THANKS TO MY PANIC ATTACKS

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

• It seems that nothing boded ill, just stress, just do not get enough sleep, problems in relationships and at work with your boss, you plow like a horse, the past weighs in, and the future scares even more, the dreams of youth have suffered a complete fiasco. Perhaps you are feeling stressed, frustrated with your own life. And on one special day, your life is divided into before and after.
• You will not be the same again, because you will hear your heart with such strength and speed that you did not know before. Your legs give way, you lose balance, your head starts to spin, your hands sweat, it becomes difficult for you to breathe. You want to run as fast as you can, just to get rid of it. You are seized by an animal fear - I am about to die! This thought hits with such force right in the temples and does not let go until the attack has passed.
• You begin to fear a repetition of this horror, which will simply paralyze your entire future life. You avoid going outside because you realize that at any moment you can lose control of yourself and faint, and for some reason this seems to be embarrassing. What will people say or think when this happens to me in front of their eyes?
• You do not understand what is happening to you, maybe heart problems or a heart attack, because it happens even in young people. What if my heart breaks now and breaks? You constantly listen to the sound of your restless heart, the beat of which pulsates throughout your body so strongly that nothing else in the world simply exists.
• The subway ride turns into a real challenge and a survival race, and even then if you can walk to the station. I remember returning home many times, because I did not dare to go down into it. In my fantasies, death definitely awaited me there, or at least an ambulance call. Driving in public transport, taxis and even in your own car seemed an insurmountable obstacle, for which you have to mentally prepare for a long time.
• Going to the store turns into torture, it is especially scary to stand in line. It seems that a little more and you will fall and you must quickly run, break out.
• You are afraid to drink even weak alcohol, coffee and even tea, so as not to provoke another attack.
• You fall asleep and wake up listening to your heartbeat and wondering how to get through another scary day. Your whole life is focused on fear and the pounding of your own heart.
• Your colleagues begin to notice that something is happening to you, you become sad, anxious, closed in your condition, often take sick leave and do not tell them anything, because you do not know how to explain to people that you have become insanely scared to live, but you are safer at home than anywhere else.
• You sincerely do not understand how before that you managed to live, calmly without thinking about anything, walking the streets without fear, meeting friends, having fun and not thinking about anything bad.
• You go to the doctor, get tested, and he says you are all right, the functions are not impaired, most likely vegetative-vascular dystonia. You just need to not worry and everything will pass by itself. Easy to say, relax and don't worry.
• At some moments it seems to you that what is happening around you is not happening to you. Your feelings are perceived as strangers, although you know that they are not. This is a process of depersonalization.
• Your whole life turns into endless survival and struggle with an invisible enemy - your so-called "disease". The whole being is seized by one single desire - to survive and live on, breathe deeply, so that everything will return and be as before. You are so exhausted by this persistent fear that you understand that it is no longer possible to live like this. I have to change something, otherwise I just can't stand it, I quit my job and go crazy.

When the first attack happened to me, I worked in Moscow and did not even know what panic attacks were. Unless I saw in American films how they breathe into a paper bag. It looked pretty funny, but I had no idea how people actually feel during an attack. I felt bad right at work right after the new year, I had to go to the carpet to my harsh boss. There was a private clinic in our building on the ground floor, and I was immediately taken there.

I did not understand what was happening to me, I remember a terrible fear and how I lay completely alone on the couch, my heart was pounding and it seemed that its speed was only increasing. I looked at the white ceiling and there were two thoughts in my head - is it really my whole life and will it end so stupidly now?

And the second thought is how I want my parents to be there now. What if I die, and they don't even know and what will happen to them? Then, from the depths of the subconscious, an old song emerged "in a room with a white ceiling with the right to hope" …

Those who know from their own experience what panic attacks are, understand this condition very well. Symptoms such as somatic pain in the heart, feeling short of breath, tremors, sweating, numbness of the arms and legs become frightening companions of everyday life. You notice that you have become afraid of open spaces and crowds (agoraphobia). And nothing scares you like the fear of death and the fear of going crazy.

But now, years later, I can confidently say that it was panic attacks that saved and changed my life, which was going downhill. At that moment, I completely lost my way and did not see how slowly I was killing myself, in what daily stress I live.

I had big problems at work with my boss, I lived in a foreign city in a rented apartment, the salary was barely enough. The tale of how people pay well in Moscow quickly ended. I could not meet my man, I suffered a lot about this, imperceptibly addicted to drinking and cigarettes, trying to drown out the pain that did not pass inside, and all this together led me into the abyss.

