06/07/2017
Taking the Panic out of Panic Attacks...
My heart was beating like a trip hammer, I was breathing like a bellows, my temperature was sky high, my thoughts were racing and I was shaking all over. The answer to my question of 'What is going on?' was quite simple: 'I am having a panic attack.' Does this sound familiar???
This was about 15 years ago, and the thing is that I am a Psychotherapist, a Hypnotherapist and a Lecturer on a psychotherapy degree program. Surely this should not be happening to me!!! But the fact is that it was. The next thing is what did I do about it, and therefore what can you do about it!
I am often asked by clients, students, friends and family why these panic or anxiety events happen and if there is anything they can do about them then and there. I decided to write some articles in the hope that they may help someone out there who is suffering with them.
The first thing that I did was to simply accept that this was happening. I didn’t fight it. You see, reactions such as panic attacks are actually a ‘friend’, they are the body’s way of telling us that there is something in our environment or mind (a thought) that is a threat. So, the body prepares itself to take action, and as part of evolution developed three ways to take this action: Fight, Flight or Freeze. The choice is usually controlled by the non-conscious part of the brain.
The body gets flooded with adrenalin and cortisol to provide the energy to act – it’s almost like fuel injecting our muscles. The hearts speed up to pump blood to the limbs. The body heats up because of this and begins to sweat to keep cool. The brain is shut down from being able to process about 40 bits of information per second (on a good day) to 3 (Fight – Flight – Freeze), and then the choice of one of these is made. If Fight or Flight are not chosen, that is we essentially choose Freeze, then all of this can cause a shaking in the limbs as the unused chemicals flood our system.
In the years of pre-history when humans were living in a more hostile environment and were under real threat they could not afford to have their brains thinking about that threat – it was a matter of reacting to survive. The problem is that we (arguably) no longer live in a hostile environment in terms of wild and dangerous animals but our brain and body still react in the same way.
The way I explain this to my students and clients is as follows, so I am asking you to work through this little thought experiment with me…
Pretend that it is thousands of years ago, and imagine being a hunter/gatherer out hunting food for your family. You come across a deer and know that this is the best chance you have had in days. You deepen your breathing. You make yourself aware of twigs that could make noise, leaves and branches that could rustle, the direction of the wind etc. You are as calm as you can be. Perhaps a little bit of stress for energy and focus. You calmly and quietly kneel, take an arrow from the quiver on your back, notch the arrow to the bow string and with a deep breath take aim.
You then hear a crash and a roar from behind you and as you look back you see a 50ft Tyrannosaurus Rex coming straight for you. You are now the food!!! What one word goes through your mind?
What happens within the body? How does it feel? The brain registers real danger and triggers the ‘panic’ reaction as described above, simply to survive. The brain will shut down and choose one of the three available reactions: Fight, Flight or Freeze.
So, that morning 15 years ago, I accepted that my body was going into survival mode, working absolutely perfectly. Telling me that there was a threat and that I needed to take action. The question then was whether there was a T-Rex in my environment that was putting me in danger? There wasn’t. The next question was if there was a T-Rex in my mind? Well I was just about to start giving a personal development course to recovering drug addicts and the T-Rex thoughts were ‘Will they accept me? What do I know about their lives? Will we be able to relate to each other? Will they call me a ‘yuppie’?’ Etc.
Acknowledging that, I then asked myself what was the worst thing that could happen. The answer was simple – they would reject me. Ok, so what will I do if that happens? I will go to the course coordinators and tell them that we made a mistake and that I am the wrong person to work with the participants. Could I handle that? Yes. By this stage I came back ‘into’ my body and noticed that I was now calmed down and thinking again. So my body was trying to help me from being rejected by putting me into panic mode; in my case the reaction I was being pushed into was Flight, run away from the threat. It is pretty much the same with fear of flying or any other phobic reaction.
