A panic disorder is a devastating condition that can really affect a person’s life. The fact that it’s not life-threatening does not diminish its seriousness. If you suffer from panic attacks, it’s crucial that you learn how to deal with them. In this article we’ll discuss how to do that.
If you want to be successful in dealing with your panic problem, you must first try to understand your problem. That is the key. You must see what panic attacks really are and what they are not. The latter is actually equally important, so let’s focus on that first.
Let’s see what they are not. I said earlier that they are not life-threatening. This is a very important point. They will not harm you and they will not kill you. Always try to remember this, because it can help you a lot. How can this help you? If you understand that they cannot hurt you in any serious way, you will learn to fear them much less.
With that out of the way, let’s take a closer look at our subject – panic attacks. What is their function? What do they do, what is the purpose of their existence? Well, this is probably going to sound strange, but their main function is to protect you.
In order to understand this we must talk about the fight or flight response. We all have this biological alarm system, it’s a part of who we are. And parts of this innate response are also many basic physiological and psychological reactions. All together they form what we say is a panic attack.
Why is there no magic pill for all this? It’s quite simple. You can’t switch off all those basic physiological and psychological functions. They are a fundamental part of you. This is not like fighting a virus or bacteria. Actually, the core of the problem are not panic attacks themselves, it’s something else.
The core of the problem is the unfortunate fact that they are triggered at inappropriate times. That’s your main problem – not the alarm itself, but its oversensitive trigger. And that is the issue that you have to address.
See tips for dealing with panic attacks for more information on the subject. Also check overcoming panic attacks.