Chapter 3 - The True Nature of Panic Attacks Flashcards
PRACTICE EXPERIENCING THE FEELINGS, RATHER THAN AVOIDING OR STRUGGLING AGAINST THEM.
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People often have a hard time describing their thoughts and fears from a panic attack, because the panic is so disruptive of your attention and memory.
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List of catastrophic fears you’ve experienced
- Dehydrating
- Dying
- Fainting/Passing out
- Starving
- Being abandoned
- Heat stroke
- Heart Attack
If you thought you were about to die, what did you think the cause of death would be?
- Dehydrating
- Heat stroke
- Physical illness
- Hunger
- Panic Attack
- Heart Attack
If you thought you were about to act in an uncontrollable manner, what did you think you might do?
- Start screaming at the top of my lungs
- Faint
- Breath heavily
- Pacing back and forth
- Shaking, grabbing things in an uncontrollable manner
What do you think the consequence would be, to you and also to the people near you, and your friends and loved ones as well?
- The consequences of my uncontrollable actions to me would be a very heavy load of embarrasment if done near others.
- To others, the consequences of my uncontrollable actions would be them scared, creeped out, uninterested in me, permanent embarrasing view of me.
If you feared you were going to faint, what did you think would happen next? And what did you think the consequences would be?
If I faint, I would fear me just be abandoned there. I fear I would have no one to support me in the time of need. I fear death.
If you thought you were going to make a fool of yourself and lose people’s respect and friendship, how did you fear they would treat you differently thereafter?
Based on my past experience(s), I believe if I was to make a fool of myself in the presence of others, they would scorn me. They would see me as a weird mentally disabled individual. They would make fun of me. I’ve been called many names in the past even without making a fool of myself. I recieve these views about me on a normal basis. It is just who I am.
How would that affect your life?
It would affect my life by making me shrink more deeper into the depression pit. Me being useless. Me being weird. Me being mentally retarded.
Would these effects be permanent?
Yes
What is the worst thing that has ever happened to you as a result of a panic attack?
- My legs started shaking. My vision became blurry. My heart started racing. I started screaming at the top of my lungs in a park near a police sation.
- I started uncontrollably shaking the drivers seat infront of me while being driven to the airport.
Any time you’re dealing with concerns about your saftey, you want to be thorough. You want to examine the question from all angles so you can know clearly whether you’re in danger or not. When you thought you were about to experience such a catastrophe as death or insanity, and it did not occur, you may have developed a theory at the time as to why it didn’t.
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Why didn’t you die, go crazy, or suffer the terrible outcomes you feared?
I did go crazy a few times during panic attacks. Going crazy is what made those thoughts go away and help me balance my mind from panicking about the situation at hand. I also did suffer the terrible outcomes I feared. Blurred vision, uncontrollably shaking feet, rapid heart beat.
What if your support person is not there nex time? What if you forget that bottle of xanax? What if your water bottle springs a leak? When you think that your survival depends on other people or objects, this makes you more anxious and less secure, because you worry that they might not be there the next time you need them.
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Some times people so dislike the idea that they got tricked that they prefer believing that panic is dangerous, because that would mean they didn’t get fooled. But this response, based on injured pride, tend to make people more stuck. Watch out for that kind of reaction. It can sabotage all your efforts.
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