Panic attacks - An explanation based on practical experience - Diseases & Traumas - Well Being

Let's start with the theory and work our way to the practical examples. If you search for panic attacks, you will find the following theory on Wikipedia:

Anxiety disorder is a collective term for mental disorders associated with anxiety, the common feature of which is excessive, exaggerated fear reactions in the absence of a real external threat.

A rough distinction is made between two forms:

1. Diffuse, nonspecific anxiety occurs spontaneously and randomly and has no situation or object as a trigger.

2. Phobias (from ancient Greek φόβος phóbos "flight; fear, terror"), on the other hand, are focused on concrete things and tied to specific triggering objects, situations, or spaces (for example, animals, people, or lack of space).

According to the experts, the following are possible causes of panic attacks and trigger them:

(Chronic) Increased stress.
Existing mental illnesses such as depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Fears and phobias (e.g. agoraphobia, claustrophobia or fear of spiders)
Stressful life events.
Anxious personality traits.

What is happening exactly in the body when a panic attack arises

It takes a trigger to trigger the panic attack. This can be completely different depending on the person. The trigger gives the body the (wrong) sign of danger. This causes the body to release the stress hormone adrenaline.

This also causes the blood vessels to constrict - so during panic attacks, blood pressure rises, the heart beats faster and palpitations can occur. At the same time, the adrenaline causes the lung vessels to open (if there is real danger, you would now have to run away or fight, and for this to happen, more oxygen must enter the body.

The classic symptoms of a panic attack are:

Respiratory distress.
Drowsiness.
Feeling of insecurity, feeling of fainting, weak knees, dizziness.
Palpitations or irregular heartbeat.
Shaking or trembling.
Sweating.
Cramping of the extremities such as hands and feet

According to immediate panic attack help, the following tips can help reduce or avoid a panic attack:

1. Sleep and diet. Make sure you get enough sleep and eat a healthy diet.
2. Sports and exercise.
3. Think positive.
4. Mindfulness exercises.
5. Back to nature.
6. Relaxation.
7. Confide.

The practical experience of a trauma therapist

The clients who have come to me with panic attacks, if you go back to the worst moments of a panic attack, all had underlying trauma stored in their bodies that wanted to be faced.

These traumatic experiences could have come from a wide variety of memories. This varied from memories of a car accident, sexual abuse, exam stress, being overwhelmed growing up in school, losing a loved one, accidents from their own child, lack of love from their parents, stored memories from their ancestral lineage of war zones, to karmic entanglements from past lives.

However, one thing is absolutely clear to me as a healer. Whenever someone has a panic attack, this physical reaction wants to say something. It wants to draw attention to unprocessed information, which could not be processed correctly in the body, because at the time of the experience, the autonomic nervous system was overloaded and was not able to transform what happened, filing it away into the subconscious. If you manage to find and process this event, it is no longer necessary for the body to fabricate further panic attacks.

PS: You know someone who suffers from panic attacks or you are affected yourself, but you can't find a suitable therapist in your area? Write to me. I will be happy to help you find someone suitable for you.