How to Avoid Panic Attacks
Many people are looking for a solution to panic attacks. In some cases, they believe they have tried everything and wonder if a cure exists. They feel let down by the medical profession who prescribe symptom masking drugs, or useless psychiatric therapies. A different approach is needed.
What causes panic attacks? There are different theories about this. Those who favor the medication option like to talk of a chemical imbalance in the brain. But since there is no test for this, it remains just a theory.
Other experts put it down to bottled up emotions but who doesn’t have those? Fortunately, most of us don’t end up with severe panic attacks.
Some blame exhaustion, mental, physical or emotional, that leads to a state of generalized anxiety. This leaves us more sensitive to potential triggers. A strange bodily sensation or a dark thought has us spiraling towards panic.
Then the medical profession start to talk about an ‘Anxiety Disorder’, adding the belief that there is something wrong with you that you need to worry about.
When you finally go into a full blown panic attack, your ‘fight or flight’ response is triggered. An automatic system kicks in, to prepare your body to defend itself or to run away. It gets the adrenaline pumping and produces many of the strange sensations associated with a panic attack. But this is perfectly natural and nothing to worry about.
It is just your body doing what it knows how to do. You may not be in conscious control but you don’t have to be. You usually breathe without having to think about it, don’t you. You are going through a normal response, but it doesn’t feel normal. In your sensitized state, you feel the need to try to fight the feeling, to battle against it. And by doing that, you are just adding to the sense of danger.
In trying to end your panic attacks by fighting them, you are trying to control what can’t be controlled and giving energy to it. But there is no need to control it. As terrible as it feels, it can’t hurt you, any more than your blood pumping in your veins can hurt you. In normal circumstances, once the perceived danger is past, a second automatic system kicks in to restore everything to normal. It is just a question of waiting for that to happen.
Preventing panic attacks requires a new attitude to the onset of these feelings. Then you must take steps to reduce your general anxiety level. Lastly, the change must be made permanent. Setbacks are normal and part of the healing process. You can end your panic attacks by following some simple techniques.
The first part of this plan seems totally counter intuitive. It involves embracing your panic attacks rather than fighting them. Approaching them with interest and exploring them. It takes work but it is not at all difficult to do. And you will be surprised how quickly that fear of another attack falls away. An end to panic attacks is possible for anyone.