Panic Attacks and Things That Go Bump in the Night Written by Dr. Dorothy McCoy
Panic attacks are extremely frightening. Panic sufferers often believe they are having a heart attack and they dash to their physician or end up in an emergency room. Which is exactly what they should do. An accurate diagnosis is first step in relieving panic attacks. A diagnosis is vital, because panic attacks mimic a number of potentially serious medical conditions. The next step is treatment. No one should have to endure repeated episodes of distressing panic. Furthermore, early treatment may prevent condition from becoming chronic. Not all panic attacks are created equal. The symptoms are unique to individual sufferer. However, according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of American Psychiatric Association, typical symptoms are:Racing or pounding heart Sweating, flushing or feeling chilled Chest pains or tightness Difficulty getting your breath, or a sense of smothering or choking Dizziness, light-headedness, tingling or numbness Trembling or shaking Nausea or abdominal discomfort Fear of losing control Sometimes panic attacks appear to come out of blue without rhyme or reason. This is not true with a phobia, such as agoraphobia, which has a distinctive pattern. Agoraphobics may have an attack in situations from which escape is difficult or embarrassing (i.e., on a bridge, a crowded theater). Someone who is fearful of flying may have a panic attack while entering an airplane, or perhaps, while contemplating a flight. The person could then become frightened by ¡§idea¡¨ of having another panic attack. The panic attack itself becomes feared event. He or she begins to avoid situations that are associated with attacks. This can become a distressing pattern from which it is difficult to break free. Cognitive theorists believe that our thoughts create our anxiety. Consider these examples for a moment. A professional athlete consistently felt his chest constrict and his heart pound whenever he passed through a tunnel. A woman walking her dog in a park, a few blocks from her home, suddenly felt faint. If one were to ask athlete what he thought immediately before symptoms began, he might say, ¡§Tunnels can collapse. If this one collapses I will be buried alive. I won¡¦t be able to breathe. I will suffocate.¡¨ As he envisaged potential engineering blunders, a visualization of a collapsing tunnel abruptly flashed through his mind. He gasped for breath. Let¡¦s return to woman in park. She might answer, if asked about her thoughts before she felt faint, ¡§I am too far from home to cry out if someone jumped from bushes and grabbed me. No one would hear me. I could be killed.¡¨ Simultaneously, she visualized a huge Neanderthal of a man lunging for her. It is very likely that their thoughts and visualizations contributed material to which they reacted. According to Aaron T. Beck (1976), we can learn to ¡§observe that a thought links eternal stimulus with emotional response.¡¨ In other words, ¡§tunnel¡¨ does not signal danger, until thought ¡§it will collapse¡¨ links to it--stimulating emotional response--anxiety.
| | Faith Does Move Mountains!Written by Lisa van den Berg
It never ceases to amaze me.There you are going about your normal day and you suddenly realize that you’re very worried about something. It sort of creeps up on you when you feel muscles in your shoulders bunch up and you can’t seem to get enough sleep, no matter how hard you try. Do you know signs that tell you when you’ve had enough? No? Well, learning to recognize them will be a fundamental first step to helping you to come to grips with your life. Some people can’t sleep, some get incredibly tense shoulder and back muscles, some get irritable and snappy, some cry and go all weak. Regardless of what signs are, you need to get to know what does it for you. When you learn to recognize that stress load you’re putting on yourself is getting to be too much for your body to handle, stop and analyze your situation. It is far better to sort out your problems, fears and anxieties than to let them keep on stressing you out. Any of above symptoms is your body’s way of alerting you to fact that you need to take action to resolve situation, before there are serious repercussions. It is trying to tell you to slow down and sort out whatever is happening so that you can get rid of some of load and let it repair itself. In her brilliant book ‘Feel Fear…And Do It Anyway!’ Dr Susan Jeffers says that it is far easier to face what you fear than living with burden of your fear. Once problem is faced and resolved, a huge weight is lifted from your shoulders and you allow yourself to see brighter side of things. You sleep better, thus getting more rest and allowing your body and mind to heal. You can free up some thinking time to keep your mind focused on goals you’ve set rather than worrying about past or future.
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