Believe me, I know what you’re feeling!

In a heartbeat, I can summon up that old familiar sense of dread that turns the heart into a jackhammer. For example, one time when I walked into a gross anatomy lab, I knew it was the day my attending doctor (who was my supervisor) was going to hit me with a barrage of questions.

Borrowing the grief in advance of the dreaded experience, I began perspiring. Soon I felt dizzy and my heart was racing. And, then I learned to pick apart the panic attack, step by step. In analyzing the situation, I remembered that I had been obsessing even before I arrived about my knowledge compared to that of my peers, who often seemed to know more. I pounded myself with negative self-talk:  ”They study more and are better informed on the material we’re supposed to know. I know I’ll be humiliated today because I won’t know the answers. I am such a misfit because all the others know exactly what they want. The doctor evaluating me will notice that I am ill-prepared and will judge me.”

In retrospect, studying the negative thoughts, I saw why I felt so anxious. I went from feeling bad to feeling worse. And I was the one brewing up the awful thoughts - not anyone else! In fact, I never once experienced ridicule at the hand of an instructor. However, I was plagued by the belief (and panicky feeling) that soon, it was going to happen. It was, in fact, long overdue.

A helpful technique when a recurring situation makes you anxious is scrutinizing the entire chain of thoughts. Try to figure out what caused the low, worrisome mood. Write down how you felt and what stirred that feeling. Eventually, this insight will help you understand what sets off your bouts of anxiety, making you better able to cope.

What I found was that the very thoughts that seemed to make sense in my head looked totally ridiculous and illogical on paper. Having pinpointed my distorted thoughts, I was able to move them into my consciousness. There, I could work on altering them. Monitoring self-talk soon became a habit. I increased my self-confidence by practicing positive mantras that said, “So what if someone knows more than I do, and so what if I answer a question wrong?” Look at the blackest possible outcome of any situation, and generally, you’ll find that it is something you CAN deal with. It may not be what you would like to have happen, but it’s not the apocalypse, either.

Consider the possibility that your colleagues are also afraid, poorly prepared, or unfocused. Remind yourself that the formidable world- against-you theory is not an accurate perception. Just like you, the smartest kid in your class or coworker at your job has off days when he or she fails to perform at his best - and that’s all right. No one should expect to be a prime performer every single moment of every day - it’s a false and overly demanding expectation. (By the way, avoid the cliched practice of telling your child daily “do your best,” because it sends the message that you expect him to be peak performing all the time, and he can only fall short of that expectation. Far better to tell him to enjoy his day.) Of course, it’s fine to encourage your child to do well, but you don’t want him to think that he has to be operating at 100 percent all of the time. Being at the top of her game consistently simply won’t happen, and he may worry about disappointing you.

It can progress to being so numb you can’t move your fingers or speak. I have seen this happen to a young girl taken from her job to an ambulance. She was ok but it caused her to quit her job that she had worked at for 6 years and she almost did not finish college because of a fear of another panic attack, especially while driving.

Her young active life was put on hold for quite awhile. She became like an old person with too many health problems to really have a quality of life anymore.

What could possibly cause such drastic symptoms in a healthy person? As Joe Barry, the creator of the best selling PANIC AWAY PROGRAM puts it, “The short and obvious answer: panic attacks are caused by high anxiety. But what exactly is anxiety? Understanding how anxiety crops up will help you defeat panic attacks.”

The definition of anxiety is the state of apprehension or fear resulting from the anticipation of a real or imagined threat, event, or situation. So reading between the lines, anticipation is a major culprit in this debilitating state of awareness. If you can get rid of the anticipation or fear, then you will have it licked. It is easier said than done but with some help, it is highly doable. With symptoms like these…

*fast heart beat

*dizziness

*blurred vision

*breathlessness

*tingling or numbness in hands, feet or face

*impaired speech

*seeing stars

*suffocating feeling

*nausea

*dry mouth

*trembling

*aches and pains

…and many more symptoms too numerous to list.

Ironically, anxiety is a built in automatic response to protect us from danger. In the case of an anxiety attack the danger is not real but only perceived by the mind. But that still does not stop the sympathetic nervous system from overreacting and causing the “fight or flight” response that is responsible for the unusual sensations throughout the body.

Many things can trigger a panic attack besides fear and apprehension.

Some are…

1. Artificial light

2. Computer Monitors

3. Television screens

4. Food allergies

5. Fatigue

6. Stress

7. Sugar

8. Caffeine

9. Alcohol

Through a relaxation technique the parasympathetic nervous system can step in and return the body to a calm relaxed state once again. Eventually the parasympathetic nervous system perceives that there is no real danger and learns to keep calm even though a person may be in anticipation or fear.

Disturbing or debilitating symptoms tell you that you’re probably suffering from anxiety or a panic disorder, and that puts you in the company of hordes of fellow sufferers. Anxiety disorders are the most common of all emotional disorders, according to the National Institute of Mental Health, the federal agency that conducts and supports research related to mental disorders, mental health, and the brain. In fact, these maladies are so widespread that mental health experts have named social anxiety the “Disorder of the Decade.“

Some people are so paralyzed by anxiety that it keeps them from trying new things, taking trips, even doing simple things like riding the subway or going on elevators. Others become so crippled that it is virtually impossible for them to talk to their bosses, give presentations, or ask for dates. Of the 19 million Americans who suffer from anxiety and panic disorders, many admit that they rarely see a glimmer of hope, much less imagine any kind of joie de vivre.

Anxiety sends some people to doctors for solutions. For many, drug therapy is effective, which has made medications for chronic anxiety the most routinely prescribed drugs in our society. Unfortunately, reliance on drugs can make people postpone dealing with their issues. And of the 30 million-plus who take anxiety and panic-curbing medications, more than four million are addicted. However, only certain types of anti anxiety medicines are considered to have addictive potential.

Some physicians think that these specific drugs only aggravate the very conditions they’re designed to remedy, as they can create a spiral effect. The sufferer seeks the medication, uses it to get through the specified stressor, but then finds it impossible to tackle that stressor or similar ones without the aid of medication. This can stir up even more anxiety; the individual becomes so reliant on the drug that the mere thought of approaching the “angst situation” without a mood smoothing medication cranks up the stress to even higher levels.

Obviously, this roller-coaster effect is bad for your health. Used with or without drug therapy, your best option for coping with long-term anxiety is learning new ways to respond to your fears. Behavior-modification therapy - changing your reactions to things that frighten you - can have life-altering effects. You can learn to use panic-handling skills routinely with or without anxiety and panic medication. What you need depends on the severity of your problem.

If yours is crippling, you’ll definitely need to have a physician’s help in setting up your plan because you’ll probably require medication at the outset of treatment. The American Psychiatric Association reports that more than 19 million Americans experience anxiety-disorder symptoms. These include overwhelming feelings of panic and fear, uncontrollable obsessive thoughts, intrusive memories, recurring nightmares, and physical reactions (nausea, migraines, muscle tension, sweating, among others). Often, these problems pop up unexpectedly - seemingly without any reason - and hang around to create disturbances. In other people, there’s a specific trigger - a feared situation or thing.