NO MORE PANIC ATTACKS!!!

You’ve decided it’s time to stop spending your Saturday nights on the couch with a pint of mint chocolate chip watching reruns of your favorite sitcom. All your friends and family tell you to start going out and meeting people. It has been years since your last serious relationship and you wonder where your life is going. There’s only one problem, you’re afraid to leave the house.

Agoraphobia is the fear of what could possibly happen when outside the safety of your own home. In most cases, it manifests itself in the form of panic attacks, the result of stepping outside of your comfort zone. This is “anxiety” at its best. Obviously it doesn’t bring out your best, but how can you overcome it when you don’t even know how or why it started?

Before taking anyone’s advice you should always seek the advice of a medical or psychological professional. What I am telling you is based on my personal experience. Given that we all have different experiences, you should rule out any clinically diagnosed phobias or mental conditions before taking me up on my 2 cents.

Clinical or not, it’s all about control. You feel that since you are in control of where you go and what you do, then you can prevent these fears from happening. You think you fear the events that may happen while out, when in actuality what you are really afraid of, is the feelings you get, the fear itself. Think about it, it happens while simply getting out of your car approaching a social situation, sitting across the table from your blind date, a stop at the mall to return some merchandise, simple everyday activities become fearful events that bring on horrible panic attacks. As soon as you realize what you are doing, where you are going and/or where you are your heart begins to race, you start to sweat, you feel as if you are going to be sick, everything becomes hazy, you become dizzy, you think you are losing control, going crazy or dying and you feel that everyone is noticing your hysteria. Sometimes these symptoms begin even before you leave the house, simply thinking about leaving can bring it on. So long as you stay in your house, you think you will be fine. The truth is, the more you avoid these situations, the WORSE your symptoms and their frequency will be and ultimately it will become chronic. And the longer it goes on, the harder it is to put an end to it, because we are creatures of habit, and our habits can consume us if we don’t nip it. What you need to know is that the fear is not the places or the people, although you may think so, it is the fear of the symptoms that will strike (which guess what people, THAT is fear itself, all the ones I listed above, are the symptoms of FEAR).

Too often people are misdiagnosed, and the fault is just as much the physician as it is the patient. The patients’ desperation for resolving these “symptoms” pressures the physician to DO something to resolve the problem. Referrals to therapists and specialists take you on a parade from office to office. Prescriptions for one medication, which brings little to no relief leads you to request another, and another, and then you end up right back where you started, and whats worse, you still have not resolved your problem, all the while suffering from side effects and maybe even dependancy. We live in a society of instant gratification, which is counter effective for curing anxiety and its symptoms. YES it can be cured, but as long as it has taken to develop, can be as long as it will take to get rid of, but if you try hard enough, it can be significantly shorter than that (because anxiety in reality can develop over a lifetime, or simply over a matter of months after a traumatic event).

There are several different classifications of anxiety, different reasons why it happens, it could be a traumatic event, a sensitive personality or simply a biochemical imbalance.  All this you can learn by seeing a doctor or reading books on the subject or simply googling. My intention is not to be your mental conditions professor, its to help you try to feel better. And right now, what triggers all your attacks is fear. It doesn’t matter what you are afraid of, if you think a plane will crash on you or that you will have a heart attack or become sick and vulnerable in public or get hit by a car, because the point is that although these are things that sound awful and can be logically scary or embarrassing, one has to realize that they are irrational fear, that the fact that it could happen to you every day is highly unlikely, and the fear you experience while thinking about these possibilities is brought on by your own thoughts, and your THOUGHTS are responsible for your attacks.  

We’ve all heard the expressions associated with the concept of facing your fears; but let’s face it (no pun intended) the majority of us may want to think of ourselves as self motivated, determined individuals that have it all together. However at some point, we could all use a little help. According to studies and statistics over 19.1 million Americans between the ages of 18 and 54 suffer with some form of anxiety disorder. Many suffered or will suffer an entire lifetime with anxiety. These are unfortunate statistics because the answer is quite simple, however the execution, as with many things, is the hardest piece of the puzzle. Most if not all anxiety sufferers want to put it to rest (an eternal rest to be more accurate) but the majorities do not know how to go about it, or become frustrated that their attempts have failed.

According to Wikipedia, fear is “the emotional response to a perceived threat”.  And common sense tells us, that anything one does not understand has the potential to threaten us. Lack of understanding how something works, instills fear, because the little we know about their positive affects, we know even less about the adverse affects. Therefore the key to conquering it is simply knowing, open mindedness, understanding, and most importantly, accepting. It’s the same reason many professions that require high skill and graduate degrees require internship, because the only way it can be truly mastered is through PRACTICE. It is that hard and that easy at the same time. You can read and do research all about anxiety. You can visit your therapist 3 times a week, you can talk to all your friends about it and have many shoulders to cry on, but if you don’t FACE it when it is happening, if you don’t do what makes you feel uncomfortable and live through it and ACCEPT it, as much as you hate it, you will never overcome it.

When I said it’s about control, I meant giving up control, not keeping it. The attempt to stay in control becomes a struggle and when it comes to your conscious mind and your subconscious mind, sub wins. This is why it happens even when you are “not thinking about it” or thinking about what you are afraid of. In essence your subconscious mind is your autopilot. It’s in control even when you are not aware of it. Therefore the best way to be in control is to give up control and simply accept what is happening at the very moment. When you realize that the only thing you can control is your reaction, then you will begin to live your life without fear. But in order to start you have to face the music, go places even when you don’t want to, meet people even if the thought of it scares you, try new things, even when you KNOW it could happen, ACCEPT it, be BRAVE, stare it in the face and when you feel that little pitter pat in your heart and you know that it’s about to start say to yourself in a tone of friendly competition “what, you again? Okay, bring it on”. Funny imagery helps, for instance you can think of it as a little lapdog that you know can’t really hurt you but behaves as if he can devour you. By understanding and KNOWING that it cannot physically harm you, you win (note, it is the LONG term effects of chronic anxiety and panic attacks that can eventually take its toll on your physical health, so nip it early knowing that in the mean time it’s nothing your body can’t handle). By riding it out, letting go of control, letting it happen and as ironic as it sounds, remaining calm through the storm, evidently the attack will seem shorter in duration and less harmful. Eventually they will become less intense, shorter lasting and less frequent, until they disappear all together. As long as you give something importance, it will be a key factor in your life, if you let it be, you let it go and you will have set yourself free. Buddha said it best when he said “the greatest meditation is a mind that lets go”.

I am not a physician or a therapist or an expert, I am a person, who once suffered with panic attacks and agoraphobia for a little over 4 years.  I overcame it without medication or professional help that was as successful as my own determination (I had already seen 3 different therapists, no one did a better job at curing me than me, so save yourself the time and money and love yourself, even if it has to be tough love). For me it all began when I was 19 years old and I overcame my struggle that felt never ending gradually by the time I was 23. As a result, I feel a natural obligation to help you, the readers, by providing information, guidance and relational stories as you work your way towards the finish line (and you WILL get there, but only if you want to).