Hints That Panic and Anxiety May Run In Your Family
By: Elizabeth Stafford

You know, even back in the seventies and eighties people weren’t going around admitting that they’d had a panic attack. Earlier in the twentieth century if you would have told people about your sudden rushes of overwhelming intense fear, you would probably have been treated alot differently than you are today. Not that we’re treated with respect or anything, we’re just not thrown into institutions and left alone for the rest of our lives.

They were called nervous breakdowns. They were called mental fatigue. They were blamed on too much stress, or not enough to occupy your mind. “Idle hands make an idle mind.”

So, here are a few things to look for in your family history to see if maybe somewhere, someone might have been having panic attacks and not been able to mention it.

I’ll go right away for the grandmothers out there. I see alot of this.

“My grandmother rarely ever left the house, she didn’t drive, my grandfather took her everywhere.” “My grandmother would sometimes need to go lay down in another room suddenly during a family dinner or something.”, “My grandmother was such a nervous lady, always tugging at her sweater or biting her lip.”

But it’s not just grandmothers. It’s the men, too. Men had an even harder time of admitting to the horror of panic.

Alcohol masked alot of it for men. For some reason it was much easier to drink away the fear of a panic attack than it was to admit that they were scared. I don’t have the answers to why this is, and maybe I’m wrong, but my father drank to mask his panic attacks, in fact, throughout my family is a history of addiction to prescription drugs and alcohol, starting in the person’s early twenties and continuing on throughout their life.

My grandfather had panic attacks, but it wasn’t considered manly or “normal” to be afraid. He was a nervous, rushed man, always drove furiously to get where he NEEDED to go. He kept his finances and paperwork in impeccable order so he’d only have to drive into town when necessary.

From the things I’ve read, listened to and experienced, even today men mask the fact that they’re panicky. My father in law can’t stay in a large store too long before he needs to go out to the car. My stepfather is the same way. They both start to fidget, get hot, then they get a panicked look about them then start yelling that the stores are too damn hot and crowded and they’re going out to the GD car.

My sister can’t sit in a traffic jam at night, she gets “claustrophobic” she says, but then she commences to describe a panic attack to me.

My grandmother MUSt be home before dark. She starts to show classic signs of a panic attack if dusk even attempts to come within an hour and she’s not in her car headed home. Her eyes get wide, her lips are smashed together…I see she’s holding her breath and clutching at her throat.

“Oh, she’s always been like that.” everyone says.

Uh huh. But you make

fun of the fact that I have panic attacks…oh, yeah…that makes sense. Why not just get in grandma’s face and make fun of her, too, while you’re at it?

I’ve heard of guys who refuse to go to dance clubs. They say that they get this weird feeling in their heart when the bass starts booming and so they just have to leave. I believe everyone with panic attacks has thought that a booming bass was messing with their heart at some point. Okay, okay, so maybe this one’s a stretch, but in there somewhere are the symptoms of a panic attack.

Some people say that strobe lights freak them out. “I just dont’ like them, I can’t be around them or I feel funny, I just have to get away from them.” Oh, well, that’s different then, huh? Nope, sounds like panic to me.

So look around in your family, there are lots of little signs and tip-offs. A relative who needs a drink before they can go out. A relative who “needs a pill just to get out of the bed in the morning.” One who is a homebody. One that can’t be left alone. An aunt that is always fidgety and never stays long at those family picnics. That “strange uncle Bill” who suddenly became a near hermit in his twenties.

If all else fails, ask your parents or your grandparents. People love to talk about relatives, I think it’s part of human nature for some reason.

Just know that you’re not alone with this, it reaches back through your family no doubt, and it reaches around the world. This isn’t something that you made happen, it was waiting in you, waiting for the right trigger to make it happen. In some people it’s there, but it never gets triggered, they never have a panic attack, or they do have one or two, but somehow life is such that they don’t stop to dwell on it and it subsides once again. Like I said, this isn’t your fault and it doesn’t make you a bad person. I wouldn’t say that my grandmother is a loser, and I know for a fact that she has panic attacks, I’ve seen her in the midst of one, but she doesn’t know it … oddly enough. I’ve seen people on the street in New York City having panic attacks, if you know what to look for you can spot them easily…I wouldn’t say any of them are losers either.

You are an amazing wonderful person, this is the point that I am trying to make. Make the most out of your life so that someday you can turn to your grandchildren and talk to them about all of your whacky relatives and how when you were having your panic attacks you thought you’d never get through it, but you did because you wanted to accomplish so much in life, all for the love you had for yourself and your family. And then they’ll smile hoping that they can be as incredible as you are.

Elizabeth Stafford

http://www.bellatango.com

lisastafford@gmail.com

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Panic Attacks and Panic Attack Symptoms Can be Eased with Hypnosis
By: Loretta Sernekos

Panic attacks are usually brief although the sufferer may feel that they last forever. From an emotional perspective panic attack symptoms may include feelings of intense fear an overwhelming sense of doom being out of control or a sense of unreality. The sufferers thoughts may race and jump about without any logic or consistency.

