Retraining Your Brain Is Key To Overcoming Panic Attacks
Anyone who has experienced a panic attack knows that they can be extremely scary. Your heart pounds, your chest tightens, an overwhelming feeling that you must escape a danger overcomes you. Panic attacks seem to come out of nowhere. The good news is that overcoming panic attacks is possible.
Treating panic attacks requires a two-pronged approach. Changing your thinking, identifying mistaken thoughts, is part one. Exposure to what you fear is the second part. This treatment is called cognitive behavioral therapy or CBT.
Think of your panic attack like a burglar alarm that has gone off for no apparent reason. You have the code to disengage the burglar alarm. To do this, it is necessary to find out what thoughts you are misinterpreting as dangerous.
Had there been a real intruder and the alarm went off, all of the anxious feelings would make perfect sense. You would want your body on high alert so you could get away! But, there is not an intruder. Your body is responding to internal feelings – the exact feelings that would get you away from the intruder (if there was one). The anxiety and panic bounce off each other, increasing the strength of both until it is more than you can take. You need to stop the bouncing.
So one of the first things you should do is challenge the thoughts that feed the panic attack. Get a piece of paper and a pen. Divide it into three columns. Label the first column “body sensation, ” the second column as “misinterpreted thought, ” and the third column “alternative explanation.”
Now what you want to do is list out the body sensations you have during a panic attack. One feeling goes on one line. Now in the next column write down the thoughts going through your head during the attack. What is the danger? Finally, write down a possible alternate explanation for what you are thinking the danger is. With practice you will be able to challenge the validity of your thoughts whenever a panic attack appears without having to write everything out.
This will, over a few times, decrease your anxiety level and stop the misinterpreted thoughts in their tracks. What you are doing is replacing the false misinterpreted thoughts with what is actually true. You are re-teaching yourself that the feelings will not hurt you. They are harmless.
Meditation is well-known for its ability to calm the mind. It is a good complement to CBT. Make a list of several things you can do that will help you calm down if a panic attack hits. You might find going for a walk, watching a movie or working on your art calming.
You have just learned the basics of cognitive behavioral therapy. There is much more to it that a psychologist or other counselor can show you and help you learn to use it effectively. If you are struggling with overcoming panic attacks, investing some time learning CBT will definitely be beneficial to your long-term mental health.
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