Panic attack: how to recognize it and how to get rid of it
'20.11.2018'
In recent years, the popular expressions “I have stress”, “I am depressed” have added one more - “panic attack”. What is it really? Why does the doctor immediately prescribe pills? Is it possible to get rid of this problem with their help? How to learn to control a strange disease? We talked about this with clinical psychologist Anastasia Belan.
What is a panic attack?
Panic attack is when a person experiences a painful attack of fear, anxiety, combined with the stress of the whole organism.
Symptoms: rapid heartbeat, sweating, feeling of inner tremor, shortness of breath and choking, shortness of breath, pain in the chest or back, so-called cardiology; often nausea, discomfort inside the abdomen, dizziness, instability, a sense of unreality of the surrounding world. Accompanied by the fear of being left alone, going crazy or dying. Additional associated problems: disturbed thinking, confusion, chaos, inability to structure, especially during an attack.
“From a medical point of view, panic attacks are just the tip of the iceberg — a symptom of a disease,” explains clinical psychologist Anastasia Belan. - I recommend everyone to start examining the cervical region, brain, thyroid gland, kidneys and heart. If everything is in order there, feel free to go to a psychotherapist. When young people contact us with this problem, I ask a question about the use of illegal substances. And I often get to the point. Because it happens after taking amphetamine, cocaine, LSD. I call it "the head off the drug." If the patient regularly sits on something and comes to eliminate panic attacks, then I'm sorry. We will first treat his addiction. "
Panic attack is considered to be an independent disease that should be treated with drugs. But, in fact, it is based on general anxiety, overstrain, prolonged stress, or psychological trauma.
In most cases, both psychology and physiology are related, because there are not enough vitamin B groups either, and irritability increases, and sleep problems. A person falls into a vicious circle: in order to heal, you need strength, and they become less and less with each attack. It turns out that there are neither physical resources to cope, nor moral strength. Only the fear of death.
“Children at a very early age are diagnosed with vegetative-vascular dystonia, they do not treat it, hoping that it will pass by itself, but they come to us by the age of thirty with a panic attack,” says the expert. - In people who do not have increased anxiety, self-esteem problems, PA may develop as a result of some kind of trauma: a family member died unexpectedly, an accident occurred, a major operation.
Then we say that these attacks are not a consequence of past neuroses, but a normal response of the body to abnormal external circumstances - traumatic PA. What unites them all? Loss of a sense of security. It could have happened in childhood, because the father beat or drank the parents. A person feels like walking on a tightrope over an abyss all his life. Step left-right - falls into the PA. Or the reason, as I said, is injury. These are different processes and should be treated in different ways in psychotherapy. "
Who is affected by PA?
Panic attacks are all the same. But psychologists reach more women, as well as doctors in principle. Children also face the PA. Teenagers are bright and strong, against the backdrop of hormonal "assaults." Even a baby can experience attacks, and at any age, right up to the moment of birth, as the adrenal glands begin to produce adrenaline while still in the womb.
Consequences of a panic attack
Can these symptoms, which become repetitive in nature, lead to serious health problems? During an attack, everyone is afraid to die, and when he passes, many wave at him and continue to go about their business. Until next time ...
“One does not die from a panic attack itself. But it drains blood vessels, the hormonal system, the stomach. If left untreated, they can become fertile soil for hypertension and coronary heart disease, strokes, ”says Anastasia.
Panic Attack Treatment
Experts recommend removing from the diet all tonic preparations: coffee, dark chocolate, sugar.
Panic attacks are treated with breathing techniques, psychotherapy and antidepressants. Let us dwell on each method in more detail: what includes, is applicable for what “stage”, how long does it take to get rid of the attacks?
Drug treatment of PA
Very often, especially in the USA, panic attacks immediately begin to be treated with medicines. Is it possible to do without them?
“Panic attacks are not treated with drugs,” says Anastasia Belan. - This is my categorical opinion. What happens to the pill? It blocks adrenaline, prevents it from being released into the bloodstream, so you don't feel the consequences of an attack. Either it relaxes, removes the general background of anxiety, helps to sleep better. Despite the fact that I am against drugs, I still send the patient to our psychiatrist, who prescribes them. Why am I doing this and what is my goal? If a person has PA often: it happens that 3-4 times a day or does not come out of them at all. Then we prescribe anti-anxiety drugs, antidepressants. Because when he is lying under the covers and shaking, afraid to leave the house, psychotherapy is physically impossible.
We often recommend that such people take them for three months: for now, it will work, adapt to them. This is a crutch on which a person relies while psychotherapy is underway. Then we gradually and gently remove, so that there is no withdrawal syndrome and nothing is returned. The wand is no longer necessary when you have learned to walk. For us it is.
We do not play in such a position that the tablet is evil. In this situation - help. Short term. But in no case is it not a solution to the problems. Extremely rarely, with severe mental disorders, a person has to take medicine for a long time or even a whole life. But on the background of psychotherapy, the dosage is needed significantly less. ”
Psychotherapy and breathing during PA
During psychotherapy it quickly becomes easier. The most difficult thing is to prevent symptoms from returning.
