Contributed by Barry McDonagh, the creator of the best selling anxiety treatment program Panic Away.
People who have experienced panic attacks often go around with a grave sense of unease that at any moment they will experience a major panic attack. Its a fear of the ultimate panic attack that would finally push them over the edge.
This leads people to make changes in their behavior in order not to do anything that might trigger a panic episode.
When people feel this way, simple daily tasks can become big challenges.
Some people start to fear driving their car in traffic while others fear leaving their safe zone, or simply any situation where they have responsibilities to perform. This state of apprehension keeps a persons anxiety level high, leading to feelings of general anxiety.
If you are such a person I hope to put your mind at rest.
Panic attacks as well as general anxiety can be eliminated in simple steps regardless of how long the anxiety has been a problem.
I am speaking not just from my own personal experience but from having worked with thousands of people right around the world.
Here is an important observation:
The key difference between someone who is cured of panic attacks and those who are not is really very simple. The one who is cured is not afraid of panic attacks. Ill try to show you how to be one of these people as well.
What if I told you that the trick to ending panic attacks is to want to have one!
That sounds strange but let me explain. A simple trick to ending panic attacks is wanting to have one because the wanting causes an immediate diffusion of the anticipatory fear.
Can you have a panic attack in this very second? No!
You know the saying what you resist persists? Well that saying applies perfectly to fear. If you resist a situation out of fear, the fear around that issue will persist. How do you stop resisting?
You move directly into the path of the anxiety, by doing so it cannot persist because you process the fear out through your emotions.
Try in this very moment to have a panic attack and I will bet you cannot. Yes, I know the idea of calling on a panic attack is scary at first but play with the concept and watch what happens.
You may not realize it but you have always decided to panic. You make the choice by thinking This is beyond my control, These scary sensations are beyond my bodies control.
It may help if you imagine that having a panic attack is like standing on a cliff edge. The anxiety, it seems, is pushing you closer to falling over the edge. Each time you fight back using poor coping strategies, the more desperate you feel.
To get rid of the fear you must metaphorically jump. You must jump off the cliff edge and into the anxiety and fear and all the things that you fear most!
How do you jump?
You jump by wanting to have a panic attack. You go about your day asking for a panic attack to appear. Your real safety is the fact that a panic attack will never harm you. That is a medical fact.
Yes, the sensations are wild and uncomfortable, but no harm will come to you
Your body is in a heightened state but no harm will come to you
The jump becomes nothing more than a two inch drop! You are safe
You always were!
Think of all the panic attacks you have had to date and come out the other end. Was there any lasting physical damage to you, other than the mounting feeling of panic?
Now you are going to approach this problem differently. You actively seek out the attack like an adventure seeker. Take the opposite approach. YOU bring it on!
Here are some of the things you will learn from Panic Away:
Learn how to be empowered and gain confidence by engaging a simple technique to defuse any panic attack.
The four most powerful approaches to creating an enduring anxiety buffer zone (particularly useful for those who experience GAD).
Learn to avoid making the one mistake almost everyone makes during a panic attack episode.
To learn more about Panic Away click here!
