subject: Overcoming Panic Attacks - Controlling Our Imaginations [print this page] Are you tired of having panic attacks and looking for ways to overcome the panic attacks that you have put up with for too long? If so, this article discusses how the act of controlling our imaginations serves to eliminate panic and anxiety attacks and make you free from the bondage of panic and anxiety.
Panic attack sufferers will sometimes say that they feel out of control frequently if not all the time when the panic hits them and they have no choice but to flee or avoid the panic inducing environment entirely of they cannot suppress it. Christian Nevell Bovee put it so eloquently when he once wrote which sums up this condition so well:
"Panic is a sudden desertion of us, and a going over to the enemy of our imagination."
Panic attacks are being in a state of high anxiety. Anxiety is a deep fear or apprehension resulting when you anticipate a real or imagined threat, situation or event.
It is one of the most common human emotions and while some people can move on from this by putting the fear and apprehension behind them, panic attack sufferers have a lot of trouble doing this.
Someone that is confident and self assured can suddenly feel that he or she is powerless and is vulnerable when the panic or anxiety comes upon them. The mind races from reason and logic to wild fears of doom and gloom. As the fears increase, they lead to uncontrollable bodily sensations.
One of the hardest things for a lot of people to do is to understand why they feel so powerless and out of control during a panic or state of heightened anxiety.
Most panic attack sufferers usually try without success to fight against the attack and try end it as soon as possible to no avail. They may try breathing exercises or distraction to try to cope with the attacks. These remedies for anxiety or panic may mildly work but never really deal with the root cause and so the sufferer continues to experience anxiety and panic attacks.
When these techniques do not work, the suffer feels even worse and loses hope in the techniques which only escalates the fear and the feeling of powerlessness and being out of control.
The secret to overcoming panic attacks is to learn to deal with the attacks in an appropriate manner. Work with the fear and bodily sensations and not against them.
The next time that you have a panic attack, embrace the panic and counter it by reminding yourself that you are safe and that the panic has no power to harm you. Label each of the bodily sensations that you experience and then tell these sensations to get worse. For instance, if your heart is pounding uncontrollably, tell your heart to pound even harder.
All your attempts to overcome panic by trying to suppress it have not worked in the past because the only way out of a trial is through the trial. Embrace the panic attack and as you continue to do this consistently, the light will finally shine on the other side.
By embracing the experience voluntarily, you no longer become a victim but the aggressor which means that you are in control. The panic simply happens on your terms by not letting your imagination take control.
