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Good day, friends! If you are interested in the title of the article, then panic fear has a direct impact on your life or on the lives of people close and dear to you. An attack of paralyzing terror can happen only once. It is worth taking preventive measures in time so that this condition does not become the norm. If such situations occur periodically, then psychotherapeutic and sometimes medication treatment may be needed. In no case should you ignore unreasonable fear. The consequences of neglecting one’s own psyche can be quite serious. Therefore, it is worth learning the basic ways to overcome negative experiences.
How to define panic fear?
Not every fear is classified as a panic attack, so the ability to define this disorder is important. In order not to confuse the protective mechanism, which in reality is a feeling of fear with the symptoms of a painful condition, it is worth focusing on the following related points:
- Derealization — manifested in the feeling of unreality of what is happening. It may be a feeling of retardation of perception. Vision of the surrounding reality through haze or fog, perception of close sound signals by distant ones, and so on.
- Anxiety — causes an increase in blood pressure and an increase in heart rate.
- Pre-fainting or loss of consciousness. You may also have difficulty focusing your eyes or keeping them on one object.
- Sleep disturbance in the form of abrupt and disturbing awakenings is a characteristic feeling that you are falling into an abyss. It is also possible the occurrence of various deceptive perceptions during falling asleep, and on the border of sleep and wakefulness — visual and auditory illusions.
- The emergence of fears of death, insanity, loss of control over one’s own behavior, leading to harm to oneself or others.
Many people, when faced with similar conditions during panic attacks, begin to fear for the safety of their psyche and go to see a psychiatrist with a ready-made diagnosis of schizophrenia. It is important to understand that this is a condition that does not always require treatment. Most often, you can get by with a course of psychotherapy or the normalization of your life.
What specific steps to take for this — we will consider further.
Your own way of deliverance
Living without fear is entirely possible, even if you have been diagnosed with panic attacks. The sooner you begin to take active steps to overcome them, the higher the likelihood that attacks of fear will not activate existing phobias, complexes and will not contribute to the development of an anxious or depressive state.
For the sake of fairness, we note that the process of full recovery is long, it requires efforts from a person at once on several levels. This is due to the fact that seizures affect the psychological and physiological component of the personality.
Physiology
Basic recommendations regarding the physiological side:
- Improving health at the physical level and mentally, strengthening the nervous and muscular systems. It has been proven that the worse the physical condition of the human body, the harder it is for him to process stress. Accumulated nervous experiences, in turn, can find a surge in causeless fears.
- It is recommended to start by giving up bad habits and undergoing a general examination in order to identify possible chronic diseases and concentrate on their treatment. It will not be superfluous to take a vitamin course to strengthen the nervous system in order to increase its resistance to environmental influences.
- Sports activities must be included in the usual rhythm. Moreover, it is not so much the intensity that is important, but the consistency and regularity of training. Physical activity takes away excess energy and helps to discharge nervous tension. Even if playing sports does not completely remove panic attacks, it significantly weakens them. They turn them into experiences of mild anxiety.
- Sleep and wake patterns should be adjusted so that a person wakes up and goes to bed every day at about the same time. Sleep is the main source of replenishment of physical and mental energy. Its stability and predictability removes one stress factor from the whole organism.
- Systematization of the diet helps to get rid of the chemical causes that stimulate bouts of fear. Various energy drinks (tea, coffee, alcohol, sweet soda and energy drinks) are contraindicated. They stimulate the appearance of vegetative signs of fear. Our nervous system is designed in such a way that if all organs work, as with fear (increased blood pressure, increased heart rate), then the brain regards this as a feeling of anxiety or even horror. Approximately the same function is performed by carbohydrates and sugar, as well as dense food just before bedtime.
Many are helped by the implementation of recommendations regarding their physical condition, and often it is enough to adjust one point and panic attacks disappear. So, a person who has chronic lack of sleep, having slept in good conditions, can completely forget about the problem of emerging fears.
Read these articles about a healthy lifestyle.
Psychology
The performance of actions that provide psychological regulation is usually more difficult. However, they still need to be performed, especially if the root cause is not in physiology.
Tips for getting rid of bouts of fear in terms of psychology:
- Identify and eliminate stress factors, the accumulation of which leads to destabilization of the nervous system and, as a result, to the emergence of fears. Panic attacks can be born against the background of unlived experiences. Or as a defensive reaction to conditions that are psychologically unbearable. In this context, you can balance nutrition as much as you like. But if a person continues to be in frustrating circumstances, then panic attacks will return.
Naturally, it is impossible to secure a stress-free life, but it is necessary to solve or distance yourself from the most traumatic problems.
- Work with existing specific fears. The less a person has unprocessed phobias, the less likely the occurrence of unreasonable experiences. In this case, they simply have nothing to cling to. In addition, periodically coping with old fears, confidence is formed in one’s own ability to overcome new ones, stability and a resolution strategy are developed.
- A common variant of the disease is the fear of fear, i.e. new seizures. The best advice for overcoming it is to focus on your experiences in the present moment. You can use the techniques of rationalization and drawing up a plan of action in the event of such a condition. Moreover, this plan needs to be drawn up only once and immediately return to reality, and not scroll through it in your head in anticipation of implementation. Be sure that at the right time you will remember everything.
- Various sedatives and infusions can help. But! They can not be prescribed independently, but can be taken only on the recommendation of a doctor. It is also good to do various relaxing practices — meditation, yoga, swimming, walking in the park or forest, listening to classical music, and more.
If self-regulation of the psychological state has not yielded results or work with fears reaches a dead end, it is necessary to seek help from a specialist — a psychotherapist. It usually takes 1 to 5 sessions to see noticeable improvements.
What to do during an attack?
All of these methods are aimed at overcoming panic fear in general and preventing its occurrence in the future. The following techniques will give an understanding of how to get rid of an attack as soon as possible and stop its development:
- Proper breathing can reduce the intensity of an attack. Usually, with fear, hyperventilation of the lungs often occurs, due to which there is a feeling of derealization or loss of consciousness. The other extreme is holding the breath, which prevents the experience of emotions and blocks the flow of energy. Proper breathing should be of medium depth, and exhalation should be 2 times longer than inhalation.
- Physical activity helps to expend a sharp surge of adrenaline. If, when you feel the beginning of an attack, sit down or walk at an accelerated pace a couple of times, there are great chances of stopping it at the very beginning. If it was not possible to respond quickly, due to activity, the intensity of experiences and impact on the physical level decreases. Only it is worth limiting your movements in the trajectory. Running mileage in unknown terrain or among the crowd is not a good idea. Ideally, alternately tense and relax different muscle groups while in place.
- Distraction works great with sudden-onset fears. To do this, you need to concentrate your attention on some nearest object, preferably within reach. It can be the surface of a bench or the fabric of your own clothes. The more details and features you can find in this item, the better. This technique distracts from what is happening in a large room and helps not to get lost. And then gradually, as calmness increases, the radius of attention can be expanded.
Conclusion
Panic attacks are not a sentence, they can always be overcome. Good luck in this business!
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Also, I recommend reading an article about seasonal affective disorder, perhaps it will be useful to you.
Until next time!