The main point is to learn how to breathe correctly: with the stomach, deeply, the exhalation should be much longer than the inhale.
If you do everything right, then the PA will decline. Having mastered it, you will cease to be afraid. Many devalue these practices, although it has been proven that the person calms down within 15-20 minutes. This is how the body system works: if we breathe deeply, then the psyche begins to read what is good and calm for it, and adjusts all the emotional processes to it. And, accordingly, the heartbeat returns to normal, shivering decreases. Even if you "catch up" pressure, it decreases. All this does not save you from an attack, but will teach it to be.
“For each patient, we very clearly find out how he should behave during an attack, so that he begins to manage it,” Anastasia shares. - One needs to walk from corner to corner, another - to crawl under the covers. We give different recommendations depending on the person's temperament and character. We do, we practice so that a person remembers it at the right time. We teach you not to run away in a panic, but to take care of yourself: go outside, find a shop and sit down, turn on the music in the car or call friends. Then people stop being afraid and begin to move deeper - into reasons, mechanisms. And we begin to explore and sort out our own emotions, understanding what provokes panic attacks. "
In the PA man opposes himself to the world. He does not accept it. He does not want to see and admit, for example, that a family member has died. Or the woman who was beaten by her father is afraid of men, because in her head they are all aggressive. Need to work with certain settings - "flashing".
“Let's take a case: a controlling man who has everything in place and right,” says psychologist Belan. - He moves to another country, he starts having panic attacks. A very common option: he cannot control the situation - the usual mechanisms have changed, there is a feeling that this is dangerous. The attacks are activated. Should I give pills? Not. You need to understand, adapt, find ways with him so that he can accept life in a new way. We unite the world and people in harmony. "
Is it possible to get rid of PA forever?
Why do many people undergo treatment, and then everything repeats? Is there something wrong with a particular organism or a doctor who chose the wrong course of treatment?
“The first thing I find out is how long a person has been living with this,” Anastasia explains. - If he came with attacks that started during the last year, then psychotherapy can be quick and effective. If 10 years with them and ate a mountain of pills, then, of course, we collect it bit by bit, the biochemistry itself has already been violated, because it has been replaced by pills, everything is not so simple. Less than a year is useless. But there are exceptions. "
The next criterion for understanding the duration of treatment are the reasons: for example, the patient had an accident or someone died, did not take the pill, immediately ran to the psychotherapist. Then the specialist does not work with the panic attack itself, but with the trauma that the patient has experienced. And the seizures, as a symptom, go away by themselves. Therapy can then last from 2,5 to 6 months.
If a person is restless from birth, there are violations in upbringing, in the family system - before the start of the PA there were a lot of problems, and the attack was the last drop, then everything is different.
“What do we see in people with anxiety disorders who come to us with panic attacks as a symptom? - explains the psychologist. - Problems with fathers: they drink, beat, disappear. In such patients, we observe postpartum depression of mothers - when they were born, little ones, or in the first years of their life, the mothers disappeared or got sick. A child lacks the basic trust in the world, which is formed before the age of three. The person has not learned to freely express their emotions, especially anger. Suppressing it often triggers an attack. "
Most often blamed for suppressing anger. In the middle of therapy, people can destroy everything at home, swear at a doctor when their “sleeping hurricane” rises. And if he “lived” inside for twenty or thirty years, then it will not seem to anyone much. But despite this, the attacks go away. The same thing happens with depression.
Emotions that are with us from the moment of intrauterine development are associated with biochemistry and it is absolutely impossible to jam them: anger, joy, sadness and fear.
We summarize and advise
So: a panic attack is the result of prolonged stress, which a person did not notice, a certain result, when the body presses the “turn off” button.
What can a person do before coming to a psychotherapist?
- Examine your body: the thyroid gland, the brain, neck and spine, heart, establish the cause of pressure, if it exists (there may be a problem with the kidneys or liver).
- Remove: coffee, tea, sugar, especially in the evenings - everything that can stimulate our psyche.
- Learning to dwell in the most panic attack is what a person can do himself. His task is not to be afraid. How to do it? Breathing techniques to help.
- Calculate what triggers an attack.
At first glance, it seems that it occurs from scratch, nothing contributes to it. In fact, it is not. There are always grounds for a symptom. For example, during heat and stuffiness, at the time of being in a traffic jam and the like. Such nuances you should know. Analyze them carefully before starting therapy.
- Basic things and rituals.
Since we understand that this is a nervous breakdown, you need to do everything to restore the body: take B vitamins, omega, do exercises and do not forget about the contrast shower.
About the expert:
Anastasia Belan, Psychology74.ru - family psychotherapist, practicing clinical psychologist, member of the Association of Perinatal Psychologists of the Russian Psychological Society. Developer of a rehabilitation program after heart and vascular surgery.
