Panic Attacks: The Fear of Fear Itself

Many clients that I work with have either experienced panic attacks in the past or are currently experiencing them.

Panic attacks can feel very scary, almost as though they’re coming out of nowhere. The body’s alarm system has a trigger, but you don’t necessarily know what it is.

For some people, the very experience of having a panic attack feels extremely frightening, and so they become scared of them happening again.

When the fear starts to get in the way of life

When clients come to see me, it’s often at the point where panic attacks are getting in the way of work, socialising, and sometimes even reaching the point where they’re avoiding doing what they would normally do because they’re scared of having a panic attack.

Avoidance becomes that safety mechanism.

What I find helps clients is understanding what’s happening in the brain and body when we panic.

Understanding the purpose of fear, why our body responds to fear in that way, and physiologically what’s going on.

Starting to break down what’s happening physically enables people to begin to rationalise what’s happening in their body when a panic attack occurs.

It doesn’t take away how horrible it feels, but over time clients start to recognise:

This is my body’s fear response. This is the adrenaline. This is what I need to do to manage it.

Understanding the fear of fear itself

As people start to become less fearful of the actual panic attack, they can begin to notice what some of the triggers may be.

It may be a buildup of something, a sensitivity to their environment, or emotions that are trying to find another way out.

There are a number of factors that can contribute.

But as people start to become less fearful of the panic attack itself, they begin to get curious about those triggers and why their nervous system has become more wired for survival.

Because that’s what fear is. It’s a survival mechanism.

What can help?

Some key tools that can help with this are:

* Doing some research into what a panic attack is and what’s happening in the body.

* Understanding the nervous system’s response and what happens during fight, flight and freeze.

* Starting to note down some of the things you begin to recognise as triggers for your panic attacks.

* Breaking things down bit by bit, building your own understanding and awareness.

Awareness is key

The more aware we are, the more we can begin to change things.

We can’t always change a trigger, but we can certainly learn to manage our response.

Over time, it starts to feel less like panic attacks are coming out of nowhere and controlling life, and more about:

I understand what the triggers are. I understand what panic attacks are about. This is how I’m managing them.

Over time, the nervous system starts to re-adapt.

Clients begin to have more hope for what the future is going to look like, with less fear and less panic.