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Monday, March 23, 2009

Listen to the Panic

Your heart starts pounding, you feel sick to your stomach and you wonder if you’re having a heart attack. You rush to the Emergency Room…and the physicians rule out a cardiac event. This is a relief, but you wonder what the heck happened. Something happened, for sure. The medical personnel may tell you that you just had a panic attack.

There’s no “just” to panic attacks. Individuals who struggle with this overwhelming experience are typically consumed by the fear that they’ll have another attack. They worry about this until the worry becomes as bad as the attack. If you’ve been in this spot, you may find yourself avoiding situations that might trigger a panic attack, but these might have come out of the blue. You have can see no reason why you feel the way you feel.

Panic usually comes from one of two angles. The more common of these is that, for some reason, life suddenly seems to be more than you can handle. You doubt your own ability to manage even the slightest challenges and you feel paralyzed. Individuals with this experience are usually confused, saying that earlier in their lives, they felt fine. They will also report that life has, in the last few years or months, dealt them some blows. Failed relationships, an illness or the death of a loved one. Sometimes, all of these at once.

In these circumstances, a wave has crashed over your head and you don’t feel capable of coping. You might have been “the strong one” in your family or at your job. Suddenly, you can’t go to the grocery store without your windpipe constricting. You might feel overwhelmingly anxious driving on the highway and start narrowing your life until home is the only place you feel safe.

Some suffers of panic disorder still maintain jobs and must function despite their distress. Some are accustomed to being in charge in many areas of their lives and not spending a lot of time worrying. On the other end of the continuum, some people with panic disorder have always doubted themselves. While the experience of panic is similar for both, the underlying psychological causes can be different.

Highly-competent, very logical individuals have had a tendency not to listen to, or be concerned about, their emotional experience. They’ve told themselves to “get over it” when fear and worry spring up and they’ve marched on, doing what they’ve had to do. Until now.

Panic disorder can be treated. Some individuals rely on medication to calm their anxieties and this can be a tremendous benefit, but the best long-term method is in dealing with the source of the issue. The greater majority of panic disorder suffers need to prove to themselves that they can handle even very difficult life situations. They tend to disregard successes and fasten on their failures as proof that they are weak and incapable.

The process of reclaiming your life will require you to do some things that scare the spit out of you. You have to risk in order to prove to yourself that you can handle it. Looking at and changing non-productive behavior increases your odds of success.

You can do this. Don’t give up. This doesn’t have to rule your life. You can listen to your feelings(and need to) without being ruled by them.