How To Overcome Panic Attacks
The very first question is, "what causes panic attacks?" You already know how awful you feel when these symptoms appear. You think your heart is going to burst from your chest and that you're about to die. But what is going on?
In order to look after all the background functions of your body like breathing and heart rate, you have something called the sympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system responds to adrenalin, making your heart pump harder and faster, your breathing rate increase and making you sweat. These are physical responses to anxiety and this 'turbo charging' of your body is an old survival response. It comes from millions of years of evolution and is often called 'fight or flight' because you get tougher or faster as a result!
The problem is, when lions would chase our ancestors, we needed this response but now it is far less necessary!
How come you suffer from panic attacks?
The problem for you is that your trigger to start this fight or flight rush is too sensitive. It seems to fire when it isn't needed.
It has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. You get panic attacks ironically, because after a panic attack, you worry about getting another panic attack! If you can overcome your fear of suffering another panic attack, the anxiety that triggers them will go away resulting in you not suffering more panic attacks.
You currently suffer from a "negative feedback" - worrying about panic attacks causes them. If you can replace that with a positive feedback loop, you can cure the problem.
For example; if you get a pain in your chest you will exaggerate the cause, thinking to yourself that it is either a heart attack or lung cancer or some other doom. This 'thought-inflicted' worry heightens your anxiety. As your anxiety level rises, you then worry you may be suffering the start of another panic attack which drives your anxiety levels higher still. Your anxiety raises your body's response and it dumps more adrenalin into your system. Before you know it, a tiny twinge in your chest has you heading for a massive panic attack.
In order to recover from this destructive cycle, you must break the loop that causes it.
Is Cognitive Behaviour Therapy the cure?
Most people don't realise that most doctors do not want to medicate their patients for anxiety as medication mostly deals with the symptoms, has massive side effects on the rest of a patient's life and are often addictive. Being on sedatives changes you as a person.
However, cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) is a successful way to treat the pernicious effects of anxiety disorder. Rather than sidestepping the problem, CBT challenges it head on. It works by teaching you how to master your irrational response to minor things such as a chest pain and logically overwhelming your irrational desire to talk yourself into anxiety.
For example, people will often think they will die during a panic attack. CBT teaches them how to overcome this irrational worry with logic and sense, thus subduing the risk of another panic attack.
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