Panic Attacks
Anxiety often results from worrying about a forthcoming event or social situation and anticipating a negative outcome.
This can lead to a full-blown 'panic attack' which can be a frightening and traumatic experience in itself. If you suffer from repeated panic attacks, it may be worth considering hypnotherapy as a treatment.
If you always thought positively and expected a positive outcome to all future events you would be free from anxiety. Excessive and extreme anxiety can often result in a panic attack, which in some cases can be so severe that the sufferer thinks they are having a heart attack, when the body is actually experiencing the 'fight or flight' response. This is a subconscious protective response to being under threat.
Whereas phobias have a specific trigger, be it a spider, a dog, heights, open spaces, or being trapped, panic attacks can occur at the most unlikely times and for no apparent reason.
The symptoms of a panic attack include:
- pounding heart
- rapid breathing
- muscle tension
- sweaty palms
- a dry mouth
These symptoms can be so distressing and uncomfortable that you may have developed a fear of panic attacks - 'a fear of the fear'.
It appears that the brain creates a 'pattern matching' response. In other words, it becomes coded through its previous memories and experiences and therefore expects the same response to the panic trigger when faced with it in the future.
Utilising modern hypnotherapy techniques and combining them with Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) the 'pattern matching' in the brain can be interrupted and a new code established so that the mind can respond differently in the future. By programming the mind to think more positively and by learning simple relaxation techniques, in a short time the subconscious mind can learn to come to terms with anxiety and only activate the 'fight- flight' response when under a real threat as opposed to an imaginary threat.
Panic attacks can also be a symptom of 'Post Traumatic Stress Disorder' (PTSD), the symptoms of which can also be minimized by the use of techniques such as EMDR and EFT.
If you suffer from panic attacks or any other anxiety-related disorders, contact thespencepractice for information on how we can help you.
Read feedback from clients we have helped to deal with panic attacks.