Physical panic attack symptoms may include some or all of the following sensations:

Racing or pounding heart; palpitations

Difficulty breathing or tightness in the chest

Shallow rapid breathing

A choking feeling

Severe trembling or shaking

A rapid pulse rate

Sweating

A brief body temperature rise

Chest pain

Dizziness or lightheadedness

Nausea

Fear of losing control

Tingling or numbness in the extremities

A feeling of not being physically anchored.

A panic attack may leave the person feeling utterly exhausted afterward. This may be caused by the flood of adrenaline and other stress hormones released when the panic attack starts. These fight or flight hormones cause an enormous output of the bodys energy resources. When the attack is over exhaustion ensues as the body tries to recover.

Many people who experience panic attack symptoms initially think they are having a heart attack. They may run to an emergency room or call an ambulance only to be told no physical ailments have caused the intense feelings sensations and other symptoms. Over time the sufferer may feel as if he or she is losing his or her mind.

It is hard to overestimate the debilitating and widespread effects of these attacks. People who suffer from panic attacks often live in fear of the next attack especially since they can be unpredictable. The attacks seem random and unwarranted and the sufferer worries they may have an attack when they are out among other people or while driving or in other worrisome situations. Panic attack victims sometimes become reclusive or agoraphobic (afraid to leave their home); they may lose important relationships and friends. These types of coping skills arise because of the randomness of the panic attacks. The person having the panic attacks withdraws from social interaction because they fear being around other people when the panic attack starts. The fear of losing control in public and of not being able to stop the attack adds to the negative impact the panic attacks have on the persons life.

Thus we have the vicious circle aspect of panic attacks: the fear of panic attacks leads to anxiety about the possibility of a panic attack occurring randomly which can lead to a fullblown panic attack. Often patients cannot lead normal lives and end up on disability unable to maintain a job. The panic attacks and panic attack symptoms literally control their lives.

How can hypnosis help with panic attacks and panic attack symptoms The key reason hypnosis can help with panic attacks is that fears anxieties and in fact all emotions originate in the subconscious. The subconscious also controls involuntary physical functions such as heart beat respiration etc. Hypnosis works in the realm of the subconscious. Therefore the good news is that the subconscious mind can be retrained to reinterpret both fear responses and panicinducing situations. There is a good chance that the person can use his mind to eventually free himself from panic attacks completely.

A hypnotherapist will usually take multiple approaches to working with a panic attack sufferer.* For example the person may be taught physical and mental relaxation techniques (important for calming the racing heart and other physical panic attack symptoms) selfhypnosis visualization and guided

imagery to use when he or she feels a panic attack approaching. The panic attack sufferer may be taught how to reinterpret sensations and feelings so that the early stages of the panic attack do not escalate and become fullblown.

Deep focused breathing techniques may be taught by the hypnotherapist. Breathing techniques are a deceptively simple way to help panic attacks. Not only does focused deep breathing help distract the persons mind from the fear but it also has a powerful subconscious effect. We usually think of breathing as a totally automatic process. But when we bring our attention to our breathing we can easily change the pace and depth of our breathing. This sends the subconscious a reassuring and powerful message: You are in control. You can control this panic attack. Further deep breathing can help reverse the effects of shallow rapid panicked breathing. It can increase oxygen flow to the brain which can help restore calm logical thought processes.

Hypnosis techniques may also focus on reassuring the subconscious mind that it is safe to release the fear and/or anxiety. Panic attacks may arise from a part of the subconscious that believes it is keeping the person safe by sending them the message to panic. In other words some part of the subconscious may think it senses danger or it may simply want the person to be alert to danger. So it sends messages to the persons conscious mind regarding extreme fear doom etc. to insure that the person is paying attention. This part of the subconscious needs to feel reassured that the person has other ways of remaining safe cautious etc. Then it can be persuaded to release the fear response. To accomplish this goal the hypnotherapist may use complementary therapies such as NeuroLinguistic Programming (NLP) which is a form of waking hypnosis or conversational hypnosis.

Sometimes a small amount of emotional relief can by given to the panic attack sufferer by simply explaining that his panic attack symptoms are not crazy insane or irrational. Instead the symptoms seem rational from the perspective of that part of his subconscious that wants him to be alert to danger and ultimately safe. Once the person understands the problem at a deeper level he or she may begin to feel that he or she is not going crazy. This is one small step in the journey back to emotional wellness.

It should be emphasized that it may take multiple hypnosis sessions for the panic attack sufferer to feel some relief. Over time he or she will begin to feel more in control and empowered to stop a panic attack and its accompanying symptoms before they become overwhelming and/or debilitating. Eventually he or she may be able to completely eliminate panic attacks.

*Hypnosis is not a substitute for medical pharmaceutical or mental health treatment of panic attacks. Rather hypnosis provides a wonderful complement to standard talk therapy (psychotherapy etc.) and medical/psychiatric approaches to panic attacks. Hypnosis works with doctors and