Anyone who’s ever suffered a panic attack or a severe anxiety episode knows the extreme distress it causes, both physical and psychological. The panic can seem overpowering while 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.
Perhaps worse is living with the fear that another episode of panic might suddenly come suddenly, anytime,anywhere.
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 life constricts around them.
Obviously anyone in this situation wants relief.
When they seek help from a medical professional they’re often offered a prescription. There’s no doubt that {drugsmedications} are helpful, especially in the short term. However, ideally they are only temporary measure, something to ease the symptoms while the underlying cause is addressed.
A Mistake You’ll Know To Avoid
Since panic episodes feel so powerful, sufferers automatically assume that these feelings and the experience of a panic attack are something they need to fight against.
In a way this makes perfect sense. The bodily reaction underlying a panic attack is the fight or flight response - the response we learned about in high school that prepares us to respond to physical danger by either fighting for our life or running like crazy.
The physiology is getting us ready us for to defend our very existance, so understandably we feel like we should fight.
However with panic attacks, that’s exactly the wrong response. By resisting them, we’re strengthening them.
How To Escape This Pitfall
The trick in dealing with panic attacks is to accept them, even challenge them to do their worst.
That may sound counterintuitive. Or perhaps it seems too scary.
The key is that with a panic attack, there’s no terrible consequence.
If you’re attacked by a dangerous animal and just sit there, you’ll die.
On ther other hand, if you do nothing when a panic attack strikes, you’ll still be alive at the end of it. The sense of danger is an illusion, a paper tiger.
The way to see that is to accept the feeling of panic and the accompanying sensations and even welcome them. Dare them to do whatever they can. It’s scary at first, but less so as you do it more often.
What you’ll likely find 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 simple and effective, it is a learned skill. 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 type approach at Panic Away Review
As Dorthy found out when she got to 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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