Do you fear a panic attack could strike at any moment?
Sometimes people have the impression that their experience of anxiety is like being hooked up to an electroshock machine and that it just takes a flick of the anxiety switch to cause a flood leading to a full blown panic attack.
People in this situation often feel that are lucky to make it through the day without that switch been flicked but in the back of their mind they fear that it could happen at any moment day or night. They remain on high alert anticipating it. Anticipating the big one!
In fact most people who experience panic attacks fear it in this manner. It is natural for people to think this way as often the panic attacks come forcefully out of the blue.
The truth of the situation is however different. A panic attack does not lurk in the background waiting to pounce, it can feel that way in your mind if you are anxious but that is not how it really works.
Panic attacks are actually something we decide to initiate when we feel out of control. It begins possibly with a skipped heart beat or tightness around the chest, it is then that your mind fires off a thought warning that these sensations are very unusual and signal a dangerous event that needs urgent medical attention or else.
The thought that triggers almost all panic attacks is :
“This is too much , I cannot handle this,” Then the adrenaline starts to really pump.
“Ah I was right look my body is going into a fit.
“I am terrified by what is about to happen.HELP,- PANIC. !”
The severity of the panic attack is directly related to how you are feeling at that time.
If you are exhausted physically, mentally or emotionally then you are more vulnerable to feeling anxious.
After the panic attack has run its course, it is followed by a prolonged period of general anxiety. During this time the person fears that the panic switch might go off again at any moment sending them into another tailspin of high anxiety.
When you feel this way it is very difficult to force a relaxed state of mind through will power (as some other methods would have you do).
So what can you do to stop the mind overreacting to these situations and not initiate the panic attack? Well most of this is about your mind reacting to false signals, so the trick is to train yourself to recognize these false signals for what they and thus shatter the illusion that there is a danger.
There is something very powerful in human psychology and that is the power of giving yourself totally to something. By that I mean, when we make a resolute decision to go for something results are immediate.
In this case you are going for the goal of an anxiety free life. You reach a point where you are completely fed up with this condition and that mindset can produce a real breakthrough. Remember anxiety holds us prisoner because we give it authority. We give it control because it threatens us with terror/death if we do not obey.
Turn this situation on its head. Really chase after the anxiety. It is the anticipation of having a panic attack that keeps you in a general state of anxiety, -so end the anticipation.
There is an element of throwing all caution to the wind to make this fully effective. You abandon yourself to the fear of a panic attack. Sometimes the best way is to get really mad at the terror and say:
“OK come on do your worst- and it better be very strong because I will not have this ruining the rest of my life”
“My life and the people in it are more important than this false fear could ever be, so do your worst because I have had enough.”
The minute you really throw yourself at a panic attack it disappears. It disappears because what was keeping it alive was your fear of having one.
Now you are not afraid in fact you are actually demanding to have a really Big Bad One NOW
DO that right now!
To make this really work you have to throw yourself at the anxiety 100%
-No coming back
Don’t worry about having an off the scale ‘gigantic’ panic attack. I bet you have already had the very worst panic attack you will ever experience again. That is because the worst panic attacks are generally always the first few as you have no idea at all what is happening to you.
Ignorance in those moments is not bliss.
What I am trying to say is that there is no ‘ultimate’ panic attack waiting in the background that will finally push you over the edge.
Trust and believe that you will always be able to handle the anxious sensations each and every time. You will.
What you get by following my advice is confidence that you can in fact easily handle the anxious sensations.
Confidence is so crucial to tackling this problem. Anxiety can be likened to a fog that we must travel through in order to move beyond the fear of what may be on the other side. When we fail to move through it, the fear will linger and limit us from achieving all the things we would like to accomplish with our lives.
Learn more at Panic Away
Barry McDonagh the author of the popular Panic Away course, read this free report at Dealing with Anxiety & Panic Attacks
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