Treatment for Panic Attacks and Anxiety Attacks

Why do I get Panic Attacks? ?

Panic attacks can happen to absolutely anyone. It isn’t obvious from the outside!! But it happens to surgeons, footballers, famous actors, teachers, callcentre workers, lawyers. There’s no group in society which isn’t affected.

We’ll help you to understand the cause of your own panic attacks. More importantly we’ll show you how to stop them. Panic and anxiety are the way your body responds when you feel there’s a threat. It’s meant only to happen when you’re faced with physical danger.  Your body creates adrenalin to help you cope with the threat you face. This means your body becomes ready to run away from it, or to fight.

But the body reacts with panic and anxiety when we sense other dangers too. These are usually nothing to do with physical danger and are more likely to be about emotions. You feel threatened  when you worry about work, relationships, health or money. Or because you have an irrational fear (a phobia) of something like flying, confined spaces, or needles.

We ALL feel anxiety and panic

There are good reasons why humans feel anxiety and fear.  And fear can be a useful thing. The feeling of fear and panic tells you there seems to be a risk. This means you need to act.

If you don’t suffer with anxiety, anxiety is just the normal way that the body reacts to fear and real threats. When there IS a real threat, adrenalin gives you an edge. A bit extra boost. Adrenalin is released when you panic or feel anxious. It helps you run faster and fight more aggressively.

Panic and Anxiety used to be very good for you – 60,000 years ago!

It’s an evolutionary thing. Your predecessors ran from the things which threatened them. This might be a hungry animal, a falling tree or a river about to burst its banks. If they fought with someone from another tribe who threatened to steal your food, your predecessors were more likely to survive. So, they reproduced and therefore passed on their genes. This explains why the trait still exists. If they hadn’t felt fear and therefore been given that “edge” that adrenalin can give, they probably didn’t survive. They couldn’t pass on their genes. So, the right amount of fear and anxiety can even help you….

So most people don’t get through life without feeling some anxiety or panic. And a little bit of anxiety is still good for you. Without it, you’d get yourself into dangerous situations, because you wouldn’t realise the risks. You might dive from a height into water without checking if it was shallow or if there were rocks. Or you might leave all your doors open when you go out because you didn’t think about potential break-ins. You might not revise for an exam, because you don’t think about  failing. You need to be aware that your actions have consequences, and this means that you need to think ahead.

…but being TOO aware of risk can easily become a habit

It’s easy to get into the habit of ALWAYS being aware of potential danger, and of the possibility of things going wrong. That can then lead you to over-think and over-analyze, believing that this will prevent problems from happening and keep you secure. It’s very easy to go beyond the right level of anxiety. This level actually really does help to keep you safe. But it’s tempting to just think about things a bit more. Then a bit more again. Before you know it, you’ve reached the stage where it stops you from functioning well – or even at all.

Panic, anxiety and stress – it’s all adrenalin

Anxiety – and sometimes panic – are what happen when your body senses threat, fear and danger. This is known as the “fight or flight response”. For some people, there are very noticeable physical effects. For others, there are few or no physical symptoms, but your thoughts race. You feel dread that something bad will happen. It seems like your thoughts are unbearable.

When you are afraid, the body releases adrenalin. It does this becuase this put you in the best possible position to survive the “threat”. Adrenalin makes everything go faster – your heart, your breathing. It can also, unfortunately, make your thoughts race round and round.

What is Adrenalin for?

The job of adrenalin is to make your body more responsive. This means you’ll be quicker at running away from the “threat” (“flight”) or more able to aggressively deal with it (“fight”). Other physical changes happen too. You become more aware of everything around you. Your senses are sharpened, so that you respond more to noise or to what you see. Your muscles become tense. This is because the heart is pumping your blood around more quickly, providing oxygen to the muscles. This means that you might feel light headed or dizzy too. You might feel sick, have stomach ache or need the loo. This is because you’ll be lighter, and move more easily if your don’t have a full stomach or bladder. Your body believes this will help you.

You may not get any very noticeable physical signs – for some people, there is a sense of fear and dread and worry, but no physical changes.

Anxiety Attacks and Panic Attacks are hardly ever about physical threat

Most modern day anxiety and stress has nothing to do with physical threat. However, unfortunately your body responds in the same way to thoughts and worries as it does to physical danger. Anxiety and fear may help you to survive physical threats. But most modern day stress is about other threats. It’s usually about financial, emotional, social, problems, or about your job, your relationship or your health. The adrenalin produced when you’re stressed affects the brain, too, making your thoughts race, round and round.

