2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43
"I am losing control …"
"I feel like I'm going crazy …"
"I'm having a heart attack …"
"I can not breathe …"
“The disease came to me unexpectedly. Suddenly I began to feel fear sweep over me, wave after wave, and my stomach swelled and began to grumble. I heard my heart pounding so loudly that everyone around him hears it. These sensations literally knocked me off my feet. I was so scared I couldn't breathe. What is happening to me? Am I having a heart attack? I'm dying?"
Panic attacks are very realistic, horrific, and emotionally exhausting. Many people who experience their first panic attack end up in an emergency hospital, … or doctors' offices - and ready to hear the worst news about their health.
But when they do not hear sane explanations (for example, a heart attack), their anxiety and frustration increases: “… if I am physically healthy, what happened to me, I experienced something so terrible, I cannot explain it, so what happens to me! !!?"
If panic attack is not diagnosed, people can go through hundreds of doctors and diagnoses, for years on end, without any relief. The suffering and frustration of the patient only increases due to the fact that no one can help in identifying the problem and providing help.
Due to the realism of the symptoms, the experience of experiencing panic attacks becomes very traumatic, anxiety goes off scale and the next attacks are one of the most terrible experiences that a person can have.
Now the main place in a person's life is taken by the aching fear "When will this happen again?"
Some people are so frightened by anxiety attacks, especially in public places, that they retreat to a “safe place,” usually where they live, and very rarely leave. This condition is diagnosed as agoraphobia.
Note that the person with agoraphobia is severely limiting their life; leads a miserable and depressing existence. The fear of having a panic attack in a public place keeps them tied up close to home.
More than 5% of the adult population suffers from panic attacks, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. The researchers believe that this figure is an underestimate because many people who experience panic attacks may be guided by the wrong diagnosis and “live” with it, despite the horror and constant fear.
What is a panic attack?
A panic attack can be described as an all-encompassing emotional horror. Some people with panic feel that they are in a place where disaster and death will occur, and something bad will happen to them "right now, at this very moment."
Others feel as if they are having a heart attack - the heart seems to be popping out of their chest. A heartbeat convinces them that a panic attack is coming. Some people feel that they are "losing control" of themselves and will do something that is embarrassing in front of other people. Someone else breathes so fast, taking quick short breaths and gasping for air that hyperventilation sets in and they feel that they will suffocate from lack of oxygen.
Common symptoms of panic attacks include:
· heart palpitations;
Dizziness and lightheadedness;
• feeling that "I do not feel my breath";
• chest pain or "heaviness" in the chest;
Flushing or chills;
Tingling in the hands, feet, legs, arms;
Trembling, muscle twitching, tic;
Sweaty palms, rush of blood to the face;
· horror;
• fear of losing control;
· Fear of a stroke;
· fear of death;
• fear of going crazy;
A panic attack usually lasts several long minutes and is one of the most severe conditions a person can experience. In some cases, panic attacks are known to last for longer periods of time or to recur very quickly over and over again.
The consequences of a panic attack are very painful. It usually encompasses feelings of helplessness, depression, and fear that there will be another attack soon.
The causes of a panic attack are difficult to recognize and can remain a mystery to humans. The attack happens suddenly, suddenly, "out of the blue." Sometimes severe stress or other negative living conditions can trigger it.
Unfortunately, many people do not seek help for panic attacks, agoraphobia, and other anxiety disorders. This is unfortunate because panic attacks and other disorders are treatable and respond well to short-term therapy. Panic attacks and agoraphobia can be successfully treated with an interested client and a professional therapist. Cognitive / Behavioral Therapy is an effective treatment for panic and agoraphobia that focuses on identifying the problem and treating it. The emphasis is on "how" to eliminate the thoughts and feelings that lead to an attack of panic and anxiety.
People with panic attacks and agoraphobia are not "crazy" and should not be in therapy for long periods of time. The number of appointments depends on the severity and duration of the disorder, and the client's willingness to actively participate in treatment and change.
How do you prevent a panic attack?
Remember, the effect comes after the constant training of the practitioner in calm conditions. This is done so that in a panic situation you know how to react.
Relaxation (relaxation).
Muscle tension is one of the symptoms of fear. We do not always pay attention to muscle tone, but if you listen carefully to the sensations in the body, you will find how muscles stiffen and the body turns into a shell. In order to help yourself, it is important to try to relax your muscles every time you feel anxious. Muscle relaxation is a skill that must be practiced to be effective. Browse the internet for relaxation techniques and choose the one that works best for you - yoga, Jacobson's progressive relaxation, autogenic training, etc.
Breathing control
During a panic attack, breathing becomes more rapid in order for the heart to pump more oxygen into the body. This is to ensure that the body is ready to defend itself against the threat. Although rapid breathing is not dangerous in itself, it can lead to more serious symptoms such as dizziness and the like.
The breath control skill removes a panic attack. Try to breathe calmly and slowly. This will help you relax. Try not to give in to the urge to breathe in more air and remind yourself to breathe slowly now.
Fill your lungs with air. Free your stomach. Breathe through your mouth and nose. Count slowly to four inhaling air and exhaling to six. Do this until you feel relaxed.
Distraction (distraction)
“I'll think of something else” is an effective way to deal with panic attacks. I look around and choose all the yellow items, keep track of all the buses in the transport, recite a verse that I remember from childhood. Total concentration should be on a distracting action. What happens to the heart or the breath is no longer important, it is important to recall the entire text with intonation: "Near the sea, an oak …".
Cheat Sheet on How to Deal with a Panic Attack?
The result is achieved through desire, time and effort. If you are exercising and the seizures continue, don't worry - it will take time to change.
• The sooner you use the techniques described above, the better results you will achieve.
• If the main symptom is rapid breathing, learn to use a paper bag. Using it you will be able to even out breathing and minimize symptoms. Hold the bag tightly around your mouth and nose. Inhale and exhale into the bag slowly over a period of time.
• A panic attack is an unpleasant difficult experience, but the experience will not lead to dire consequences. You will overcome, survive this attack and with the help of exercises everything will come to a normal life.
• Tell yourself, this is not a heart attack, you are not going crazy, you are not losing consciousness. What I feel now is due to the increased sensitivity of my body. Very soon I will learn how to regulate this and everything will be fine.
• Imagine yourself as a scientist studying panic attacks. You need to outline your feelings, thoughts, ideas in detail. Observe what made the symptoms worse and what, on the contrary, weakened. What experience can you gain from doing this exercise?
When a person with panic attacks is interested in change, ready to try new ways of behavior, they very quickly reprogram the usual brain responses. As you change how you respond, the frequency of attacks decreases, behavioral strategies become stronger, and panic stops causing problems.
Overcoming panic disorder means that you no longer have panic attacks and that the initial symptoms that led to the attacks are gone.
Literature:
1. "On Panic Attacks" article by Thomas A. Richards, Ph. D., psychologist
2. What is panic? Book by David Westbrook & Claudia Rauf Publisher: Oxford Center for Cognitive Therapy 2015
Also read on the website:
Alexander Evgenievich Musikhin
Tatiana Yurievna Yovanovich (Myachina)
Rubtsova Anastasia Andreevna
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