Panic attacks are like a volcano. Just a few minutes ago you could have been in relative peace. But then something happened that somehow shook up your psyche, and you began to react. The most common manifestations of a panic attack: an attack of suffocation; rapid heartbeat; sweating or vice versa - a feeling of cold; numbness of the limbs; tremors in the body; loss of coordination; increased or low pressure. But the most important thing is that a person is overcome by fear. He is afraid of losing control over himself, or worse, of dying. And if such attacks occur frequently, over time the person begins to fear the attacks themselves. And then a specific disorder also develops - agoraphobia. When the fear of panic attacks is so strong that a person limits his stay in those places where panic attacks occur most often. And coping with this disorder can be even more difficult. All this seems very sad, and, of course, it is. But today I propose to look at the problem from a more positive point of view. Temple of the Soul that Helps The panic attack response is essentially a response of the autonomic nervous system to stress. Or body reactions. In bodily therapy there is a well-known postulate that says: “The body doesn’t lie!” It literally means that body reactions are always a true indicator of what is happening in the human psyche. Let me immediately note that in this article we are not talking about panic attacks that arise as a result of trauma and damage to the physical body. In all other cases, such manifestations are associated with somatoform disorders. This means that a person has no medical abnormalities, but there are painful manifestations. So, if we use the allegory of the volcano, in quiet times the psyche sleeps, storing inside and diligently suppressing some traumatic emotions. But in a critical situation, the defenses stop working and all the accumulated stress breaks out in the form of the manifestations described above. At such moments, the body literally screams that there is a trauma hidden inside it that you must see and work through. But most often a person prefers to drive it even deeper with the help of pills. And in this case, treating panic attacks with medications is an event that a priori cannot provide a long-term stable result. Although, of course, it can bring temporary peace. Is self-help possible? Finding the causes of panic attacks is not easy. Precisely because at some point you experienced a certain stressful situation. Perhaps there were even a lot of them - the very atmosphere in which you grew up was traumatic. And the psyche usually tries to get rid of such situations in a very simple way. Yes, that's right - it forgets about it. Or it completely represses it into the subconscious. This is why it is almost impossible to find the reason on your own. However, you can at least try to do this. Starting, for example, with exactly where and under what circumstances the attack occurs. It is quite possible that by analyzing some details in this way, you will be able to remember what exactly happened to you in the past. And if this happens, try to understand exactly what feelings you experienced then, what decisions you made, and what you need to change in them now. In our sessions, as a rule, we do not find these reasons right away. They float to the surface of consciousness gradually, when a person already feels safe. And we start with this - that is, with the main thing. First, we reduce the number of panic attacks, and in some cases we even stop them immediately. And then we go deeper. And we do this to ensure that there are no relapses. Thus, if you do not ignore the body’s cues, but respond to them in time and correct them with the help of a specialist, it becomes possible to get rid of panic attacks.© Alexandra Lepina