A panic attack is a short period of intense fear accompanied by a number of unpleasant physical sensations such as heart palpitations, sweating, shaking, shortness of breath, tight chest, nausea and feeling dizzy. The intense feelings reach a peak within minutes - unlike an anxiety attack which can build more slowly and last a lot longer.
Panic Disorder is when someone experiences recurrent panic attacks, and they frequently worry about having further panic attacks. As a result they might change their behaviour to try and avoid having a panic attack, such as avoiding going out or stopping activities like running.
The first step to overcoming panic disorder is understanding what panic really is, the signs of panic disorder, how cbt for panic disorder works, and how panic therapy can help you.
What is Panic Disorder?
No longer doing certain activities that you think could bring on a panic attack, such as going on the tube or exercising or getting too hot.
Anxiety symptoms that came on very quickly and peak within 10 minutes, with the peak lasting for approx 10 minutes.
Constantly worrying about having a panic attack, and adjusting your behaviour in some way to try and avoid a panic attack occurring.
Believing that something bad is going to happen whilst you're having a panic attack, such as fainting or having a heart attack or that you're losing your mind.
Having frequent panic attacks, which often seem to come out of the blue, and can even sometimes happen at night time when you're asleep.
Here are the most common signs of panic disorder I see in my clients:
Signs of Panic Disorder
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Panic Disorder begins with understanding how your panic developed, how it presents itself, and what maintains it.
We then work on reducing panic attacks by generating experiments to test out any unhelpful beliefs and using a variety of CBT tools and techniques (and I can include Mindfulness and Compassion Focused Therapy techniques too if useful).
And lastly we focus on creating a relapse prevention plan so you feel confident about what to do should you experience any future panic attacks.
CBT for Panic Disorder
Learn how to control constant worrying about having further panic attacks
Build awareness of your triggers to panic attacks and how to manage these
Feel confident about doing activities that you'd stopped doing out of fear
Learn how to deescalate a panic attack or stop it from happening altogether
Understand the theory behind why panic attacks aren't dangerous
Learn how to cope with unpleasant physical symptoms of anxiety
