What Is It?

Panic Attacks

Panic attacks are a sudden a heightened activation of the bodies central nervous system. This can occur unexpectedly during a calm state or in an anxious state. Although panic attacks can occur just on their own, it is not uncommon for individuals to experience panic attacks in the context of other psychological struggles. For example, someone with social anxiety might have a panic attack before giving a talk at a conference and someone with obsessive-compulsive disorder might have a panic attack when prevented from engaging in a ritual or compulsion.

Panic attacks are extremely unpleasant and can be very frightening. As a result, people who experience repeated panic attacks often become very worried about having another attack and may make changes to their lifestyle to avoid having panic attacks. For example, avoiding exercise to keep their heart rate low, or avoiding certain places.

Panic attacks tend to follow a similar pattern and the CBT way of working with one can be helpful for understanding what happens. Something begins to trigger the sympathetic nervous system which is used for dealing with threats, we can be aware of this trigger or sometimes we may not be aware. Following this, we notice what is physically happening with our bodies. That may be noticing a pounding heart, dizziness, shaking, sweating etc.

Crucially at this stage there is the interpretation phase. In this phase if we make a judgement of what’s happening: I’m having a heart attack, I’m dying, I’m going to faint etc. These erroneous yet seemingly plausible beliefs send a signal back to our nervous system which panics us more and vamps up the physical symptoms.

This happens in a feedback loop and the symptoms usually peak at about 10 minutes into a panic attack. It’s very important to learn to recognize a panic attack and learn to stop its progression. If left untreated a secondary disorder can develop, namely the fear of a possible panic attack.