You feel the urge to just “think things through”, to get things straight in your head, or to work out how busy you’re going to be tomorrow and how you’ll tackle things. You wonder that conversation you just had meant. The thoughts sometimes seem to go faster and faster. It niggles you and you can’t seem to stop thinking about it. But you never seem to resolve it.

Thinking things through never works!

Thinking things through when you are anxious doesn’t seem to produce any positive result. Remember that the brain interprets these uncomfortable worrying thoughts as a threat. So it produces adrenalin to “help” you. But panic, anxiety and stress simply makes life less pleasant, sometimes significantly so. It makes relationships difficult, stops you concentrating at work, affects your health and stops you from enjoying life.

Panic Attacks and Anxiety can lead to other problems

Do you worry at night? Most anxious people do. This leads to insomnia. IBS is very common in people suffering with stress and anxiety. People with anxiety take more time off work. Then they worry about doing this!

Fertility can be affected, or you may develop habits which seem to help you to deal with the feelings. You might overeat, binge-drink or drink too much generally. Perhaps you bite your nails or pick your skin to help distract you from feelings of anxiety. These things in turn are added to the list of things you worry about.

Anxiety Attacks and Panic Attacks are often just a bad habit.

We are very good at developing habits. Think of brushing your teeth, tying your laces, or even walking up or down stairs. You don’t really need to pay full attention. It’s as if you’re on autopilot. But the first time you did these things, chances are you really needed to concentrate.

But the brain is lazy – it likes to take a short cut. It doesn’t want to have to re-invent the wheel every morning. So when we’ve done something before, the brain remembers what we did the last time. This is so that it doesn’t have to work out what to do all over again. This can be helpful, sometimes. It stops you using so much energy to think about every day things. You just do them automatically, like remembering the way to your best friend’s house.

But sadly the brain remembers when we’ve been anxious or had a panic attack in a certain situation before. It assumes that producing adrenalin will “help” you when that situation (or something similar) happens again. The brain makes a strong association between a certain type of situation and having a panic attack. Unless you’re feeling very relaxed and confident when you’re in that situation again, the brain may assume that adrenalin is just what you need!

When you have a panic attack the brain is trying to help you!

The brain recognizes the type of situation that you’re in as being threatening. It must be, your brain tells you, because you “needed” adrenalin last time you were in the same situation. It keeps happening. So you start to automatically associate the feeling of fear and panic with flying, dentists, school, public speaking, exams or driving. Or whatever it is that makes you anxious! This means you can develop a phobia. Which obviously means that your brain isn’t helping you at all!

Thinking things through is itself a habit – which triggers anxiety

You may generally feel anxious in all sorts of situations. Because whenever a troubling thought or worry occurs, you feel that you just need to think it through, to get it straight. But it’s just a habit. You do it because you always do it! It’s a habit to think it through, whether it actually helps or not.

And it usually doesn’t. Instead, the brain interprets these worrying thoughts as “threats” and gives you adrenalin to help you cope. Which of course doesn’t work!

 

The brain also wants to save you the effort of working out how you feel. It remembers how you felt last time you tried to think things through. So it remembers you felt anxious. Then it assumes you need that shot of adrenalin again. But because thoughts are not things you can escape from, the only function of the adrenalin is to make your thoughts race. This triggers further anxiety, in a vicious circle.

The physical symptoms of Anxiety, Panic Attacks, Anxiety Attacks, and Stress

When you have a panic attack or anxiety attack, you may feel all or some of the following physical symptoms. You may find that your state of mind is severely affected You may feel overwhelmed by extreme fear, uncertainty and worry. Not in any particular order –

palpitations or a racing heart

dizziness or lightheadedness

shortness of breath

feeling, or being, sick

stomach “flipping over”

diahhroea or upset stomach

needing the loo

clenching or grinding your teeth or jaw

restlessness and/or twitching

muscular tension

aching muscles, particular the neck, shoulders and back

changes in appetite

difficulty concentrating

fatigue

irritability

inability to swallow

All or any of these symptoms can be felt when you’re generally stressed and anxious. Symptoms are often more severe when you have then go on to have a panic attack or anxiety attack.

The short term effects of anxiety can also include feeling exhausted, headaches and migraines, difficulties sleeping, increased consumption of alcohol, cigarettes and proscribed drugs. Longer term problems include an increased propensity to heart problems, cancers and strokes due to suppression of the immune system. Sleeping patterns and fertility are often affected.

Panic Attacks and IBS

Restless Leg Syndrometinnitus and IBS are made much worse by stress. Around half of IBS – Irritable Bowel Syndrome – cases are thought to be caused by stress. The vast majority of IBS sufferers say their symptoms get worse when they’re stressed.

