Dealing With The “Monsters From The ID”: 9 Techniques For Overcoming Panic Attacks By Communicating With The Unconscious Mind
You know what it feels like to have a panic attack. Your heart is pounding, you start to feel as if you’re suffocating and can’t get enough air, your mind races and all sorts of unpleasant thoughts are going through your head.
First of all this is not an uncommon thing to have happen - just under 3% of people suffer from panic attacks at some point in their lives. And the great news is that these attacks can be dealt with; the human organism will self-regulate back into balance if given support during a crisis period.
And second of all, you are in control of whether or not your attacks happen. These "attacks" are not something that just 'happen' to you, like some sort of curse. You have a control mechanism in your mind and it's up to you how you use it.
Panic attacks can be effectively dealt with by changing our perception of the attack itself and by having a dialogue with the unconscious parts of our minds that are causing those sensations. In other words, we can change the way we think about what’s happening, so that when it happens again we’re able to deal with it effectively and without experiencing a panic attack.
Whether you’re experiencing an attack for the first time or you've been having them for years, this article is designed to help you take control over your panic attacks.
So…what exactly is a panic attack? The term 'panic' suggests that we're suffering from a sudden physical assault on our minds, but that’s not really how it works - it's more like an assault on our psychic bodies. It's like being in a 'fight or flight' situation; the autonomic nervous system is working overtime and we experience the symptoms of anxiety (rapid heart beat, sweating etc) as a result.
It's when we give in to these feelings of anxiety that we get a panic attack. For example, if you're in the middle of a panic attack and you start to feel panic at the way you're feeling, then your body will become even more stressed as a result. Or if someone asks you what's wrong in such a way that suggests that they don't believe your perception of the world (and we all have perceptions of how the world should work), then this is experienced as guilt and can lead to more anxiety, etc.
So the key to dealing with panic attacks is to not give in to the anxiety symptoms that occur. Instead, you have to accept these feelings as they are and understand that they will pass.
As long as you're able to do this - that is, stay calm and allow the attack to pass without 'feeding it' then it's possible for your body and mind to re-establish its natural equilibrium; like when a storm comes through and now the sky is still blue again - this is how life works.
This doesn't mean getting rid of the anxiety; it just means accepting the feeling rather than fighting against it. But if you can do this, then you'll be able to relax and not experience the panic attacks. And there are techniques for dealing with anxiety that are hundreds of years old…you just have to find out what they are!
Trying to monitor your breath or getting busy doing something like meditating or exercising during a panic attack won't help - these things just wind the sufferer up more and make it harder to calm down. The reason we get panicky feelings like this is because our minds are feeling stressed in some way. The 'panic attack' is a conniption fit being caused by prolonged stress. So you have to calm yourself down first, and then you can try to deal with the anxiety from a rational level.
So let's take a look at some of the techniques below…they're not complicated, but there are many of them so it's probably easier to read this version before you go further!
How The Human Mind Works
Are You A Human? Not In The "We Are Human" Kind Of Way But...Do You Have A Mind? If You Do It Follows That Your Mind Has Certain Abilities And Functions Which Are True For All Humans.
Your mind is a natural computer that carries out processes - we call these processes thoughts. This might sound obvious but it really isn't - it's something that people often don't think about.
When you get stressed, for example, your mind will run a diagnostic on 'you'. It will create an image of what you are and then it will decide if you're in contact with reality or not. This image of your 'self' is something which has been built up over many years and it's often coloured by your experiences - for example, whether other people have treated you well or not. It's because of these things that we get mixed signals from the world. For example, you might see a person that you know or someone who looks like them and they might say something to you...and your image of them will get slightly confused.
This is why people sometimes seem to think that they know other people better than they really do - their image of them becomes stretched a little bit (for example, because they either treat us well or not) and so they form a false impression of them.
The next thing the mind will do is analyse how you feel, think and act. How do you like to live your life, what are your ideas and beliefs, who are you? And we'll carry out this process in a number of different ways (such as each time we have a thought). We might think 'I can't stand these people' - this is an interaction with the world. We might also create images of other people for ourselves - for example, we might imagine that this person can only speak in one way so therefore they must be very different from us or have some type of problem.
The mind can be compared to a natural computer, but it's not like any computer we have here on earth. It contains every thought and idea that you've ever had, and it doesn't store these things in files or as separate parts. Instead, everything is stored as one big jumble together; this means that your mind actually doesn't have an 'organizational' part to it - it's just a set of tools (like the thoughts) that you can use at will.
When you go through your day-to-day life, you don't actually cast your mind back over all previous memory until a thought is found...this isn't how the brain works.
Conclusion: your mind doesn't really deal with individual thoughts, it deals with ideas. It works like a computer, but it's a natural computer that you don't have to 'boot up'. Your mind isn't based on logic and reason but on what works for you; this means that your ideas are based on how things appear to you - your image of the world. We all like to think of ourselves as logical and rational people, but in fact we usually follow our feelings!
The Hidden Feelings Of Panic Attacks
When We Think Of Panic Attacks Many People Have The Idea That A Person Is Attacked Suddenly By An Uncontrollable Sense Of Anxiety With No Apparent Cause.