My body and mind could not withstand the stress. It was during this period that I learned what panic attacks are. It's good that I had the wisdom to ask myself the question - what is wrong in my life, where am I going and what is all this for? And then I had to completely change my lifestyle, priorities, goals, work on myself. I returned home to Minsk to lick my wounds and it was a very right decision, because from that moment everything gradually began to improve.

Panic attacks don't just happen out of nowhere, they have their own reasons. Panic attacks are usually an overwhelming level of anxiety! Doctors do not treat them, but help relieve symptoms, because this is a psychosomatic reaction of the body to constant and severe stress.

When the nervous system is very heavily overloaded, it needs unloading. If we ourselves are not able to do this, our body, having reached a critical mass, decides to throw off this stress in the form of a panic attack. Therefore, in a sense, a panic attack is a sign of a healthy body that successfully copes with accumulated stress.

It's good if we understand this and let the panic attack just happen. But usually, we are so scared that we screw ourselves up even more and the panic intensifies.

For example, in the wild, if an antelope ran away from a lion, and he did not catch it, then the animal was stressed. As soon as the chase ends, the antelope begins to shake for some time, throw off the accumulated stress, and deduce adrenaline. After that, as if nothing had happened, he goes about his business to eat grass or drink water.

The stress response ended successfully. Instincts did their job. If the antelope, for some reason, did not throw off the stress, then it becomes weak, its instincts become dull, and it quickly becomes a victim of a predator.

Our body is also part of the animal kingdom and reacts to stress in three ways - freeze, fight or flight. Usually, we do not hit anyone or run away, but freeze. We freeze from everything that happens in life, this is our habitual reaction and stress is not removed, remaining in the body.

If you are now going through this difficult period in your life, you periodically have panic attacks and you are faced with this for the first time, first you need to consult a general practitioner and rule out serious somatic diseases of the heart and endocrine system.

If the doctor excludes these diseases and you have panic disorder, then it is advisable to contact a mental health specialist - a psychotherapist.

Psychotherapeutic methods, on the one hand, will teach you how to regulate your condition and how to help yourself during an attack. On the other hand, it can help reduce stress and anxiety in life.

What can help you right now? I am very sorry that when I had panic attacks I did not know this

First, it is important to know that there is not a single case in the world that someone died from panic attacks. This is the body's natural response to chronic stress. Moreover, it suggests that your cardiovascular system is physically healthy.

Secondly, one must clearly understand that an attack has a beginning and an end. You need to note for yourself that now I am having an attack, my nervous system is relieving tension, this is good. I want to help this.

Third, master and practice any breathing technique that will help you cope with an attack. During an attack, the head starts to spin from hyperventilation. You have an excess of oxygen and a lack of carbon dioxide, you breathe through your mouth quickly and shallowly, so it seems that you are about to faint.

Breathing should be slowed down, made deep and slow, breathe through the nose, not the mouth. There are many breathing exercises for this, such as abdominal breathing, square breathing. You can also lightly press on the eyeballs at the beginning of the attack, do the Snowflake exercise, concentrate on one object. All of these exercises are great at helping you survive a panic attack.

Fourth, it is important to understand that panic attacks are not for life, they pass, even if it is difficult to believe so far.

Fifth, my experience shows that if panic attacks come into your life, then this is a cry from your soul and body for help. When it is important to honestly answer to yourself the most important questions: Do I go there and why? It does not happen that a person in all spheres of life is doing well and he has panic attacks, subject to physical health, of course.

Is this the best time to fundamentally reconsider your life and understand what led me to this state? What do I really want, how I sleep, how I eat, do I drink and smoke a lot, what do I run away from, is there a relationship and intimacy, do I feel safety, support, trust, acceptance from loved ones, what about money, housing and in general, how I live in this world, do I like what I do or do I constantly force myself in an endless race for "happiness" or an escape from myself? Does everything suit me in life or do you want to change a lot?

All these issues are successfully resolved with a psychotherapist in personal therapy, where the psyche is unloaded, you speak out, you begin to see a gap in front. When there is peace, joy and satisfaction from life, panic attacks do not go away at all and never return.

If you recognize yourself in the description of the symptoms, then it's time to deal with the causes of panic attacks, hear what your body is screaming about and return to a normal, fulfilling life.

Psychologist Irina Stetsenko