Alcohol Abuse Advice

Stop Panic Attacks! A Primer for Hope

Panic attacks are no fun. Your heart races, you hyperventilate, feel dizzy or unreal and definitely terrified, sweat buckets (or shiver), think awful thoughts, and so on. Often panic attacks strike “out of the blue”–for no apparent reason. Sometimes they wake people at night.

Maybe a series of stresses chipped away at your sense of well-being and health. Maybe a terrible trauma knocked you off your feet. Maybe you don’t remember or know why you even became susceptible to panic attacks.

But you want to stop the panic. You want to get back to being “normal.” You want the cloud over your head to move away and the terror to leave. There are ways that have worked for many people of all different stripes and sizes. There are ways that can and will work for you. Do you believe that?

Unfortunately, you can’t just say “I believe” and it will all go away. At least not usually. But if you “want out” of the attacks, your belief can help you keep fighting through to end them.

It is a big step, for example, from thinking you are crazy or going to die to believing that your panic attack symptoms are not a sign of immediate harm. They do not accurately reflect any problem you might have.

Part of the problem with panic attacks is typically that your mind interprets your symptoms to mean something really bad is about to happen. You are anxious, so you have symptoms. The symptoms “prove” you should fear more. So more symptoms come, which increases fear, which causes more symptoms. Fear has a way of multiplying and magnifying itself. A state of anxiety can quickly accelerate into full blown panic. Your brain slams on the gas and accelerates into overdrive.

Understanding this is often a helpful first step to controlling panic. But more is needed. There are ways to retrain the brain to short-circuit inappropriate use of the fear accelerator. And such training is almost always a big help, if it is done right … with a little discipline.

But a word of caution or clarification. Think of your body, indeed all of whoever you are, as a complex, interconnected web of causes and effects. Hormones, nutrition, nerves, cellular waste, emotions, senses, genetic predisposition, human will, history of experiences, immune system, self-understanding — the whole ball of wax is like a set of nodes linked to other nodes. Any given node affects ever other one. Influence one node and in some degree you’ve influenced all. Your emotions affect your immune system. Your nutrition affects your emotions. Whatever.

I’m not saying we can never understand how to stop panic attacks. I am saying there may be more than one cause behind your attacks. And that there may be more than one way to improve.

Stresses in our particular circumstances may also need particular solutions. Financial problems, work stress, alcohol abuse, dysfunctional family relations, bullies at school, drugs, rejection, loss, trauma, and so on may need to be properly addressed to find relief caused in part from such sources.

That said, some approaches have proven to be more effective than others in most cases. A disciplined regimen of retraining your subconscious mind not to fear is one of them. Part of that may be practicing sincere gratitude even when stressed. Another is identifying and accepting fears. Avoidance encourages fear; facing fear helps control it. You may need some training and encouragement in this. But your mind is a powerful ally in unraveling your panic attack knot.

Note also that the effectiveness of a number of approaches varies with the causes and circumstances of the individual. Some prefer prescription anti-anxiety medication, if they feel the side effects are acceptable. Herbal substitutes to anti-anxiety drugs (like Kava Kava, Valerian, Hops, Lemon Balm, and Passionflower) and some nutritional supplements (like B-vitamins, vitamins C, and Magnesium) may be helpful and milder, with fewer side effects. Regular exercise, proper sleep and hydration, and avoidance of caffeine and alcohol may each play their helpful part.

In other words, there is hope for you to control and stop your anxiety and panic attacks. Just keep going.

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