Anyone who’s ever suffered a panic attack or a severe anxiety disorder knows the suffering it causes, both physical and psychological. The fear can seem overwhelming and the physical sensations that go with it convince many people that they’re going to die.
they’re convinced 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 out of nowhere.
That fear can lead people suffering from panic attacks to into isolation. They want to avoid situations where they feel at risk.
Gradually their life constricts around them.
Obviously anyone in this situation wants release.
When they try to find this relief from a medical professional they’re often offered a prescription. There’s no doubt that {drugsmedications} are useful, especially in the short term. However, ideally they are only a stop-gap measure, something to ease the symptoms while the underlying cause is addressed.
A Mistake You’ll Know To Avoid
Since panic attacks feel so powerful, people almost automatically assume that they need to fight against these feelings and the experience they’re having.
In a way this makes perfect sense. The physiology underlying 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 naturally we feel like we should fight.
However with these episodes, that’s exactly the wrong response. By fighting against them, we’re giving them more power that they really have.
How To Escape This Pitfall
The clever response that allows you to over come panic attacks is to go with their flow, even challenge them to do their worst.
That may sound counterintuitive. Or maybe it seems simplistic.
The key is that with a panic attack, there’s no terrible consequence.
If you’re about to be run over by a bus and do nothing, 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 the panic attack and all the sensations that go with it and even welcome them. Dare them to do their worst. It may be frightening when you start, but less so with time.
What you’ll likely discover is that this actually reduces the symptoms of fear, sometimes almost immediately. As the saying goes “What we resist persists”. Accept a panic attack for what it is and it loses its power.
Although this approach is straight-forward, it doesn’t come automatically. Practice and coaching help to become proficient at it. But the beginning is just knowing that the risk from a panic attack is more illusion than real.
If you want to find out more about panic 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 in the Wizard of Oz, the man behind the curtain is not very frightening once you see what’s really there.
You can find out about a great way to get beyond Panic Attacks by clicking that link.
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