Panic Attacks 101

By: Selma Lewis
What Are Panic Attacks and What Can You Do?

A Panic Attack Experience

The woman show host looked at me expectantly as the commercial finished and asked me a question— I couldn’t hear her, it was like I was underwater and her question came to me blurrily from somewhere far in the distance. Even though I knew what I wanted to talk about, I couldn’t even speak my name— only a wisp of a voice came out. With my heart-beat racing, and my breath erratic, I wondered how I did this to myself...

Can you imagine finding yourself in an on-the-air radio studio and being tongue tied, struck by panic and frozen with stage fright? Maybe you can, maybe you can’t, because panic attacks and anxiety attacks can take many forms and be triggered by many things— they have to be assessed case by case. In this post, we explore:

What panic attacks are, specifically, and how they differ from anxiety attacks.
The symptoms of panic and anxiety attacks.
Some of the potential causes of panic and anxiety attacks.
Simply ways to tame your thoughts and manage panic and anxiety— even prevent them!

What is an Anxiety or Panic Attack?

In comparison to anxiety attacks, which can build in intensity due to external situations such as work stress and driving in heavy traffic— panic attacks appear suddenly and with great intensity without warning. Panic attacks can come with many symptoms such as:

Fear of dying
Freezing up
Sweating
Shortness of breath
Chest pain
Dizziness
Heart palpitations
Dissociation from one’s self

Panic attacks, like anxiety attacks, can occur anytime and anywhere, both frequently and infrequently, immobilizing you from taking any further action.

You can experience both anxiety and a panic attack at the same time too. For example, when the radio show panic attack occurred, I was in graduate school, and it hit me out of the blue. I was stressed and anxious leading to the event but it was during the radio show interview that the onset of panic overtook me.

It was a humiliating experience as the host ended the segment and took pity on me. I made the decision that I wasn’t good enough to speak anywhere, turning down many opportunities. Over the years, I realize it wasn’t my intelligence that failed me—it was my ability to manage stress— one of the key causes of my anxiety and panic attacks.

What Causes Panic Attacks?

For me, it was accumulated stress in my life. For others it could be witnessing traumatic events as a child or an adult, dealing with physical health challenges (e.g. chronic disease), or substance abuse.

Some research suggests that it is a fight-flight response to a perceived danger, even though in many cases, there is no rational threat to safety such as being in the presence of a grizzly bear, for example.

But regardless of the cause, I (and many of my clients) have come to discover that you can tame your anxious thoughts, make your brain a friend, and use your energies to express excitement and excellence, not overwhelm, panic, or anxiety.

Ways to Reduce Anxiety and Prevent Panic Attacks

I am a trained psychotherapist and a hypnotherapist. Over the decades of working with 1000s of patients, I have been repeatedly impressed at how quickly the simplest mind techniques and practices can be for calming fears, reducing anxieties, preventing panic attacks, and instilling a sense of lasting calm, peace, and confidence. Here are some effective ways to reduce and prevent panic attacks:

Hypnosis— some hypnotic exercises are so seemingly simply you might even scoff thinking it can help you— try this 5-minute force field technique, for example.
Yoga— yoga is a mind-body discipline that requires you focus where you are placing your body parts and synchronizing your breath with movement. This focus helps create the one pointedness of mind, allowing us to relax from our habitual thoughts and fears.
Breathe-work— humans can survive 2 months without food, 2 weeks without water, and about 2 minutes without air—deepening your breathing is a great way to relax, recover, and balance your energies. When I practised breathwork in school, I was able to stay relaxed even though the school’s marching band was practising under our window!
Meditation— meditation is also a part of yoga practice. The brain is a muscle and just like any muscle, you can train it to do what you want. For example, I sometimes use guided imagery to instill greater calm and relaxation, and to withdraw my attention from distractions in the outer world. Imagine being able to relax fast anywhere, anytime— in our fast paced world, this is an asset!

Think about where these practices would fit in your life and start today!

Thank you for reading, and have a great life :)

“Imagine the calmer you, the inner you that knows life can be better.”- Selma Lewis