Amell's Corner - Panic Attacks

Imagine you’re walking down a dark alleyway and a suspicious character appears behind you with a knife in hand! Sight of this puts you in an immediate state of anxiousness - your heart is pounding frantically in your chest, your breathing becomes fast and shallow, your body is trembling and your legs feel like jelly, your throat becomes dry, and you feel dizzy and nauseous. You turn around again and now they are running towards you. You panic and are now physically ready to protect yourself from the perceived attacker or run as fast as your legs will carry you. This is known as the "fight or flight response,'' a natural human survival mechanism used to protect us from danger.

Sometimes we have thoughts and fears triggered by a whole range of negative and stressful life experiences which can subconsciously activate the fight or flight response even in the absence of danger. Our mind communicates to our body that it needs to protect us from perceived danger. When this occurs in the absence of any real danger, the body physically reacts in a way that the conscious mind cannot understand as we begin to physically prepare to protect ourselves from a danger we cannot see. This is when we experience all the unpleasant symptoms of an anxiety attack such as palpitations, trembling, shallow breathing and dizziness, alongside a whole range of other physical symptoms, but can’t quite understand why this is happening. These symptoms are simply our body physically preparing to run or fight off an attack. The first time a person ever experiences an anxiety attack is usually reported to be an extremely terrifying experience mainly because they didn’t know what was happening to them.

When suffering from anxiety, we often pay very close attention to what we feel and do. This state of self absorption can lead to the feeling that we are the only ones feeling this way and to questions such as ''What’s wrong with me?" and "Am I normal?'' If you find yourself asking these questions, rest assured you are not the only one!

Every human being on the planet has the potential to develop an anxiety disorder given the right/wrong negative life experiences. We are all human with the same fears and drives, and it is our own unique life experiences that mould how we experience symptoms of anxiety. It is not your fault that you feel this way, and it is very important to understand that anxiety is definitely not something that is out of your control. Anxiety symptoms, if dealt with early on, can be easily remedied. However, if they are not dealt with, in some situations they can develop into a disorder. There are many different anxiety disorders, including phobias, obsessive compulsive disorder and panic disorder. When anxiety symptoms develop into a disorder, it is important to get professional advice and support from your doctor or mental health worker.

Symptoms of anxiety can seem quite alarming - the sufferer may feel like they are going insane, like no one understands what they are going through, and what they are experiencing is beyond their control. The way we think about anxiety contributes immensely to our ability to deal with it. Anxiety feeds off our fears and negative thoughts and is only as strong as we allow it to be. The first step to overcoming anxiety is understanding that we can be in control of it and it is all in the mind!

There are four steps you can take to help cope with and overcome anxiety attacks:

1) Take slow, deep breaths - inhale through the nose and exhale slowly out the mouth. Tell yourself that this is only a panic attack, nothing bad will happen to you, and it will be over soon. By breathing slowly you are beginning to reverse the release of adrenaline which is what contributes to a panic attack.

2) Stop negative thinking. You can do this by literally shouting the word "STOP’’ inside your head. By doing this, you interrupt the emergency message that your brain is sending to your adrenaline glands.

3) Often people replay the terrifying negative thoughts over and over in their head. By interrupting this message with a "STOP’’ message, you are giving yourself the opportunity to replace the scary message with a calmer one. Replace the scary message with an equally as strong positive one that addresses the negative thought. For example, if you think you are having a heart attack during a panic attack (a common fear during a panic attack) in your head you may be thinking "I’m going to die.’’ This is when you shout the word "STOP,’’ then immediately replace the scary statement with a positive one, such as ‘’This is only a panic attack. I’ve had them before and will be alright. It is just the panic attack that is making my heart pound hard and nothing dangerous. My heart is fine. This will pass." **Please note, if your fear is related to a real danger, you should consult your doctor.

4) It is important that you try to identify what you are feeling and what caused it. Take some time after the panic attack to think about what may have set it off and why this happened. Understanding your anxiety will help you overcome it. Your mind has the power to significantly influence your negative responses.

Don't let anxiety control your life.

Regain control and believe you can become the person that you choose to be!