14 Mar When Panic Attacks
A sudden sense of impending doom; something awful must be happening! Your body doesn’t feel right—heart pumping, breathing fast and difficult, your insides feel like Jell-O. There is no real danger, at least not anything obvious. There must be something wrong with you…
Panic attack—a sudden sense of danger or urgency accompanied by intense physical sensations without any apparent reason—is much more common than you might think. Depending upon the study cited, between eight and twelve percent of Americans have experienced panic attack within the last six months. That means one of ten people on the street has perhaps experienced this challenge recently.
Physical symptoms commonly range from mild disorientation to a sense of losing consciousness. Sufferers believe they may be having a “nervous breakdown” or going crazy. Labored breathing, elevated heart rate and tightness in the chest are very common symptoms of panic. For obvious reasons hospital emergency room staff are on the front line in ruling out physical disease and referring for professional help. Up to 80% of hospital E.R. visits result in diagnosis of emotional challenges rather than physical disease.
But what, exactly, is panic? Anxiety is the body and mind’s response to perception of danger; panic—psychologically speaking—occurs when there is no apparent trigger for the strong anxiety response. Instead the trigger is a sensation within the body like changes in heart rate, blood pressure, breathing or physical tension. Because our bodies go through such changes each time we move, stand, exert ourselves, or even daydream, these changes can lead those who panic to perceive that something is wrong and needs to be resolved immediately. Of course we know that the thought that something is dangerous and needs to be stopped always results in changes in heart rate, breathing, blood pressure and tension. This only seems to confirm the suspicion that something is seriously wrong and leads to a panic feedback loop.
You might be surprised to know that most panic sufferers have three things in common: above-average intelligence, above-average sensitivity, and being exceptionally nice people. Very intelligent people can more easily “learn” that physical sensations are cues that something is wrong, thus being more susceptible to falling into that feedback loop. Sensitivity plays an obvious role. If I don’t notice my own metabolic changes or sensations then I don’t perceive them as dangers, right?
The “niceness” factor is a particularly interesting one. Those who are particularly sensitive to the reactions of others are more likely to respond to the needs and interests of those around them. This can also make them especially sensitive to things that might suggest that others are responding negatively to them, which often exacerbates panic. But the inverse can also occur; many “panickers” avoid contact with others and with daily life. Some come off as disinterested or grumpy as they fear that they will panic when interacting with others. This again becomes a sad, difficult cycle to break out of.
The good news is that panic disorders are very, very treatable. The greatest challenge is helping sufferers to recognize that the sensations to which they have been responding are not dangerous, but simply normal responses to perceptions of danger.
The next hurdle is for them to experiment with tolerating the sensations, even embracing them with a sense of acceptance and curiosity. This takes courage and runs counter to instinct. So the support of an experience professional can very helpful. But it is impossible to overcome a panic disorder without coming to accept the trigger sensations as normal, even healthy, aspects of daily life.
Skill training is also valuable. Since one may be pulling back to avoid having the trigger sensations, mindfulness training and other emotion regulation skills can help one to live fully again. Few counselors or medical professionals are trained in these processes, so it may take some careful searching to find one who has the expertise you need to fully overcome panic.
Life is wonderful. It can seem unbearable when panic seems to jump out at us from nowhere. But rest assured that panic is not really dangerous, and you can learn to fight back when panic attacks.
Michael D. Williams is a licensed psychotherapist, a Marriage & Family Therapist with over 25 years’ experience. If you have questions or have suggestions for future articles you can contact him at MichaelWilliamsCounseling.com, or you can call 208.360.2365.