By ‘panic attacks’ we mean periods of anxiety that last for a short period of time. A panic attack can be a sudden, overpowering feeling of fear or anxiety which prevents you from functioning properly, and it is often triggered by past or present sources of anxiety. For example, you may have experienced something in your childhood that made you fearful of heights. Someone today may have triggered that fear by asking you to climb, or you may have subconsciously called back whatever it was that caused your fear and caused yourself to have a panic attack.
To solve the problem and stop yourself having more panic attacks, you need a cognitive therapy like anxiety management training. Our intention is to help you develop self-control, self-confidence and self-management tools to combat anxiety or panic attacks.
You will learn some relaxation training and goal-rehearsal techniques, which are skills that will help you to manage anxiety and overcome your panic attacks.
You will be required to face up to your anxiety and the associated sensations, cognition and emotions which they make you feel. During the provoked anxiety experience, you will be asked not to give in to the negative thoughts and emotions which have previously provoked your panic attacks; instead, you will be asked to use explicit relaxation techniques and to focus on calming sensations. Picture some peaceful and calming images. Dispute your irrational ideas and try to focus on calming and relaxing thoughts.
Think about the things you fear. How do those things you fear make you feel? Write down your feelings directly resulting from those fears.
Rationalize your fears
Next, let’s attempt to rationalize your fears to help you overcome panic attacks. For example, if you fear heights, think about why you fear heights. Did you fall when you were a child? Did you climb a ladder and fall while completing a task as an adult? Think about why you fell. Think about the times you were above ground level and successfully made it back to the ground without falling and hurting yourself.
Has that begun to help you rationalize your fear and show you that the likelihood is that the things you fear will not actually harm you in any way? That is a major step toward overcoming panic attacks.
Next, we are going to help you develop some thought-stopping and/or thought-blocking strategies to help you overcome those feelings of anxiety caused by your fear which is what leads to your panic attacks. First, think back to the time when you first developed your fear. What thoughts occurred to you when you visualized the scene and that led up to your fear?
While you are visualizing the scene and the nonproductive thoughts it creates, imagine experiencing a loud sound or a sudden sensation that grabs your attention, e.g. a yell of ‘STOP!’, a handclap or the flicking of your wrists with a rubber band, etc.
Think clearly about what happens when you visualize the loud interruption to your negative thoughts. Notice what occurs when your self-destructive thinking is interrupted by the loud sound or sharp contact. Repeat the process, but this time, interrupt your own nonproductive thinking habits by asking someone to make a loud sound to abruptly interrupt your negative thinking, or again imagine the loud sounds interrupting you. How does that feel once the negative thinking is interrupted? Do you feel the sensation of panic receding?
Your goal in overcoming panic attacks now is to continue with creating overt interruptions to your negative, self-defeating thoughts as they occur. The thoughts that cause you panic will vanish in time if you work hard every day to eliminate the thinking patterns that hinder you from achieving your goals. You should practice each day summoning up the fear that you have and deliberately interrupting by imagining the loud sound of sudden sensation which startles you and breaks your pattern of negative thinking.
Next, you are going to start giving some more focused attention to the negative thoughts that preoccupy you and feed your panic attacks. You should think of two or three statements that combat the helplessness and the self-defeating nature of your negative thoughts and refute them. Follow up by recording your feelings when you heard the loud STOP command. Try to get in to a comfortable position and reflect on your negative thoughts which cause your panic attacks. Use a recorder to record your actions and voice, replay the recording to hear your reflections, and move on to provide some assertive, positive statements that contradict your negative thinking to help you overcome them. Repeat this procedure at least ten times or more daily until you get over your panic attacks.
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