Stopping panic attacks

[panicfrank]

This is a snapshot of a video I heard/saw on YouTube describing how to stop from having panic attacks.

138

Is it this simple? Is overreaction to negative emotions or events causing panic attacks?

Opinions please.

[panicfrank]

139

Trying again.

[Enduronman]

A panic attack is a chemical signal from the brain, to the pituitary, to the adrenal system, to the adrenal glands, into the bloodstream within 10ths of a second...adrenaline dump.. Plus, I can't see what you even put up there bruh!!..(Papaw E-Man=blind)...

Enduronman. :)

[panicfrank]

Yeah that was a fail. Sorry about that. For some reason the pic wouldn't upload.

[panicfrank]

I guess what I was getting at is : is the negativity causing the " dump" of adrenaline??

[dazza]

^ good answer by Forwells

Here's my perspective on it from my own experience:

When I first developed anx' disorder (very closely followed by panic attacks) back in December last year, an "episode" would start with a kinda deep, overwhelming feeling of fear for the most trivial of things (either a thought or minor symptom)

I'd feel like I was taken away from normality and dumped in a very lonely place of dread & fear. Everything around me suddenly became irrelevent as I focused 100% on my apparent, impending doom.
In the early stages, guaranteed that this would crescendo to a fully-blown panic attack.

This happened time and time and TIME again over the course of 3/4 months, made worse by the most hideous, unexplainable, physical symptoms which so cruely accompanied the disorder.

Cognetive therapy provided reassurance. I would find that the days, sometimes weeks after a session - I'd be pretty much OK, but would inevitably return to hell at some point fairly soon.

Recognising repeating patterns of my behaviour and continuous learning eventually had longer lasting effects of reassurance.
(I.e. the disorder to normality ratio was closing in favour of normality)

From the above, I can only conclude that experience & continous self & external reassurance has (mostly) cured me.

You absolutely MUST take on board the advice & reassurance that is given and then try your 'effing hardest to relate this to yourself and your condition.
Once you see the similarities & relate the therories then it all starts making sense and you'll start to calm in situations where you once freaked.

[dazza]

Just to add something to my above post:

I said that; my (near complete) cure was gained through reassurance & learning/understanding.

HOWEVER, I've notice that there are many who post on this forum who, despite admitting often YEARS of reassurance, still cannot turn this to their advantage.

Perhaps the reason for this is that my anxiety severity level was NOT as high as these long-suffering posters & so my healing was somewhat quicker.
(I recall that both my psychologist and therapist both originally said that they thought I'd recover fairly quickly - since right from the start I was displaying signs of awareness to the condition, despite being mostly consumed by it)

So, keeping it "logical" is key, especially during the darkest hours (which fits with what forwells wrote)

[Enduronman]

Continuous self, and external reassurance followed by learning, understanding=acceptance! BINGO!!! You got yer s**t together there dazzler!! I like yer style friend.. :)

Enduronman.

PS:GREAT POST BTW!

[Enduronman]

Awesome dude!..Yes, I can understand "the rough life" part more then you even know friend..I will touch base on some of that in the future, lets just say that I've been everywhere, and done pretty much everything that 1 single person can do wrong...alone. Anxiety does suck, but it is when you learn, realize, and accept the fact that the person carrying this condition is actually causing this condition themselves...then we're gettin somewhere. I have personally stared "horror" in the face in up close encounters throughout an entire life. I am only afraid of 1 thing,..not being in control. Everything else has no effect..regardless of what that may even be. It took YEARS to get here, but I made it.. Great to be in the presence of true Veteran advisors here, I feel blessed.

Enduronman.

[Enduronman]

Short answer . Sort of.

The adrenaline is in fact a reaction to stress in the body . Good or bad.

But when you react to it with fear it feeds a second set of chemicals which give you panic attacks ( flight and fright )

You can have adrenaline rushes every day of the week , in fact some people are addicted to them.

But they also don't react to them with fear .

Adrenaline rushes last a short amount of time . In fact as you recover and start to get better you are still going to get them but if you learn not to react to them . Or should i say you retrain your logical part of the brain instead of letting the primal part of your brain take over then they past in a very short time and they end up not coming at all .

Anxiety is about stress . When the brain sees the body under stress it protects it . It protects it the way it was built to . It uses the primal part of the brain . They call this the crocodile part . This part works on primal instinct . It sees , it moves , it does not think. Danger - flight or fright . Most animals are dominate in this , humans have logic that can turn it of .

In order to recover you must see this . You must have a rush and then tell your primal part of your brain "Look there is no danger - get back here and behave yourself ".

Most people to start with do not do this . The get a rush and start with the "Oh no , whats happening , i'm scared , I'm dieing ". None of this is true, you might believe it is and it is what you are telling your brain. Is it any wondering it responding with flight and fright ??

It is pretty much like training a puppy to sit . You sit it down and walk away , only to turn around and find it at your feet . The more you do it the more it learns until you turn around and see the little bugger sitting there looking at you with its sad puppy eyes .

This working is very powerful , its what removes your hand from a hot kettle without you thinking about it in mill seconds . It is hard to control , but it is not impossible and something you have done all your life .

Think about when you were scared watching a movie , something scared you and you jumped . You jumped and in that split second your primal brain kicked in and took over but because the logical part of your brain was not under stress then it kicked in seconds after and told it to stand down . This is the normal workings and when this happens you simply say to yourself "Boy that scared the shit out of me " . You didn't run away with Oh no , whats happening , i'm scared , I'm dieing ". Why may you ask . Because you understand what was happening and your logical part took over to reverse the effects of that adrenaline rush .

People how like adrenaline rushes react with "Man this is fun "This single reaction releases the good chemicals into the body and makes them feel good about it. Hence why they say some people are addicted to it .

So yes your body is misfiring with adrenaline from stress but ask yourself about the different reactions you can have and the outcomes . Its all to do with weather you fear it or not . Fear feeds anxiety and this fear comes from not understanding whats happening . Fear is only from lack of understanding of something . We do not fear what we understand .

So in order to recover you have to get that logical part to work . In order to do this you have to reduce the stress . You have to lose the fear . Fear works on a hair trigger. The less stress there is in the body the better the logical part works .

cheers kev :)

"Humans have logic that can turn it off"...Many of us simply can not find that switch, it is very difficult to locate it. Great quote bruh!

E-Man.

[panicfrank]

Wow! Great posts by everyone! This should be a sticky. There's some great explanation here that could surely help someone get a grip on their anx disorder.
Well done gentleman :)
Now to put it to use on myself. Lol