Understanding Panic Attacks and Overcoming Fear (eBook)

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PANIC: THE LIFE-CHANGING EVENT

“I would gladly have sold my soul to the devil for just one day of complete health. I would unhesitatingly have given away everything I had to anyone who could have guaranteed just twenty-four hours of normal health.”

“I have been a sufferer for almost twenty-nine years, since I was serving with the Royal Navy. Of course, I don’t have to tell you the hell that I have existed in.”

“I see a man hobbling past my house on crutches, a cripple for life, and I actually envy him.”

What are these people talking about? Why are they so desperate? What is it that is so bad that they would envy a man on crutches? The answer is panic anxiety.

We all know what anxiety is like – before an exam, when we have to give an important speech, reaching the finals in a sports event, or going to the dentist. But when anxiety breaks through into a person’s life in a really powerful way and there seems to be no good reason for it, that is different. Daily life, work, and relationships can get more and more disrupted by these unpleasant feelings that cannot be controlled.

LIKE LIVING IN HELL

It can really begin to feel like living in hell as sufferers twist and turn, trying to shake off these feelings. People with panic anxiety often say that it is impossible for others to understand what they are going through, “like explaining the colour red to a blind person”. The frustrating thing is that once they seemed to be leading an ordinary life. Then one day panic struck, and everything changed. Now they live in dread of unbearable panic feelings and wonder if they will ever get back to normal again.

These are descriptions of people who have had panic attacks. No two people describe it in quite the same way. For some, it is the heart palpitations that are unbearable, for others dizzy sensations or feeling unreal, and for others difficulty in breathing or choking sensations. But they all share one thing. Their lives have been devastated by panic anxiety. One attack on a fateful day turned their life around and took it in a direction they did not want or choose. It made them look inwards at themselves rather than outwards. It put a strain on their relationships. It was a daily source of dread.

WHAT IS A PANIC ATTACK?

Throughout the centuries people have suffered from panic attacks. In sixteenth-century France, they called them terreur panique. One English writer described panic attacks in 1603 as “sudden foolish frights, without any certeine cause, which they call panique terrores”. Sigmund Freud was one of the first to give an accurate description of panic attacks in 1884, calling them “anxiety attacks” rather than panic attacks. Panic attacks were fairly much ignored by the medical and psychological professions until a century later. In 1980, the American Psychiatric Association included “panic attacks” in their Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, a sort of psychiatrist’s Bible for diagnosing emotional problems. The definition in this manual has become the accepted standard of what a panic attack is. The updated manual of 20001 states that the following thirteen sensations are the main ones to occur in panic attacks:

• palpitations, pounding heart, or accelerated heart rate
• sweating
• trembling or shaking
• shortness of breath or smothering sensations
• feeling of choking
• chest pain or discomfort
• feeling nauseous or having a nervous tummy
• dizziness, unsteadiness, or faintness
• feeling unreal or “depersonalized” (feeling detached from oneself)
• fear of loss of control or going crazy
• fear of dying
• numbness or tingling feelings
• chills or hot flushes.

To qualify as a panic attack, four of these feelings (any four) have to start suddenly, unexpectedly, and reach a peak within a ten-minute period. There should be no obvious life-threatening situation setting them off.

Many sufferers experience more than four sensations. The sort of sensations they notice may not be exactly the same one week as another week. What bothers one person may not bother another. The term “limited panic attacks” is used when someone suffers from only one or two of these feelings out of the blue. I am saying “only” one or two, but this gives the wrong impression, because for these people one or two of these sensations catching them unawares can be worrying, aggravating, and frequent enough to spoil their lives.

CAN I BE NORMAL IF I HAVE PANIC ATTACKS?

Although the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual has been very useful in drawing attention to panic attacks, it has been unhelpful in another way. The manual invented the term “panic disorder” for people who regularly have panic attacks or live in fear of panic. While it may be useful to have a medical-sounding name for insurance claims, it unfortunately gives the impression that the person is suffering from some sort of medical illness or disease, which panic is not.

Panic attacks can be explained by normal psychological processes occurring in a normal mind. They can be explained with reference to the unhealthy way people have learned to cope with life’s stresses, their lack of knowledge and misunderstanding of what is going on in their bodies, and their fear of what might happen to them. Fear, lack of knowledge, and misunderstanding are common to all humanity and have nothing to do with illness.

CAN FEAR AND PANIC BE OVERCOME?

Many sufferers have looked for help from different quarters. Some go to their own doctor and are helped by the drugs they have been prescribed. Some get referred on to specialist cardiologists or neurologists, believing that they are suffering from a physical disease, and are left confused when nothing is found. Others seek the advice of friends, go for counselling, or turn to the clergy. Some find their way to short-term relief by using alcohol. Some scrape along – somehow coping but never living life to the full. For others, nothing seems to work – it is like living in a nightmare.

But is it possible to change? Can the feelings disappear? Can life be normal again? The answer is yes, it is possible to change – not overnight, but it is possible. This book is written to help people through the maze of panic symptoms and to emerge at the other side free from their domination. It is certainly not easy, or quick, but it definitely is possible.

WHO IS THIS BOOK WRITTEN FOR?

It is written for three groups of people.

• It is a self-help guide for panic sufferers; this is its main purpose.2
• It is intended to help relatives, partners, and friends of panic sufferers to understand their problems and to provide informed help to the sufferer. Usually these people suffer too, because the problem is so baffling and they are never sure of the right way to react to the sufferer. Should they be firm, sympathetic, or what? Is it illness or weakness, or is the sufferer overreacting?
• It is also designed for therapists to use alongside their therapy sessions. For about four years before publication of the first edition, I gave clients early versions of Chapters 4 to 8 to read between sessions. It can help in backing up what the therapist has said. Clients often find that written material helps them in digesting the information and adds to the therapy.
        Therapists vary greatly in the approach they take to problems. Although this book is primarily cognitive behavioural in orientation, I have tried to bear this in mind – different therapists will find that different sections in the book complement their own approach. In this case, they need only direct their clients to the sections they feel are relevant.

CAN PEOPLE HELP THEMSELVES?

One of the worst problems about panic and anxiety is not knowing what is happening. I have called this book Understanding Panic Attacks and Overcoming Fear...