Cognitive Behaviour therapy For
Panic
Cognitive-behavioral Therapy's Answer to Panic Attacks
Author:
James P Krehbiel
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Cognitive behaviour therapy for panic.
People who suffer from panic attacks experience symptoms
such as heart palpitations, sweating, loss of control, feelings
of impending doom, disorientation, and feeling trapped.
Although those who suffer from this disorder feel debilitated,
it is one of the most manageable syndromes to treat through the
use of cognitive-behavioral therapy.
When people first come for cognitive-behavioral therapy, they
may indicate that they have received prior counseling, have
made innumerable visits to doctors, and have been treated in
emergency rooms for symptoms associated with their anxiety.
Patients are usually desperate for answers to alleviate their
on-going struggle with panic. Patients are relieved to know
that their symptoms are treatable through the use of
cognitive-behavioral therapy. Often, patients feel that they
are going crazy, although they need to be reassured that having
“crazy” feelings is a cognitive distortion and is vastly
different from those who might be considered clinically
crazy.
Most individuals know the time-frame when they first started
experiencing panic attacks. There may have been triggering
events that fostered the emergence of panic. The patient may be
unable to make an association between the panic and a painful
triggering experience. Factors such as a significant illness,
job stress, family abuse/ trauma, losing a loved one, and
lacking emotional expressiveness may create conditions ripe for
panic. Once a panic attack erupts, further attacks usually
follow if an individual is not aware of the cycle of
self-defeating thinking and behavior which sustains the panic
process.
The key to curtailing panic is to help people understand that
it’s the secondary symptoms that keep the panic alive. In other
words, it’s the “panic over the panic” that sustains the panic
pattern. With cognitive-behavioral therapy, recovery involves
educating the sufferer on ways to respond to their
self-defeating thought processes during the onset of their
attack. For example, let’s say that you are taking a mid-term
exam during college. You open up the test booklet and
immediately react by saying, “Oh my God, none of this material
looks familiar; there’s no way that I can pass this test; if I
flunk this test, I might fail this course for the semester; if
my parents find out, there’s going to be hell to pay!” In
contrast, you can learn to respond rationally by saying, “Wow,
some of this stuff doesn’t look familiar; just take some deep
breaths and relax; I guess I better survey the whole test,
answer the questions that I can and then go back and work on
the other one’s; I can tackle this test, I just need to relax
and be patient!”
How one responds to panic determines whether it subsides. Those
who fight with their panic by “awfulizing” about their
symptoms, intensify their panic. They may say, “Oh my God, here
come those unbearable feelings again – I feel like I’m going to
die!” However those who accept their panic and respond
rationally with thoughts like, “Here comes that panic again –
just calm down and take those deep breaths and it will
eventually subside. These feelings won’t last forever, they are
time-limited – they’ll be gone soon.”
Learning through cognitive-behavioral therapy to go “down
stream” with panic is important to its eradication. Those who
“catastrophize” about their symptoms intensify panic attacks.
Learning to rationally respond to panic diminishes its effect.
Trying to figure out what caused an individual’s panic is not
necessary to treat it. What is essential is teaching those who
suffer from panic to respond with positive self-talk.
People who experience panic attacks tend to feel ashamed of
their problem. It is important for sufferers to understand that
they are not alone – anxiety is apart of the human condition.
Anxiety and panic is not unusual and those who experience it
need to learn to be more open and expressive with all of their
feelings. Sharing a wide range of emotions with those you can
trust is essential to the healing process. Those who hide panic
as a shame-based pattern set themselves up to repeat it. When
those we trust are aware of our authentic self, which includes
our vulnerability, our anxiety problems tend to fade in
significance.
Paradoxical interventions can be helpful in dealing with panic
disorder. Having a patient schedule a panic time and
encouraging them to perseverate can bring humor and assist in
breaking the panic cycle. A ruminating patient might be asked
to conduct cardiovascular exercises during panic-related chest
tightness to try to lighten the moment and break the cycle of
suffering. Cognitive-behavioral therapy is a structured,
pragmatic approach which assists people in addressing the
symptoms of panic by learning to respond to the disorder with a
positive approach to their thinking.
About the Author:
James P. Krehbiel, Ed.S., LPC, CCBT is an author, freelance
writer, and nationally certified cognitive-behavioral therapist
practicing in Scottsdale, Arizona. His personal growth book,
Stepping Out of the Bubble is available at www.booklocker.com. James can be reached
at www.krehbielcounseling.com.
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Cognitive-behavioral Therapy's Answer to Panic Attacks
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