When Fear Takes Over – Panic Attacks

Panic attacks are one of the most awful experiences a person can undergo. Many people compare them to having a heart attack due to the similarities in the symptoms of both events. Yet unlike a heart attack that has a biological cause, a blocked artery in your heart, a panic attack comes from your mind. For some, the fear that is the fuel behind a panic attack has been building within one’s mind for some time. For others, the fear has come from a profoundly frightening event. An event that has jarred the person so much that the way that they see the world has fundamentally changed.

Let’s be clear, the fear that leads into panic attacks does not come from someone jumping out at you in jest and saying “Boo!”. That would just be surprise. A short-lived jolt of adrenaline as your nervous system activates to protect you from possible danger. And when you realize that there is no danger, just your friend being silly, that system calms back down. You return back to a state of calm.

For a single event to trigger panic attacks it would have to shake a person to their core. Some examples would be the death of a parent or spouse, witnessing a horrific accident, being involved in war or surviving a serious attack on oneself. These events can shatter a person’s belief about how the world works, their place in life and their sense of safety.

For people who experience panic attacks, the fear has morphed into being petrified. The fight/flight/freeze system we all have activates to protect us. But the fear is so intense that the nervous system overloads. The adrenaline starts pumping through our veins at a fever pitch. Our heart and breathing starts racing out of control. According to your mind, the world is ending right here and right now.

You feel helpless. You feel out of control. You feel betrayed by your body and mind because they are not listening to you anymore.

My Experience with Panic Attacks

For me, my first panic attack came from a slow collection of unprocessed emotions over many, many years. For whatever reason, I learned at a very young age to compartmentalize my emotions. To take my emotions and shove them into psychic boxes in my mind and simply ignore them in order to deal with my life.

What was I not wanting to feel? Well, I was bullied a ton in middle school and high school. Growing up in the 90s, it was common place to call anyone who was different “gay” as an insult. That was thrown at me for years. And not knowing what gay was or knowing that I was gay, ended up compounding the damage from that word being said towards me as an insult. So, I shoved all of that pain and shame into boxes in my mind.

Add to that, a near suicide attempt in college. Some people that I thought were my friends said some very cruel things to me one night. And they hit that soft spot around my confidence about who I am and my belief that I was worthy of having friends that actually like me. That night, at 2am I am wandering the campus deciding whether to kill myself or commit myself. Yet I did neither. I shoved those feelings into a box as well. I still don’t know how. All I can say is that the primordial drive for self-survival is quite strong. My subconscious did its job, and it kept me alive.

So why the back story? I haven’t even gotten close to the panic attack event that I experienced over a decade after these events. For me, these experiences were the fuel for my panic attack. I had these boxes full of old emotions building up in my mind. And yet, I kept moving through life. Carrying all this weight with me.

But life can and does get hard. Life challenges us constantly. And when your mental capacity is already being used up carrying pain form your past, there isn’t much left for your mind to use to handle the present.

So, the day I had my panic attack in summer of 2018 was just a normal day. Nothing special about it at all. I was at work. It wasn’t a hard day. Nothing was unique about it at all. My mind just ran out of strength. I tried to put one more, small insignificant box of emotion into my mind and all of those boxes came crashing down on top of me. Spilling years upon years of emotions everywhere. And thus, the panic attack occurred.

Symptoms of a Panic Attack

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM V), the bible of mental disorders, a panic attack is an abrupt surge of intense fear or intense discomfort that reaches a peak within minutes. Four of more of the following symptoms occur:

• Palpitations, pounding heart or accelerated heart rate

• Sweating

• Trembling or shaking

• Shortness of breath or smothering sensation

• Feeling of chocking

• Chest pain or discomfort

• Nausea or digestive upset

• Feeling dizzy, lightheaded or faint

• Derealization (feeling that your surroundings are not real) or depersonalization (being detached from oneself)

• Fear of losing control or “going crazy”

• Fear of dying

• Paresthesia (numbness or tingling sensation)

• Chills or heat sensations

Risk Factors that Increase the Likelihood of Panic Attacks

• Family History – Anxiety disorders, including panic attacks, often run in families. Why this occurs is still unknown.

• Mental Health Issues – Those who have a history of anxiety disorders, depression or other mental illness are more prone to panic attacks.

• Substance abuse – Alcoholism and drug addiction can increase the risk of panic attacks.

Treating panic attacks

Antidepressants

Certain antidepressants can help reduce the frequency and severity of panic attacks. They include:

• Serotonin Selective Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs)

  • Fluoxetine (Prozac)

  • Paroxetine (Paxil)

• Serotonin-norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitors (SNRIs)

  • Duloxetine (Cymbalta)

  • Venlafaxine (Effexor)

• Tricyclic Antidepressants (TCAs)

  • Amitriptyline (Elavil)

  • Doxepin (Sinequan)

Emotional Freedom Technique:

EFT, also known as tapping, can be an effective way of treating panic attacks. EFT involves tapping on acupressure points on your own body in order to calm the amygdala, the fear center of the brain. The tapping allows for the Chi (emotional energy) to move more freely and bring a sense of relief and calm to the mind and body.

Tapping can be used prior to and during a panic attack to help prevent the panic attack from occurring and shortening its intensity and duration. EFT can be used with an experienced mental health practitioner to alleviate the source of the fear and pain, thus preventing the panic attacks from being experienced at all.

Leaving the Fear Behind and Living Your Life

Personally, I am grateful to have immediately started working with someone after I had my first panic attack, who had incorporated EFT into their practice. From that work, I was able to let go of the pain and emotion that I was holding onto for so many years. The panic attacks stopped fairly quickly. And I haven’t had one since the summer of 2018. Once I started going through the boxes of emotions I had been holding on to, I was able to let go of the weight that I was carrying around with me.

If you are suffering with panic attacks and you are ready to reclaim control over your mind and your body, then feel free to take advantage of the free tapping session that I offer to see if EFT and I are a good fit for you.