I have worked through this example, and the way of thinking and questioning outlined above, literally thousands of times with students and clients to great effect. I have successfully worked through panic attacks with hundreds of clients over the past 20 years and there is nothing that can stop you overcoming them.
Now I fully understand that this is only dealing with these types of attacks when there is no actual danger or stimulus (or trigger) within the environment, or as I say, there is no actual T-Rex. In a future post I will talk about how those can be managed, and please believe me that they can be; no one needs to live with panic (or anxiety attacks). I will also go into some detail on the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems as well as the vagus nerve system and the polyvagal theory of stress. I have deliberately stayed away from theory and research papers on this post, as I wanted to stick with what people could use now. In the future I will post more theoretical information but for now please just work with me on this more metaphorical explanation.
However, I do want to give a very simple and very effective technique that can be used at home to help increase calmness and deal with these types of issues. This was developed by Alexander Loyd, PhD, and is called the Energy Medicine Tool. This technique can be used as a preventative technique every day for general health and wellbeing or at times of anxiety in a specific time and place:
1) Sit down and make yourself comfortable
2) Close your eyes and take a few deep breathes
3) Think of the issue to be dealt with
4) Say a genuine and heartfelt ‘prayer’ to whomever or whatever is congruent with your religious and/or spiritual belief system; that may be God, your Guardian Angel, the Universe, Buddha, whatever. The prayer should simply be a genuine request for relief, help or answers
5) Place the palm of one hand over your heart and place the palm of your other hand on top of that hand
6) Form an image of the issue in the mind, the feeling of anxiety, or fear or whatever the issue is. You can do this literally, or else imagine a symbol of the issue – it really does not matter. Keep this image as you progress and do not try to do anything with it. Just let it be and observe your thoughts and feelings.
7) Start ‘massaging’ your heart with a small circular motion, while at the same time imagining your problem/issue. By this I mean that you are rubbing the skin of your body over the bones of your chest; you want to literally feel like you are massaging your heart. Do this about 10-15 times in one direction and then change directions. Do this for a total of about 1-3 minutes. Again, it does not really matter.
8) Now move your hands in the same way to your forehead and repeat the circular massage, again for about 1-3 minutes, alternating direction every 10-15 circles
9) Finally, place your hands on the crown of your head and repeat as above
10) Now, just drop your hands to your lap and relax for a little while, just being at peace with yourself and your thoughts and feelings. Look out for any changes or messages that you receive
11) You can repeat this as often as you like
12) You might get a healing reflex such as a gentle headache, and if so just stop for a little while and relax. This is just the body healing itself
13) While massaging each point you could imagine light or love flooding over the issue or simply filling your mind and body
This is a powerful and relaxing exercise and doesn't have to be used to deal with a particular issue or problem; it can be just a part of a daily routine for relaxation, wellbeing and health. Doing this exercise will release a hormone called oxytocin into the bloodstream, and oxytocin will (among other benefits) get rid of adrenalin and cortisol, increase relaxation, increase general good feelings and boost the immune system. In truth, its not even necessary to sit down with closed eyes if it’s not appropriate – just do the massage routine.
In summary, when there is any feeling of anxiety, Accept It, Don’t Fight it!
Then begin to Ask Questions…where is the T-Rex? What is the worst thing that could happen? Etc. Do the Energy Medicine Tool technique.
If you have any questions on anything in this post please feel free to contact me by phone, text or email at the details given below and I will be happy to get back to you.
Either way I hope that you found this article to be of value.
With best wishes and peace,
Ian.
Cred Quod Habes, et Habes
(Believe you have it, and you have)
Ian Molloy, MA (Hons) Psychotherapy
087 7411696
ian@affirmativetherapy.ie
www.affirmativetherapy.ie
Lucan, Co Dublin
Ps. The guys on the course did accuse me of being a yuppie. I disagreed, telling that I was not just A yuppie, I was THE yuppie, the number 1 yuppie. One of them disagreed saying that he knew a bigger yuppie than me. Laughter, ice broken, barriers down, panic over!!!
