Question:
I become so mentally paralyzed during an attack I can't bring cognitive coping techniques
into play to help myself.This one symptom is the one I have the greatest difficulty in
coping with.
How do I Deal With It?
Answer:
I'm not sure why you are calling that a "specific panic symptom"
...frankly, that is pretty much an across-the-board symptom for most
people. The body symptoms can be so severe it is impossible for the
person to think their way out of the attack. Typically the witches
brew of body chemisty brought on by a panic attack (cortisol, lactic
acid and adrenoline) will be burned off by the body within 20-40
minutes of the onset of an attack. So doing nothing will result in the
symptoms subsiding within that time frame only to leave you totally
terrified and exhausted from having had the experience.
This is the reason many Doctors Rx a short term anti-anxiety
medication. The medication reduces the severity or eliminates the
panic attacks long enough for the patient to "hear" clearly and learn
the cognitive behavioral skills that may be quite useful to them.
If you are willing to try PST (Positive Self Talk) as a coping skill,
it is imperative that you disarm the attack through your thought
processes. Almost ALL panic attacks start with a negative thought, and
escalate because more and more negative thoughts are piled up on top of
one another.
Typical internal dialogue might look like, "Uh oh...I'm feeling dizzy,
the last time I felt like this my heart started to palpitate, and I
started to sweat."
You can almost set your watch to how the panic attack will escalate
because of that self talk and become worse....at which time the self
talk will continue. "Oh my god, this is getting worse, I feel like I am
going to pass out, or vomit or flip out all at the same time.....Oh
NO..it's happening again."
By this time the panic is usually in full force and the talk continues,
"oh god, please help me I feel like I'm going to die, maybe I have a
brain tumor, or a heart condition and nobody found it, I can't take
this anymore, I have to get out of here."
It is helpful to understand that there is a LOT of internal dialogue
going on almost continually throughout a panic attack. The key is if
the mind can speak to itself negatively which has been proven to cause
and sustain panic attacks, the mind can use that same time to speak
positive things instead. This is the hallmark of cognitive behavioral
therapy.
The negative self talk is very powerful, it has been perfected over a
pretty long period of time for most people. The anxiety sufferer must
work very hard to exchange positive talk for negative at all times. It
is even suggested that the patient lie to themselves about how they are
feeling. Sort of like a fake it till you make it ideology.
So, the concept of saying to the self, "these feelings will not harm
me, I am not dying"...most importantly the exquisite question, "What is
the evidence that these feelings will do damage to me and how come all
of the symptoms subside or disappear entirely when I feel I'm in a safe
place?"
It is important to keep a record of how you feel and where you are when
you feel it. If these symptoms appear when you are alone and not when
you are with someone...it must be noted that the absence of negative
self talk while with others is essentially a cure! If these symptoms
occur while in the supermarket and not anywhere else, somewhere along
the line the negative self talk has made supermarkets responsible for
the feelings...and we all know there is no evidence that supermarkets
hold some secret power over people.
In my personal experience, having a full blown panic attack only makes
me reach for the ativan..or xanax. I can't ever seem to 'talk myself'
out of a panic attack. When I feel that I am going to die, then my only
hope is the bottle of ativan or xanax. A prayer also helps. If I have
a panic attack in public, and I forgot to bring with me a few pills of
ativan or xanax, I will become scared, which makes the panic worse, but
the worse thing I want is for someone to call the cops and ambulance.
That will only make the panic worse. I need a place to get away from
people and relax and pray if I don't have the drugs to help calm me
down. Therefore, whenever I go out, I doubly make sure I have some
pills with me. This is my particular case, but I am sure that there are
many who can 'talk' themselves out of a panic attack. I , sad to say,
am to weak minded to do this when I feel like I am about to die.
