Image of empty toilet roll on handle with 'Don't Panic!' written on last sheet

Yesterday a friend told me he was contemplating moving because he had a panic attack in his car on his way to work. He thought it might be better to move house so he’d have to drive less. This really upset me and I made me want to learn more. Here are some of my findings and thoughts.

What is a panic attack?

A panic attack is a sudden episode of intense fear that triggers severe physical reactions when there is no real danger or apparent cause. When panic attacks occur, you might think you're losing control, having a heart attack or even dying.

In essence, it is your body taking over, it sees a threat and says 'RUUUUUUUNNN!' It's a great mechanism, because if you stopped to think you'd lose precious moments and get eaten by the lion or whatever the threat was. The problem is there is no threat as such AND we don't run. If we could run, as our physiological reaction asks us to, we'd get away after a few minutes and be ok.

Prevention???

We are so good at catastrophising. For example: I get an unexpected bill and think 'How am I going to pay for this? What if I can't pay? I will have to borrow some money. Then the interest rate will be too high. I will have to sell my house. I'll be on the streets and will have to sell my organs to survive (I figure that organ selling is more lucrative than selling my body) I will end up in a squat, without a liver and kidney, injecting heroin into my eyeballs'.

We all do it. (Don't we?) It works with anything. A pain in my toe has led me to having the rarest diseases and slowly withering away in a squat without a liver and kidney, injecting heroin into my eyeballs. Rather than the ingrowing toenail that it was.

Here is the thing. We think it is ok to spend hours ruminating on worst case scenarios, keeping us awake and feeding our stress. What if instead we changed the story?

I get an unexpected bill and imagine that I discover a bank account I knew nothing about and it is filled with money (not too much that it becomes a problem!) but enough to pay for the bill and a few other things.

I have a pain in my toe, which leads me to research toe pain and I discover the cure for all toe problems and make millions of people happy and am able to set up a secret bank account that I can forget about, in case I get an unexpected bill later on.

What if there was a thing call a Happy attack? A sudden overwhelming desire to smile and feel joy. You have to stop the car as your brain is overloaded with thoughts of gratitude and love. You hug yourself. Your jaw aches from smiling. You burst into random song and jump for joy, barefooted in a forest. Why is this so absurd, yet the previous paragraph is 'relatively' normal?

Find your way of destressing

Have you tried ‘Morning pages’? I find they are just the antidote to many a brain nonsense. Here is how they work. When you wake up in the morning, stay in bed, reach over for a pen and paper and write anything that comes to mind for 2 pages. Then ignore what you wrote and get on with your day. That’s it. You write 2 pages of whatever comes to mind, every morning. It gives you space for the random thoughts that swirl in the mind, so that your subconscious doesn't do it without you knowing about it. And then tells you its conclusion in the most inopportune moment and way- such as a panic attack in a car on your way to work.

If the idea of morning pages don’t gel with you, then explore other ways to give voice to the concerns is invaluable. More often that not by expressing them you realise that they aren't as bad as they feel in your head.

Change the name

On a course that explored 'breaths for panic attack and emergency', the teacher discussed the actual label 'Panic attack' not being helpful as it leads to an awful mental depiction of threat and violence. He suggested we changed the label. Instead of 'having a panic attack' he said 'I'm having an Eric'.

Make up your own name... Silly Sid, Bug-eyed Beryl, Cuthbert Chauvempes the third. Surely it'll diminish the sense of doom: 'I suffer from panic attacks' versus 'Hysteric Eric wants to go for a run'. Winston Churchill who suffered from depression found that depersonalising and anthropomorphising was a useful. (anthropomorphise = *attribute human characteristics or behaviour to a god, animal, or object). Churchill used a 'Black dog' to represent his depression. (Though this may be a myth see footnote.)

What to do during a panic attack (other than breath into a paper bag)

There is a breath that is said to be useful called 7-eleven. If you are having a panic attack:
1. Shout STOP loudly - (if you can). Call halt to the situation.
2. Pinch your top lip hard. The brain overrides nearly any other sensation as it regards the pain felt there as more serious than nearly anything else (It works on animals too, think of the ring through a bull's nose and there is a thing called horse twitching)
3. Put right hand under left armpit and left hand hugs right shoulder. Breathe in for 7. Breath out for 11. Repeat 4 or more times until more reassured and held.

By slowing the breath down, we stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest as opposed to fight and flight). I am not suggesting that you smoke or vape, but you can see how cigarettes could act as a de-stressor. You take long inhales all the way down to the belly and slow exhales as you take each drag. Just with the added ingredient of a few carcinogens.

What else to do during a panic attack
1. List 3 things you can see
2. List 3 things you can hear
3. List 3 things you can feel.

'Become external' rather than in your panic trance. Touch the floor/chair/shoe anything and describe the sensation.

Do stuff to feel good

Go for a walk, read, dance, sing, be with friends... Do stuff that makes you feel goooood. This helps balance out the negative side of things. Do I even need to mention that yoga and its movement and breath connection is an elixir to the body and mind? Find as many ways as you can to nourish yourself and not let the mind worms take over. But if they do - know that it will pass and things will be ok.

Foot notes & some resources I looked at