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DEALING WITH PANIC ATTACKS

(part 1)

A friend of mine who is also undertaking personal growth and self improvement recently asked me a question that got me thinking.

The question was with going outside your comfort zone do you ever panic. This got me thinking about being comfortable about being uncomfortable and where do “Panic Attacks” fit in the picture.

If you have panic attacks, it may help to comfort you that you are not alone! You’re not even one in a million. In America, it is estimated that almost 5% of the population suffer from some form of anxiety disorder.

For some, it may be the occasional panic attacks that only pop up in specific situations-like when having to speak in front of others, while, for other people, it can be so regular and continual that it inhibits them from leaving their home.
Frequent panic attacks often develop into what medical physicians refer to as an “anxiety disorder.”

There are many ways of coping with an anxiety disorder.

Some may not work for you, but others just might. It helps to know some of the most common coping techniques for dealing with panic attacks when they begin.
Your first step is to recognize when a panic attack is about to begin. When you have enough of them, you start to really pay attention to the tingling sensation, the shortness of breath, and the disconnection from the real life around you.
Many people wonder what that disconnection is like. They have a hard time understanding it. Those of us who have panic attacks are all too familiar with it. It’s like you can look at a solid object and seeing that it is there. You know it’s there, but a part of your mind doubts that it really IS there.
You may find yourself reaching out to touch that object just to be sure. You feel like you’re not a part of the world around you. It’s as if you are just a spectator in your own life with no control over anything around you.

Believe me, this is a horrible feeling.

So how do you start trying to combat your panic attacks?

What if I told you the trick to ending panic and anxiety attacks is to WANT to have one.
That sounds strange, even contradictory, doesn’t it? But the want really does help push it away.

Does this mean that you should be able to bring on a panic attack at this very moment? Absolutely not! What it means is that when you are afraid of something – in this case a panic attack – it will more than likely appear and wreak havoc.

When you stand up to the attack, your chances of fending it off are much greater.

If you resist a situation out of fear, the fear around that issue will persist.

How do you stop resisting-you move directly into it, into the path of the anxiety, and by doing so it cannot persist.

More later ….

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This entry was posted on Monday, August 10th, 2009 at 8:37 pm and is filed under Health, personal growth solutions, Self-management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.