How to Manage Panic Attacks with Counselling
Now imagine that you feel as though your heart is some runaway train, your chest as though something as heavy as an elephant is lying on it, your hands are shaking and your mind, well, it is all over the place causing a storm. And yet, there is no threat in sight.
This is how a panic attack is. It is abrupt, all-consuming and can be really scary.
The good news however, is that having the proper counseling services and support can help explain the panic attacks, and be dealt with as well and eliminated.
What is Panic Attack?
Panic attack is a severe situation of panic that causes extreme physical symptoms in the body in the absence of any threat or visible reason. Individuals who undergo panic attacks tend to report that they feel as though they are losing control, in the process of having a heart attack, and even when they are in the process of dying.
Symptoms Include Commonly:
- Rapid heartbeat
- Difficulty in breathing
- Sweating
- Dizziness
- Nausea
- Tingling sensations
The terror of being able to do nothing, because they all resemble, in more ways than one to a heartattack which is commonly reported by a lot of people.
Think of a panic attack as your brain brandishing a fire alarm when there is no smoke in it, mistakenly identifying a small spark as a fire. This is what a panic attack does to the nervous system.
The role Counseling plays in Management of Panic Attacks
Counseling is one of the methods of managing the occurrence of panic attacks and even decreasing the number of attacks over time. Counseling provides a non-risky environment for the exploration of the causes, acquisition of coping mechanisms, and disruption of the cycle of fear.
1. The Root Cause Understanding
The therapists usually start by making the clients comprehend the origin of the panic. Sometimes, panic attacks are associated with:
- Past trauma
- Unresolved stress
- Suppressed emotions
- Perfectionism
- Imminent fear of failure
Example:
Priya, an overachiever at school, developed panic attacks after doing her examinations. During her counselling, she realized that she had a fear of failure and her number one priority, family was a part of the fear. Labelling it was the initial path towards diminishing its strength.
2. Psychoeducation: Uncertainty of the Panic
Therapists tend to describe the biology of a panic attack, that is, what occurs to the brain and body. Such a procedure is known as psychoeducation and it makes clients understand that whatever is happening to them is scary but not harmful.
It is like a magician demonstrating his tricks, once you know how it is performed, it is not so powerful anymore.
When the clients come to learn that a panic attack is a natural (though exaggerated) fight-or-flight reaction, they tend to become less frightened of the symptoms.
3. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT is among the most efficient treatment methods for panic attacks. It involves the determination of negative thought patterns and the alteration of such habits, provoking anxiety or exacerbating it.
Important CBT techniques:
- Thought Records: Writing out anxious thoughts, testing the accuracy of the thoughts and swapping them with more balanced thoughts.
- Cognitive Restructuring: Bargaining against thoughts of catastrophe, such as I am going to die by more reasonable truths, such as this is not pleasant, but I have experienced it before and survived.
In case a person only experiences a panic attack at a crowded place with therapy we change the way of thinking that is telling self – It is possible that crowds are dangerous, but I can stay calm because I possess tools to support myself.
4. Exposure Therapy: Putting the Fear In its Place
The fear is strengthened by avoidance. CT and often CBT-exposure therapy consists of the safe and fear-graduated exposure to feared situations.
In case one is afraid to use elevators as a cause of panicking, the first level of exposure treatment will be a simulation of riding in an elevator, then standing close to one and finally, being in an elevator.
The way it metaphorically has it – it is like working out a muscle. Every time you confront your fear and do not run away, you grow stronger.
5. Gounding techniques and Mindfulness
Mindfulness-based online counseling enables the clients to remain in the present when the panic symptoms have started to intensify. When we are panicking, a worst-case scenario comes to our head so easily. Mindfulness takes us further to this moment.
Grounding Exercises:
- 5-4-3-2-1 Technique:
List 5 things you see, 4 things you can touch, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell and 1 thing you can taste. - Box Breathing:
4 inhale 4, hold, 4, exhale. - Body Scan:
Rigidly give gentle attention with non-judgmental observance to every single section of your body.
Mindfulness can be compared to an anchor which helps you prevent your boat from drifting in stormy waters.
6. ACT or Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
Instead of resisting their anxious thoughts, ACT assists the clients to accept them. It also teaches that suffering is an experience in life, and fighting it tends to multiply suffering.
The clients are taught to watch what thoughts are in their heads, identify their values and act according to their values, even in the face of fear.
7. Integration of Lifestyle and Relapse
Counseling is not only a tool that should be used during a session but integrates it in everyday life. Counsellors enable the clients to develop habits that contribute to mental health:
- Regular sleep
- Balanced diet
- Movement or exercise
- Restriction of caffeine and alcohol
- Making time to rest and having hobbies
The use of therapy is also to design a relapse prevention plan. Old symptoms are likely to recur even after defences against stress or a change in life. The plan enables clients to realise the early warning signs and react.
When Panic is a Monster
Fear may present the sensation of a monster hiding underneath the bed. Counseling is like flipping the switch. It comes out to show that the monster is not real, it is only a shadow.
As time goes by, as tools and support come in, that shadow is less scary.
Peer Support and Group Counseling
It is really a healing experience when you find out you are not the only one. Group counseling provides:
- Shared experiences
- Encouragement
- Modeling on the behavior of coping used by other people
Learning that the person you have shared it with experienced the same fear gives you a point to turn around.
Group healing is similar to group gardening: Each of us takes his or her tool to the garden, and along the way to the garden, something beautiful grows.
The Role of Medication: It is a Complement And Not a Cure
Although it is a blog about counselling, it should be noted that there are cases when the medication prescribed by a psychiatrist can facilitate the therapy. Medication may temporarily relieve symptoms and counseling is a long-term solution.
How to Recover Your Peace
Treatment of panic attacks through counselling leads one from the road of fear to freedom. It does not make you anxiety-free, but it helps you learn why it is still good to live with the feeling of anxiety.
Healthy therapy and positive tools, and working on them day in and day out, you can wade through the middle of panic as though you were holding an umbrella, you still feel the rain, but you stop drowning in it.
When you or someone who knows you fights with panic attacks, remember this: there is help; there is getting cured; you are not alone.
Counselling can be the light that will ensure that you are back to your peaceful state of being.
Be a beginner.
Breathe.
And go first
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