
'Worries without a cause' can overwhelm us with an anxiety which pervades our whole being, as though waiting for an unguarded moment to possess us entirely.
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fighting shadows
Most would say they prefer to experience a terrifying fear of something tangible that they could understand rather than this seemingly inexplicable, free-floating anxiety. But there lies the key - seemingly inexplicable. Just because the cause is not obvious does not mean the fear is not real.We have powerful emotions from childhood which can last all through our lives. Even if these emotions occurred when we were too small to have a vocabulary, the unconscious mind can retain the memory of the emotion even though the words to describe the situation did not yet exist.
Every emotion we experience has its origins in a real situation, becoming part of our unique field of experience. But when these emotions stem from childhood, by the time we are adults, the situations that provoked such feelings no longer have the same power. What happens to a child may not be likely to happen to an adult.However, the mind keeps this emotion as it always has - but now it is distorted out of proportion. What was a normal fearful reaction many years ago has taken on a dimension that is now totally unwarranted.
The trouble is that every time that fear overwhelms, it is reinforced and its grip becomes stronger. Each subsequent panic attack diminishes a little bit more, leaving you out of control and unable to dispel it. All you want to do is get through the attack and there is no way that logic or reason at this stage will be of help.
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brain chemistry
The brain creates a 'pattern matching' response. In other words, it becomes coded through its previous memories and experiences and therefore expects the same response to the panic trigger when faced with it in the future. These symptoms can be so distressing and uncomfortable that you may develop a fear of panic attacks - 'a fear of the fear'.We cannot flee this uncaused anxiety unless we flee from ourselves. We can grasp fears with our minds, but anxiety grips us from within. This is a panic attack, and the accompanying anxiety is a total, comprehensive, all-embracing, permanent threat.
One of the greatest anxieties is not knowing how long this state of panic will last. If we knew it was temporary and would pass in seconds, it might become more tolerable. But because we have no way of knowing that, the fear inside rises.
Unless it is dealt with, this unfathomable anxiety is permanent; it does not pass away, because it arises from within ourselves, not from situations in the world. This free-floating internal terror lurks continuously just beneath the surface of life, waiting to take a good bite.
The panic attack itself becomes an object of fear. Fear in case we look stupid in front of everyone else, fear that others are judging us negatively, fear that we might act in a way which is embarrassing or humiliating. It's as though the facade we have built around ourselves to hide these attacks will crumble and we will be 'found out', exposed, revealed to the rest of the world as ...but revealed as what? A fearful person? Think about it. back to top
anxious about being anxious
You may experience anxiety in numerous situations or perhaps your anxiety is confined to one or two specific situations - the most common situations that individuals report feeling anxious in are whilst performing or speaking in public and when speaking to people in authority.The commonest strategy to cope with panic attacks is to avoid anxiety-causing situations, arranging your life around the symptoms. This can result in significantly intruding on your quality of life, getting in the way of family life, work and social relationships.
There are many possible causes of this panic and anxiety disorder. The family environment you grew up in may affect the way you think about yourself and how you deal with social contact. Its impact can certainly affect the way you think about yourself and the way you see other people. Whatever happens in our childhood can colour our adult emotions, which, in turn, colour our thoughts. But whether you suffer from this order in adult life also depends on other factors such as the kind of person you are, what kind of nature you have, your level of self esteem.
Those individuals who are inherently introvert, are likely to be affected. This is not always immediately obvious and people who display an outgoing personality may well feel like jelly inside. Although they hide it well, they tend to have an intense fear of being scrutinised by others.
This means that whatever they do, whether at work or at home, they desperately want to get things right because they actually expect to be humiliated or embarrassed. It's possible this stems from a stern teacher or parent who set incredibly high standards, or even just standards the child would never be able to achieve.
It is usually someone in a position of power to administer harsh criticism, prompting the child to strive extra hard to avoid a repeat of this situation. In adult life, the same happens only under different circumstances, only the extra diligence is applied through a reluctance to offer unnecessary ammunition.
Being the centre of attention is probably the worst thing that could happen to someone with an anxiety disorder. Being looked at, being scrutinised, generates a fear of embarrassment. The anxiety is so severe that these individuals will avoid situations that make them feel uncomfortable.
Now you have someone who is feeling anxious about being anxious. Add the fear of having a panic attack plus the fear of someone witnessing a panic attack and you have several layers of fear building up. No wonder panic attacks make sufferers feel as though they have lost control.
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treatment options
Panic attacks can and should be treated as quickly as they start, if at all possible. The causes have taken many years to develop into full-blown attacks, so the quicker they are dealt with the better. Leaving the problem can create more problems.
Sufferers may take drastic action out of sheer desperation and avoid situations in which they had attacks. If these situations are crucial to their working lives, or to their personal lives, they may jeopardise their own future.
Also, the longer the panic attacks continue, the more the habit is reinforced. Yes, it's a habit, just like many other habits and it's a habit well learned. It's never too late to undo this kind of damaging habit but the sooner it is sorted, the better.
Exposure therapy allows you to confront fears and having identified the situations that trigger attacks, goes some way to alleviating the power they have over you.
This can be achieved with hypnotherapy which addresses the unconscious mind directly - and therefore accesses the unwanted habitual thoughts and behaviours that have over stayed their welcome and belong in the past.
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