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Posts Tagged ‘anxiety attack’

Anyone who’s ever suffered a panic attack or a severe anxiety episode knows the extreme distress it causes, both physical and emotional.  The fear can seem overpowering and the physical sensations that go with it convince many people that they’re going to die.

They feel as if they’re trapped and would give anything to find release from their fear.

Even worse is living with the fear that another episode of panic might suddenly come suddenly, anytime,anywhere.

That fear can lead people suffering from panic attacks to gradually withdraw from situations where they might be embarrassed or at risk if an attack occurred. 

Gradually their life constricts around them.

Obviously anyone in this situation wants relief. 

When they seek help from a health care professional they’re often offered a prescription.  There’s no doubt that drugs are useful, especially in the short term.  However, ideally they are only temporary measure, something to ease the symptoms while the underlying cause is addressed.

A Mistake Most People Make

Since panic attacks feel so powerful, people almost automatically assume that these feelings and the experience of a panic attack are something they need to fight against.

This is very understandable.  The physiology that drives a panic attack is the fight or flight response – the response that prepares us to respond to physical danger by either fighting for our life or running like crazy. 

The bodily reaction is getting us ready us for battle, so understandably we feel like we should fight.

However with these episodes, that’s exactly the wrong way to react.  By resisting them, we’re strengthening them.

How To Escape This Pitfall

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

That may seem too easy.  Or maybe it seems simplistic.

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

If you’re attacked by a dangerous animal and just sit there, 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 feeling of panic and the accompanying sensations and even welcome them.  Dare them to do whatever they can.  It may be frightening at first, but less so with time.

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 it and it loses its power.

Although this approach is simple and effective, it is a learned skill.  Practice and coaching help to become proficient at it.  But the start is just knowing that the risk from a panic attack is more illusion than real.

If you want to find out more about anxiety 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.

You can find out about a great way to get beyond Panic Attacks by clicking that link.