Panic Attacks And Methods Of Dealing With Them

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-07 22:18

Panic attacks are sudden, unpredictable bouts of uncontrollable irrational fear or anxiety. Panic attacks are more susceptible to people with developed willpower, who are characterized by overcontrol and overresponsibility. And, since they usually hide their negative attitude to what is happening, not allowing themselves to feel, and even more so, to show or express their true feelings and thoughts, then all this is displaced into the unconscious, as a result, an internal conflict arises, which eventually pours out into irrational anxiety, and subsequently, it is possible that in a panic attack. In addition, people who experienced traumatic situations in childhood, violence, who grew up in a family with a rather cold and unfriendly atmosphere, with demanding parents and strict rules, and people who use alcohol, drugs, tobacco, etc. can also be susceptible to panic attacks.

Usually, the duration of an attack of a panic attack is short, only a few minutes, but to a person each attack seems endless. Panic occurs for no objective reason. Panic symptoms come on suddenly and take the person by surprise. He has the following symptoms or some of them:

• shortness of breath, rapid convulsive breathing;
• a feeling of heaviness in the chest, pain, weakness, trembling, chills are possible;
• increased sweating;
• numbness of hands and feet;
• heart palpitations;
• dizziness, a feeling of lethargy, a feeling of approaching fainting;
• the feeling of "remoteness" from the surrounding world and from one's own body;
• discomfort in the stomach, nausea;
• sleep disturbance;
• feeling of extreme cold or heat;

• unpleasant, painful, restless thoughts (“I'm going crazy,” “I'm going to die,” “I'm having a heart attack,” “I'm losing control,” “I'm going to scream,” etc.).

After the panic attack has passed, such thoughts seem absurd to a person, but during a panic attack, they are like obsessive delusions, which you cannot get rid of. Fear during an attack is so real that a person who has experienced a panic attack remembers his feelings for a long time and lives in anticipation of a repetition of this nightmare, and the very thought of a possible repetition of this attack causes fear. Sometimes a person himself provokes a new attack of a panic attack with his thoughts and fear of it.

So, what to do if you feel panic: try not to run away from the place where she found you, but, on the contrary, try to calm down by applying one of the techniques described below. Since having run away, you consolidate this model of behavior, and in the future you run the risk of constantly running away from fear, but as you know, you cannot run away from yourself, and the causes of fear are always in the person himself.

Self-help methods for dealing with panic attacks:

1. Distraction. At the moment of intense anxiety, fear or panic, switch your attention to something pleasant or funny. Remember something from your life or what you read or watched. If you find fear at home, you can sit down and watch a comedy. Or you can start counting some objects (those that you see in front of you or imaginary), and try to focus all your attention on counting. Also switch to communication with family and friends, call them if no one is around. Also, you can distract attention by mechanical action on the skin, for example, apply something cold to the wrist, abdomen, temples. Or you can pinch yourself, that is, cause a painful sensation. In case of panic, it is important to be aware of your body and the sensations that arise in it.

2. Breathing exercises. At the time of the onset of fear, slow breathing down to 8-10 breaths per minute. To learn how to slow down your breathing, first, learn to focus all your attention on your breathing, discarding all thoughts of fear. Next, practice breathing with the diaphragm, for this you can put your hand on the stomach area and watch how the muscles stretch in this particular area, while trying to keep the chest and shoulders motionless. When you succeed, try to hold your breath, slowly counting to yourself to 8-10. Then exhale slowly for a count of 3. Repeat 1-3 times or more, until you feel calm. Then continue to breathe in the following rhythm: inhale and exit on count 3. It is advisable to learn this breathing in advance so that strong anxiety, fear or panic does not catch you by surprise.
3. Meditation, autogenous training (AT) … You can read about them in separate articles: meditation, autogenic training.
4. The most famous method - "paper bag" method. When you feel the approach of fear, take a paper bag, place it on your face so that it covers your mouth and nose, and begin to breathe slowly and evenly into it. Breathe into it until you calm down and the panic subsides. If fear catches you by surprise and there is no paper bag at hand, then you can fold your hands in a boat and breathe in them just like that. Panic goes away by restoring the gas balance in the blood - there is a decrease in the excess of oxygen, which causes panic, and an increase in carbon dioxide.

5. Observation. Watch how panic appears, how it develops, note what you feel, what this fear is and why you need it. You write everything down. That is, you turn into an outside observer and simply fix what is happening and how, thereby you devalue fear.
6. Imagination. Consider your fear or the cause of your anxiety, what image your imagination paints, then "rewrite" it, for example, that your fear turned into a cloud and was carried away by the wind. Either the water washed you and washed away all the fear, took it with it, or the fire burned the fear. And try to feel how fear leaves you, and calmness comes in its place, imagine also an image of calmness. Choose the images that are closer to you.
7. Creation … For example, draw your fear. Consider. Then finish drawing what you want to make the drawing fun for you. Or sing along thoughts that trigger fear or irrational anxiety. Listen to phrases, usually a person begins to perceive their fear or anxiety as childish. That is, express your fear in creativity in a way that is closest to you.
8. Postponing fear according to R. Wilson. The first stage is the recognition that you may have fear, and you do not ignore it, but postpone it for a while, that is, you allow yourself to be afraid, worry after a certain time in the future, for example, after 2 hours, when you return to your home. When 2 hours pass, you actually start to consciously think about your fears or put off thinking about them again for a while. In the beginning, even if you manage to postpone your fear for a few seconds, this is already a small victory over it, as this indicates that you have begun to control your fear, and you decide when you are afraid and when to stay calm. The goal of this method is to learn to postpone fear, that is, when the allotted time comes, when you decide to give free rein to fear, again postpone fear for a while, and so every time. As a result of such manipulation of fear, you will be able to erect a "wall" between the moment the fear arises and its embodiment, and the more time passes between them, the more the intensity of fear decreases and you gain more control over your state.
9. Technique "daily excitement" (R. Wilson). This technique suggests instead of resisting fear, on the contrary, to devote time to them. To do this, you need to allocate a certain period of time for 10 minutes, and every day (2 times a day) at this time, start consciously thinking about your fears and do nothing else and do not think about anything else during these 10 minutes, only about your own fears or anxiety. In doing so, try to feel the maximum discomfort. After 10 minutes, let go of your fear, calm down with a breathing exercise, and return to what you were going to do. The meaning of this method is that usually a person thinks that he can worry indefinitely, but usually this is not so, and when a person concentrates his attention on fear in the time allotted to him for fear, and does not fight with it, the degree of fear decreases, so how this technique helps to change emotions and attitudes towards the problem. Apply this method for at least 10 days in a row.

So, as you can see, there are a large number of methods for self-dealing with obsessive fears and panic attacks. For yourself, choose the most suitable method for you, you can also combine several methods at the same time.

Natalia Defua "Life in harmony"