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What are Panic Attacks
In a word DREADFUL ….. literally you are in dread of…….. well, it can be
anything really and often people find it hard to pin down exactly what it is
they’re terrified of. They just know they have to get out or get in or get away.
They are often too scared to get into analysing why. The effect is a collection
of physical symptoms, mixed with a feeling of helplessness. At their worst, you
may feel quite certain you’re going to die………….. if that doesn’t scare you,
nothing will. They may come in response to specific situations and/or in
response to nothing in particular. Subsequent ones are rarely as bad as the
first but there is always that “what if?” There are a variety of responses that
you can make. Some people put it down to experience and it doesn’t recur. Some
start by avoiding Asda then Marks & Spencer, then the corner shop, till they’re
just about avoiding everything.
So How Can Psychotherapy and Hypnotherapy Help?
There are two ways it can help. By equipping you to deal with the attack
itself and secondly, by helping you to discover what the underlying problems are
that have produced the panics in the first place and dealing with them better.
I believe that trying to control panic attacks is like trying to push a beach
ball beneath the water of a swimming pool. It can be done, but the ball, like
the panic attacks, will always spring back to the surface at some time.
By using hypnotherapy, relaxation techniques and learning how to change your
point of view, it’s possible to hold on to the reality of your situation; the
fact that you feel anxious and the fact that the right now of what’s going on is
OK and your panic will subside.
When real stuff is happening you don't have time to panic, you're too busy
dealing with whatever's going on. People who suffer panic attacks are usually
quite good in an emergency situation and that's the key to the way out. If
you're feeling panicky, then by definition the moment you're in must be OK. You
can't stay panicky whilst acknowledging that "right now is OK."
It’s not rocket science.
It’s about staying in the moment
Panics are always based on “what ifs” and “supposings,” even if
that future is the moment after next.
By staying in the moment you uncouple yourself from the catastrophe you
anticipate.
Remember, if in the midst of a panic attack someone collapsed besides you and a
first-aider shouted, “Quick, hold his leg…. Pull it tight,” your panic would
pretty much vanish. Why? It’s simple; since you only have a limited amount of
attention, the more you focus on the poor chap’s leg, the less you have for
considering the impending catastrophe of you collapsing. You can’t
intellectualise your way out of panic attacks. You can stay with right now
and the panics will look after themselves.
You can change your life
For a great many people, panic attacks are a result of leading
their emotional lives like a pressure cooker.
There is often little you can do about the “heat” that life generates; sometimes
hot sometimes cool. Like a pressure cooker, if you try to deal with difficult
situations by “keeping the lid on” it becomes increasingly difficult to suppress
your emotions and then something’s got to give and, like the safety valve on a
pressure cooker, you get a panic attack.
It’s by examining how you come to make these choices you do and what
other options might be available that the underlying causes of panic attack may
be abolished.
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