Remember that the physical changes you experience are happening to help you survive the “threat”. But you don’t run fast or fight well on a full stomach. So when the body senses that you need to run or fight, one of things it think will help you survive is emptying the stomach. In severe cases you might even actually be sick or have to run to the toilet. Or it may just feel like “butterflies”. But it’s all part of the body’s response to what it feels is a threat. The body is trying to ensure your survival by giving you adrenalin to help you run and fight.

The symptoms of Panic Attacks can make you feel you are ill or even dying

Any or all of the symptoms of anxiety may be experienced during a panic attack. Some sufferers also interpret these very unpleasant sensations as being a sign of serious physical problems. You might think that you can’t breathe, or are having a heart attack, or choking. This in turn worsens your anxiety. That’s because these thoughts are also frightening so the body produces even more adrenalin to try to be helpful! It becomes a downwards spiral.

How can Hypnotherapy help Panic Attacks?

The symptoms of panic and anxiety attacks are improved significantly by hypnosis and relaxation. In hypnosis you’ll imagine situations which made you panic in the past., At the same time you’ll be taught to practice relaxation and breathing techniques.

You feel panic and anxiety because you subconsciously associate certain things, situations or people with feelings of anxiety. With hypnosis you unmake that association between the trigger and the panic and make a new one. Your life is much easier when you feel calm and control! During hypnotherapy you will also imagine responding in new and different ways to situations which have previously troubled you. In this way you’ll learn to overcome your and anxiety. You will be encouraged to practice new, positive ways of thinking using self hypnosis in order to combat panic, stress and anxiety.

Anxiety Attacks – Treatment

Hypnotherapy, hypnosis and relaxation techniques are straightforward, common sense ways of overcoming anxiety. They are the most effective and powerful anxiety treatment there is. Put simply, hypnosis allows you to relax and let go. Not of what’s important – it doesn’t stop you from thinking and planning! But it does stop you from over-thinking, planning obsessively and over-analyzing things. Especially where you can’t control, or predict, or change those things anyway!

Remember – worrying doesn’t actually change anything! The things you fear aren’t prevented because you worry about them. The things you hope for aren’t more likely to happen because you worry about them not happening!

 

So it makes sense to learn to let go of worrying. Once you’ve taken whatever practical steps you can about your worries, then hypnotherapy allows your mind to let go of further thoughts. First you learn to relax physically – this prevents the body from producing adrenalin. Then your thoughts will slow down. Over time, you will be able to think more clearly and realistically about things which worry you.

How Relaxation and Hypnosis help Stress, Anxiety and Panic Attacks

Learning techniques for stress management, whilst in hypnosis, significantly lessens both short and long term risks associated with stress and anxiety. You’ll learn to let go, and get away from the vicious circle of anxious thoughts. You’ll forget the habit of feeling anxious in certain situations, at certain times or with certain people.

Anti-depressants, Anxiety and Panic Attacks

Modern antidepressants are very effective for anxiety. These include SSRIs such as Prozac (Fluoxetine) and Citalopram (Cipramil). Although these medications are commonly known as anti-depressants, they’re more frequently used as an anxiety treatment for people who do not have depression (as well as in those who do). Click here for more information about medication to help anxiety.

If you feel completely overwhelmed by your anxiety, medication can give you a kick start to get over the worst of your symptoms. This means you’ll you get the maximum effect of hypnosis, relaxation techniques and CBT.

Panic Attack Treatment

The fully registered and insured hypnotherapists at this Manchester hypnotherapy clinic have 45 years of experience in treating panic and anxiety, insomnia, and stress related illness. If you want to find panic attack treatment in Manchester to help you make the changes you want in your life, for insomniaclaustrophobia and other phobiasconfidence and self esteemnail biting and other bad habits, for weight lossjealousy, insecurity and other emotional problems, or for any other issue, then just get in touch.

Also, check any of the independent websites which list and review hypnotherapists (for example www.freeindex.co.uk – Google also displays reviews) and you will see the excellent results which the Manchester Hypnotherapy team have achieved. Their record in treating anxiety, insomnia and phobia is second to none. If you would like further information about hypnosis in Manchester, for anxiety and panicwork related stress, or any other problem, please call 07779 575 816 for a free, no obligation chat, or email manchesterhypnotherapy@gmail.com. It’s all confidential.

Hypnosis and hypnotherapy in Didsbury, Manchester . Convenient for Stockport and the Heatons, Chorlton, Gatley, Cheadle, Altrincham and all areas of south Manchester.