# Anxiety Resolved (Alternate Solution)



## 20141 (Oct 17, 2005)

I wanted to share this with you guys. I was browsing around a forum I thought was interesting -via Google search engine- and found words of advice that seemed easy & possible to follow. I wish I could credit the person that wrote their solution on tackling anxiety, but unfortunately they remained anonymous. Here it is.****This is a topic I think I can help with. I used to have panic attacks and I jumped through every hoop trying to make them stop. After years of searching I found the secret...and I think you'll be surprised. I'm really glad I can finally offer some help for others. I could write an essay, but I'll try to keep it short. First off, if you're taking drugs for it, or you want to take drugs, that's fine. However, you probably won't need them for long if you follow my advice.All the advice about lowering stress is great...but we can't completely avoid stress, and stress reduction is not a complete solution, partly because of the nature of a panic attack.O.k., so what is a panic attack (also called anxiety attack)? Well, physiologically speaking, it's a sudden and very rapid firing of adrenaline into your system when there's no apparent danger that justifies it. Basically, your fight-or-flight response kicks in -- apparently out of the blue. If you were running from a tiger you'd be experiencing the same thing but you wouldn't think it was unusual. It tends to happen after periods of prolonged stress, emotional trauma, or a traumatic incident. Doctors who have no real knowledge of it tend to have no clue about how to diagnose or deal with it. The key to understanding your panic attack is to understand the source of the fear. You're not actually running from a tiger, so what are you running from? It's fear. Plain and simple, you're afraid of fear. More precisely, you're afraid of the sensation of fear that you're experiencing as you're having the panic attack. You see, in that split second after the first impulse of fear rises...perhaps a little twinge as you were thinking about something not terribly fearful...your mind interpreted that physiological sensation as a threat. From there it cascades. The more your mind interprets the fear as a threat, the more it triggers the fight-or-flight response. It's a self-perpetuating cycle. In reality, your fear is actually fear of the panic attack itself. After your first panic attack, it's much easier to have more because now you have experienced the unpleasant effects of a panic attack. Seems simple eh?...and it is.So...what do you do. There are a number of strategies...but they are all based on "facing the fear". You may have heard that the treatment for phobias is to actually be exposed to the source of the phobia through a process of desensitization until the fear is minimal or nonexistent. In a similar way, you need to desensitize yourself to the fear of the panic attack. Here's the basic roadmap...but you can be creative in how you take the journey:1) Understand your fearI've told you what your fear is, the next step is to understand it at a personal level. Whether you're in full-blown panic, or you're just feeling it coming on...you need to step back in your mind...and see what's going on. See the fear doing its work, see your body reacting, see how it makes your feel.2) Name your fearNow that you really know your fear, try naming it, visualizing it, do whatever you need to do to help you focus in on your experience of the fear. Be curious about it - after all, it is an odd thing. 3) Confront the fearO.k., so now you're able to see the fear doing its work, you can identify it, there are no more surprises to be had. So let's turn the tables. The wonderful irony of a panic attack is that the more you try to provoke fear the more your fear lessens. So you're feeling the fear...let's see how scary this thing really is. Taunt it, ridicule it, mock it...whatever you can do to make it do its worst. What I'm saying here is that you need to go on the offensive. Take charge. You may want to get angry with it, you may want to laugh at it, you may want to play with it...whatever you're comfortable with. You'll get bored eventually..and that's the point. You will no longer fear it.That simple formula helped me get control of my life back, and freed me up to constructively deal with the problems that set me up for panic attacks in the first place. And guess what...now I'm more fearless about many things in life than most people I know...because I've faced down fear itself. *********I'm quite positive this would also work to rid anxiety that causes IBS related symptoms. By exposing oneself in an environment where you felt anxious before, one can turn the horrible moments into something positive, one can desenthesize their thoughts. Kinda like classical conditioning.I'm going to see if this method works out.Hope this helps


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## 20250 (Jul 14, 2005)

I agree with what you are saying. Sounds like good advice. Thanks


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## 20358 (Nov 14, 2005)

"Basically, your fight-or-flight response kicks in -- apparently out of the blue." While I agree with all that was said, I have to disagree on the above quote. The fight or flight response does _not_ kick in out of the blue. It kicks in for a reason. While it may be an irrational reason to a nonpanicker, it is rational to those with panic disorders. There is a reason for the anxiety attack. If a person has had a bad experiencea anything that remotely reminds them of the experience is enough to bring on an attack. If a person without a panic disorder has a bad experience, it sticks with them too. They do what they have to to avoid the same bad experience. Unfortunetly for those of us who have anxiety problems it's not quite that simple. Hence the fight or flight response.I'm certainly not trying to minimize what the author of that passage has to say. I found it to be great advice. But for me, it's important that people understand why I panic. It helps in teaching them how to help me through an attack. So - again, I'm not starting a debate or seeing this from a negative point of view.


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## Guest (Jan 31, 2006)

Nice one Dead Rabbit - another bazzin' help is acupuncture which is widely practiced here in Manc land and absolutely brilliant - I'm getting this at the mome for insomnia but I also suffer from panic attacks and I like your style - very positive and lets face it - what we anxious souls all need!!!!Nice to know I'm not alone.Sue


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## 14314 (Jun 26, 2005)

A thing my girlfriend once told me isF.E.A.R = False Expectations About RealityHelps to put things into perspective sometimes when confronted with anxiety or fear if you remember that little phrase


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