Anyone who’s ever lived through a panic attack or a severe anxiety episode knows the suffering it causes, both physical and psychological. The panic can seem overpowering while while there are also physical symptoms that make many people think that they have a serious medical problem. For many sufferers, the physical symptoms of panic attacks are the worst part of it
They feel as if they’re trapped and would do anything to find relief from the anxiety and overwhelming fear. Even worse is living with the dread that another attack might suddenly come out of nowhere.
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 their fear gains increasing control over their life. Obviously people in this situation want release.
When they seek this relief from a medical professional they’re often offered a prescription. There’s no doubt that drugs are helpful, 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.
Since anxiety episodes feel so overwhelming, sufferers 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 that drives a panic attack is the fight or flight response – the response we learned about in high school that prepares us to respond to a physical threat by either fighting for our life or running like crazy.
The physiology is getting us ready us for to defend our very existence, so understandably we feel like we should fight.
However with these episodes, that’s exactly the wrong response. By resisting them, we’re strengthening them.
The trick in dealing with panic attacks is to accept them, even challenge them to do their worst.
That may seem too easy. Or maybe it seems too scary.
The key is that with a panic attack, nothing bad happens.
If you’re about to be run over by a bus and just sit there, you’ll die.
In contrast, you won’t die as a consequence of a panic attack. The sense of danger isn’t based on anything real. It’s a paper tiger.
As counterintuitive as it seems an effective response to anxiety to accept 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 leads to the symptoms subsiding, 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 realizing 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 in the Wizard of Oz, illusions can seem more powerful than they really are.