Panic Treatment
Therapy for Panic Attacks
Are You Tired of Panic Attacks Taking Over Your Life?
Do any of these sound familiar?
- You often have sudden rushes of intense, overwhelming anxiety
- You find yourself constantly on edge, worried about when your next panic attack will hit
- You find your world getting smaller as you avoid (or dread) anything that’s triggered a panic attack in the past
- You find yourself making sure that you always have an exit strategy or a backup plan, just in case panic strikes
- You’ve gone to the ER because you felt like you were dying, only to be told that it was “only” anxiety
Every one of us is designed to have a fight-or-flight response that keeps us safe from real danger. Sometimes, however, this system can get confused and start setting off “false alarms” – i.e., panic attacks. Although not actually harmful to our bodies, panic attacks can feel incredibly scary and uncomfortable, to say the least.
Panic attacks can have many different symptoms, including:
- Shakiness
- Dizziness
- Tunnel vision
- Excessive sweating
- Pounding or racing heart
- Feeling like you are choking
- Pain or pressure in your chest
- Nausea or stomach upset
- Feeling lightheaded or faint
- Numbness or tingling
- Chills or feeling suddenly hot/flushed
- Feeling like you can’t get enough air or catch your breath
- Feeling like you’re going to lose control or “go crazy”
- Feeling like your surroundings aren’t real
- Feeling like you aren’t real
- Feeling like you might die
Check out the screening tool below if you are wondering if you might have Panic Disorder.
If you experience panic, you are not alone. According to the Anxiety & Depression Association of America, 6 million adults (2.7%) in the US alone are affected by Panic Disorder. Panic attacks can occur in response to a specific trigger or stressor, or it may come seemingly out of the blue.
If you have panic you might experience:
- Panic attacks when you feel stressed
- Panic attacks while driving
- Panic while at work or school
- Panic while “relaxing” at home
- Nocturnal panic attacks (i.e., panicking out of sleep)
What Causes Panic Disorder?
Panic Disorder develops when your fear of having a panic attack starts to negatively affect the rest of your life. In general, most anxiety is caused by a combination of two main factors: genetics and environment. What does this mean?
First, you may have inherited a greater likelihood of developing anxiety or panic from your biological parents. Just like green eyes or brown hair, anxiety is something that can be passed down from one generation to the next. Like other traits, however, just because your parent has a hooked nose or anxiety, that doesn’t mean that you are destined to.
Second, the way that you learned to handle anxiety growing up may have made your anxiety worse over time. For example, if you had a parent or caregiver that worried about everything all the time, then you may have picked up this habit from them. Or if you learned as a child that avoiding certain things helped you to feel better, then this may have solidified your anxiety around those things. Unfortunately, what tends to help us to feel better in the short-term often makes anxiety worse in the long-run!
The good news is that whether you were born with anxiety or you picked it up along the way, therapy can help you learn how to cope with your anxiety more effectively and stop letting it interfere with your life.
What Does Treatment for Panic Attacks Look Like?
Are you ready to stop letting panic and anxiety get in the way of your life? Fortunately, panic is very treatable! Below are the 3 main types of treatment that I use in counseling for panic attacks.
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP)
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) helps you break your cycle of anxiety and face your fears in gradual steps.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on breaking unhelpful patterns in your thinking and acting and finding more effective ways of being.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) incorporates mindfulness and acceptance strategies to help you be more present and bring your life more in line with your values.
Treating panic includes a specific kind of exposures called interoceptives. These are exercises to help your brain gradually get used to different sensations in your body so that they don’t trigger a panic attack. Panic treatment is both effective and relatively quick. My goal is to give you the tools you need to start enjoying your life again as quickly as possible.
So What Next?
For some immediate tools, you can check out my article “How to Survive a Panic Attack in 5 Simple Steps.”
If you’re feeling trapped by panic and ready to break out of your comfort zone, I encourage you to reach out for help! If you’re ready to take your life back from extreme anxiety, I would love to help you learn the tools to do so.
Let's talk!
If you’d like to talk about how I could help you with your panic, please feel free to reach out!