Panic Facts Revealed!
Hello, my name is Panic. My last name is Attack. Most people call me by my plain old “Panic Attack” because it’s just easier to remember. I’m an insidious little critter that can creep up on you when you least expect it.
If left unchecked, I grow in power – particularly when you pretend I don’t exist. The more you try and fight me, the more I tighten my grasp.
I will tell you lies, distort your perceptions and can even make you terrified of going outdoors. Some people reach for drugs or alcohol to dull my presence.
What you don’t know is that I am vulnerable to 10 specific things that weaken my hold on you. When you engage in any of these, you chip away at my strength. And should you combine a few together, I go running for the hills.
I shouldn’t be telling you any of this but will do it anyway on a whim.
Are you ready? Let’s jump right in!
1. I am not as dangerous as you perceive me
One of my greatest strengths is twisting your perceptions. I can make you so terrified that you’ll think I will give you a heart attack. I can also put thoughts in your head that will cause to you believe you will stop breathing, faint and “go nuts”.
The reality is that I am firing off neurons in your brain’s amygdala that induce fear. Guess who trained me to do this? You. Keep reading.
2. I won’t make you faint
When I make my presence known, you may feel like you are about to faint. You might even get dizzy and start to depersonalize. I love it when you grab on to something to hold your balance – gotcha!
The truth is that in order to faint, your blood pressure must go down. When I’m around however, I make your heart pump fast and your blood pressure rapidly rise. I told you I was good at twisting the truth!
3. I have only as much control as you give me
Don’t you hate it when I start up my crap while you are with other people, like strangers at the grocery store? I usually do my best to make you feel off balance, disoriented and shaken. Just for fun, I can even make you feel like you are about to lose control.
Here is what’s irks me … when people acknowledge that I am just panic use tenants of acceptance and commitment therapy as a coping strategy. That’s so unfair because it totally ruins the intensity of my presence.
4. I can’t make you go crazy
It may seem like you are losing your mind when I am gathering strength but in truth, I won’t make you crazy. I wish I held the power to change a person’s entire mental schema from “normal” to “abnormal”. I simply don’t.
But I do love it during those brief moments where you actually think you are losing it! Haha! Pssst … Exposure therapy makes it worse for me!
5. I will eventually pass
It may seem like your feelings of fear will last forever when I kick into overdrive. I want you to think that! If you knew that my hold was temporary, usually peaking in 5-10 minutes, I wouldn’t be nearly as scary to you.
Did I mention that when you remind yourself that I will eventually go away that I hate it? Yep, I do because it means you are aware that I am not eternal.
6. I hate deep breathing with a passion
It is totally fun for me to sit and watch you freak out over something silly, like a spider or bird. That’s why my best buddy named “Specific Phobias” are so tight – because together we can really mess you up!
But if you have been taught how to mindfully breath and step out of fear and into the here and now, I start to wilt like a fall flower. Crap, I can’t believe I am telling you this!
7. Thought stopping doesn’t work on me
If you have been taught to snap a rubber band to magically make your scary, intrusive thoughts go away, I am here to tell you to keep on doing it. Guess why – it only makes me more powerful! If I told you to not think about spotted pink monkeys right now, how long can you hold off the imagery?
What does make me vulnerable is acknowledging that I am with you in that moment and then tapping into your five senses to center you in the moment.
So if you are panicking and suddenly begin to notice clouds in the sky, the air temperature and/or the sound of something in the distance, I become smaller. This is called mindfulness and it totally sucks for me!
8. I despise Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
The intensity of my powers can be found in your thoughts. When I can present lies to you in ways that make you believe they are the truth, I win!
But when you challenge what you are thinking and examine how thoughts can be distorted, I begin losing my inertia. One way this happens is through cognitive behavioral therapy – a kind of talk therapy that is all about examining how you think. Please don’t do this to me!
9. Your circle of support weakens me
My job of freaking you out is hard enough already. When you join with others in support groups, chats and meetings that focus on panic, it makes my job much more difficult.
There’s something disabling to me whenever you share your experiences with others who are going through the same thing. Can you try not to do this please?
10. Learning about me lessens my grip
When you take the time to learn about me, you drive a stake through my heart. Education about anxiety and panic means that people learn about things I prefer to keep you in the dark about, such as triggers and coping strategies.
If given my druthers, I’d just as well keep you hog tied and dumb. My pal depression feels pretty much the same way.
Final Thoughts
So there you have it – 10 things I never wanted you to know about me – your old friend Panic.
To keep it real, I recognize that I am about as popular as a porcupine in a balloon factory. Just don’t say I never did anything for you.
