One of the most important factors to consider when you are looking to deal with panic attacks, are the physiological effects of a panic attack on your body. I have already detailed in my deal with panic attacks article the twelve most common causes of panic attacks, and how to finally cure your panic attacks. But woven up within each of those is the actual effects that you have to deal with in your own body. A panic attack may feel like something that is happening “to you” and that you are an observer in your own body. But the very real truth is that this is a case of a mind-body interaction.
You Can Learn To Deal With Panic Attacks…
You may think that the panic attack is some kind of disease that you need to get rid of. But in fact, it is actually a protective mechanism. In the same way that your body sends you pain in your knee when you fall over and graze it. It is basically saying to you. ”Hey! Your knee has a problem. Go fix it!” So there is generally something underlying the panic attack that needs to be dealt with on a psychological level if you are going to have success in totally eliminating panic attacks for good.
All that isn’t to say that you don’t want to stop panic attacks. Of course you do. But you need to tackle head on why they are happening. There is no point in trying to put a band aid over a gaping would. You first need to treat the wound, but at the same time deal with how you came to have it in the first place.
A good place to start with learning to deal with panic attacks is to understand the physiological progression of a panic attack.
You can think of the panic attack as a kind of process with causes and effects. If you were painting a visual picture of what’s going on than a step by panic attack might look something like this:
The Eight Step Panic Attack Model To
Begin To Learn How To Deal With Panic Attacks
1/ You suddenly feel a rush of fear for no discernable reason. You are having a panic attack.
2/ You get a rush of adrenaline and your body goes into fight or flight mode.
3/ Your heart rate goes up, you are likely to sweat more and even have a shortness of breath.
4/ Your body is geared up for strenuous activity. But because none is forthcoming the hyperventilation you are experiencing may in turn progress to a fall in the carbon dioxide level in your lungs and then your blood.
5/ As the carbon dioxide levels in your blood then the PH of your blood can alter, and you will then start to feel additional symptoms like dizziness, light-headedness and tingling and numbness in your limbs and extremities which can be extremely uncomfortable.
6/ All the while this is going on your body is being flooded with adrenaline. This vasoconstriction in your veins, and hence a little less blood flow to your brain which in turn adds to any dizzy or lightheaded sensations you are experiencing.
7/ Because your body is in fight or flight mode it thinks you are about to do some activity that requires a lot of physical energy. And as glucose is a primary body fuel, your body starts to draw blood sugar away from your brain, and instead re-directs it to your big muscles groups.
8/ All the while your physical symptoms are feeding off each other so that you may be hyperventilating, or having problems catching your breath. And as you do so it has the effect of increasing your anxiety levels and almost forming a kind of feedback loop that starts the whole process again. Hence the fact that panic attacks can often come in waves.
Now that you understand the eight step model of panic attacks. Do something about getting rid of them!