| Module
1 : What are panic attacks?
The symptoms of a full blown panic attack include palpitations,
difficulty breathing, dizziness, sweating, trembling, nausea,
unsteadiness, a spaced-out feeling, and an intense apprehension
or fear that you may be in danger. Many experience an overwhelming
urge to run, feeling they would be safer outside or at home.
An attack can occur almost anywhere, while
doing something routine, or during a moment of peak stress.
It is common for them to happen only at night, waking people
from sleep. They may last from a couple of minutes to an hour
on average, but many hover ‘on the verge’ of having
one for longer. They vary in regularity, usually occurring
unexpectedly and without much warning, several times a day,
every few weeks or only a few times a year. They may disappear
without treatment, but most need some medical intervention.
A period of hyper-vigilance follows the
first attack, and watchful of another immanent attack, many
fear having a heart attack, going mad, losing control, or
being publicly humiliated. They begin to phobically avoid
triggers, isolate themselves socially, and put their lives
on hold. Secrecy, shame and stigma thrives, and depression
is common.
Module 2 :
What Causes Panic Attacks?
Whenever our identity is threatened, the fear hormone- adrenaline-
enters our bloodstream to help us rise to the challenge. Physical
survival is brought into question by assaults and rapes, car
accidents, operations, and bereavements, and panic is common
after these.
Changes in consciousness can be threatening
for some, such as occur during drug-induced altered states,
and also in out-of-body, near-death experiences and spiritual
openings.
Threats to our social role can follow separation
and divorce, financial failure, demotion, exam failure, or
professional loss of stature. When the opinion of others is
perceived as crucial, then its possible loss will instil fear,
and adrenaline will climb to panic levels.
The factor predisposing some to panic attacks
following these life events and others only to nervousness
or milder levels of anxiety is that panickers fear the very
symptoms themselves. They misinterpret them as dangerous or
harmful, making them a threat in themselves.
Module 3 :
Behind The Scenes of a Panic Attack.
No specific chemical abnormality has been identified, but
a hyper-aroused nervous system has, in the form of the fight
or flight response, in which certain hormones, mainly adrenaline,
are manufactured in large amounts if you perceive yourself
to be threatened. the symptoms you experience as panic, (
or anxiety if in smaller amounts) are caused by these hormones.
They target your primitive brain, which
can be counted on to bypass logic and get you to safety, acting
like the security system on your house. As such their aim
is protective, but in those who are prone to panic, the racing
heart or rapid breathing is misinterpreted as harmful, as
they have become conditioned to anticipate them in a fearful
way. the vicious cycle of fear and hyper-alertness will only
be broken when a new relationship is formed with the sensations.
In post traumatic stress disorder this response
is stuck in ‘on’ mode with the individual continuing
to experience the past trauma over and over relentlessly until
the event is integrated.
Module 4 :
Learning to Reduce Nervous System Arousal.
Much of the fear of an attack comes from the notion that they
are incontrollable and unpredictable. Once you have the tools
required to reliable reduce the intensity if the symptoms
by means other than running, you feel safer and more in control.
If you learn to predict their onset, you can catch them earlier
and head them off.
Developing the ability to witness, or be
aware of the different components of panic, allows you to
break it down into parts, or bite-sized pieces. Keeping records
of your thoughts, the physical sensations, and what actions
you take, yields much useful information which helps to track
back to the very first whispers of an attack, and realise
what the initial trigger might be.
Panic is a reaction to something, not the
cause. It is the end-point of a series of internal events,
and has a beginning, middle and end. It makes a tremendous
difference if you can intervene at the beginning, rather than
trying to dampen down a response at its peak.
Module 5 :
Breathing Techniques and Muscle Relaxation.
As many as 60-70% of those who panic have a pattern of breathing
known as hyperventilation, which is too fast and too shallow.
This habit is responsible for many of the symptoms of panic,
particularly dizziness or lightheadedness. learning slower
abdominal breathing is an essential tool for reducing levels
of adrenaline, as used in anti-natal classes for decades,
and by many stage performers trying to control stress.
High muscle tension is also a factor in
panic, responsible for the trembling and unsteadiness,. Learning
to become aware of and relax tense muscles sends powerful
messages back to your brain to cease producing adrenaline.
It also benefits sleep and concentration.
Module 6 :
Calming Your Frantic Mind.
The kind of thoughts we have during an emergency are over-the-top
and exaggerated for a reason, to make us take precautions
of a similar nature. However, catastrophising and over-estimating
about the chances of a disaster happening, such as experiencing
a heart attack or a nervous breakdown, stopping breathing
or losing control and going berserk, only serve to increase
fear levels.
Thoughts can lie, and beliefs are not facts.
You must learn to regard them as guesses or theories, and
challenge them with sound medical evidence. then you can have
choice about whether to be frightened or not. "What would
happen if…?" can then change to "If it did,
which is highly unlikely for the following reasons, I would
….".
Meditation is a practice which helps train
your mind to look at thoughts from a more distant perspective,
giving you the space to asses them rather than automatically
reacting.
Module 7 :
Phobias – Facing Your Fear.
Many begin avoiding situations and activities which they know
from experience will trigger an attack, and in this way a
phobia is born. To them this is the only way they know of
not having to suffer the sensations they fear so much. However
once there are some skills in place where once there was terror,
the notion of not having to escape is redundant, and staying
becomes an option. In this way their ‘comfort zone’
widens to once again include all the normal activities they
had stopped doing.
Slowly and by degrees, phobics can learn
to re-engage with the triggering situations, dampening the
sensations as they arise, and gaining confidence in their
ability to endure them, certain that they are at all times
safe.
Module 8 ;
The Chakra System.
The chakras are best understood as being seven major electro-magnetic
centres running from the crown to the base of the spine. Their
purpose is to draw in and channel the life-force to every
aspect of our mind-body-spirit organism. Each physical, emotional,
mental, and spiritual function is mediated through the chakra
system.
Certain energetic patterns in the chakra
system are clearly identifiable during a panic attack. A knowledge
of how to work with this energetic system is a vital tool
in learning to eliminate attacks.
Module 9 :
Emergency Drill for During An Attack.
When you feel an attack is immanent, and your mind becomes
scrambled with "what is it I’m supposed to do?"
thoughts, it helps to have a ‘drill’or shorhand
version that contains all your tools ‘in a nutshell’
and which if followed will ease the intensity of any panic
attack.
Module 10
: Medication, Homeopathy, Acupuncture and Body Therapies.
Anxiety-lowering drugs such as Valium and Zanax, act by dampening
down nervous system activity. They don’t affect the
core problem in any curative way, but rather mask its expression.
They reflect an attitude of needing to avoid the sensations
at all costs, which measn the underlyoing fear of them still
persists. This can mean that the motivation to learn control
and reveal the source beliefs behind the sensations is lessened.
So it is a short-term solution, and should ideally, like anti-depressants,
by only used as an adjunct to psychotherapy and general adrenaline
management.
Certain homeopathic remedies target the
individual nature of those who panic, ‘worriers’,
those who fear illness or death specifically, and those with
overactive imaginations who catastrophise easily.
Acupuncture, massage and cranio-sacral balancing
can defuse an overexcited nervous system, allowing the overall
adrenaline level to fall.
|
