Panic attacks. Run or fight
The heart beats as if it is about to break through the chest, palms are sweating, thoughts are confused, the body is seized with chills, you feel pain in the region of the heart, nausea or dizziness, and most importantly - uncontrollable animal horror, fear of death, from which "the blood runs cold" …
The heart beats as if it is about to break through the chest, palms are sweating, thoughts are confused, the body is seized with chills, you feel pain in the region of the heart, nausea or dizziness, and most importantly - uncontrollable animal horror, fear of death, from which "the blood runs cold" … It seems a little more, and you will go crazy with this sudden attack of anxiety and fear, which in medical circles is called a panic attack.
This is how the human body reacts to a mortal danger, for example, when a person comes face to face with a wild beast, which is ready to instantly tear its prey to pieces. Or when under your feet the earthly firmament suddenly begins to walk, and you risk falling into a bottomless abyss. Or when a sharp spear of a cruel enemy is put to your chest, which is about to pierce your chest … The body instantly launches the heart at full speed and pumps up the blood with adrenaline, because in order to be saved, you must run as fast as you can, so quickly that no beast will catch up, no enemy, no cracks in the earth's crust. And if you fail to escape, you will have to engage in mortal combat to defend your life …
The body's response to danger is understandable and natural. However, what if there are no animals or hostile savages nearby? And the ground underfoot does not burn and does not tremble, and the heart suddenly begins to pound like crazy, the body is fettered by the fear of death, and the brain is numb with sticky horror?
The symptoms of an anxiety attack can be so severe that they can be mistaken for heart attacks if frightened. Severe panic, accompanied by various somatic symptoms such as palpitations, sweating, dizziness, nausea, etc., can intimidate anyone. Moreover, it is one thing when panic attacks occur from time to time, it is another thing when it grabs several times a day.
My friend, who works in a prestigious bank, is “sausage” every day. Almost every time when an important contract is brought to her for verification, or she is taken to responsible negotiations, or she performs a difficult task in time trouble, her heart jumps up to her throat, and she herself dies of fear. But the most unpleasant thing is that every time in such cases, her sweating intensifies, and a thin girl sitting in a room with automatic climate control suddenly begins to blush, suffocate and sweat. She has almost come to terms with her "attacks", but the need to carry a spare blouse or turtleneck with her to work every day so that she has something to change into on a particularly intense day does not add to her pleasure in life …
Panic attacks are both spontaneous and due to different situations. For example, someone is covered in a crowd or in a confined space, someone in public transport, for example, in the subway, on the train or on an airplane, someone is, if necessary, to speak publicly. And it happens that a person just wakes up in the middle of the night with a frantically pounding heart, arms and legs shake, eyes pop out of their orbits, and the body is numb with horror.
Wanting to get rid of these frightening and exhausting attacks, some begin to use tranquilizers, antidepressants, anticonvulsants and other "heavy artillery". In some cases, medications have a temporary sedative effect, relieving or stopping attacks, but in the case of panic attacks, it must be clearly understood that this is not a disease, and therefore medications, even partially eliminating the symptoms, cannot solve the problem.
Panic attacks are a manifestation of the characteristics of one of the psychological vectors, which contains heightened emotionality, a wide range of sensitivity and a tendency to emotional swings. And if panic attacks happen to you, this suggests that you have a visual vector, which in such an uncomfortable way for you performs the function laid down in it by evolution, which is practically not in demand today. But more on that later.
"If I get sick, I won't go to doctors …"
If you go to doctors with complaints of panic attacks, then you will either be sent to a psychotherapist, or, in a particularly severe case with many alarming symptoms, such as nausea, visual impairment, loss of consciousness, etc., you will be diagnosed with vegetative vascular dystonia. or even more picky. The psychotherapist will advise you to avoid stress, the therapist will prescribe a sedative, and if you insist, then perhaps antidepressants. However, most of those who have panic attacks regularly know that both are ineffective.
Firstly, panic attacks have little to do with the general state of the nervous system and are not amenable to drug control, and secondly, is life without stress possible today? Even if you hide from the frustrations and negativity of human society on a desert island, there is no guarantee that some hurricane or tsunami will not hit it …
Those who realized that doctors and pills would not help them try to invent their own method of self-medication. Sometimes they manage to smooth out the severity of panic attacks or at least slightly reduce their frequency. The most effective ways of self-taught are systematic meditation, sports, yoga, various breathing techniques. Especially desperate people try to face a panic attack "face to face", trying to overcome their fear with willpower. This method is not for the faint of heart. And even more so not for people with a visual vector, who actually feel the need for emotional swings and, even sincerely suffering from panic attacks, subconsciously need them as a way of emotional release.
Again, panic attacks are the perfect excuse to feel sorry for ourselves, and we viewers often enjoy feeling sorry for ourselves. Especially if the visual vector is not sufficiently developed to recognize this pity as a parasitic emotion. Thoughts about how bad you are, how you suffer and are tormented, how awful it is to experience these attacks and how scary that during one of them you can suddenly die, constantly spinning in your head, causing painful sensations and provoking more and more attacks …
By the way, on some forums where the problem of panic attacks is discussed, you can often find advice from the series "try not to get hung up" and "think less about your panic attacks." Immediately I remember the story of Khoja Nasreddin, who promised to make one merchant incredibly rich under two conditions: if he sits in a sack all day and if he does not think about a monkey all this time … into the bag.
So it is with panic attacks. Attacks produce such a strong emotional shock that even a single panic attack can scare you to death and lead to the emergence of a completely separate fear - the fear of another attack. The syndrome of anxious expectation of the next panic attack can exhaust you just as well as Hitchcock's suspense. This ultimately leads to the recurrence of attacks and even to their frequency, because the more you fear an attack, the more likely it will come.
Visual panic
People with a visual vector are capable of experiencing the strongest and most vivid emotions. If we compare psychological vectors with voices, then the spectators are sopranos who can hit the highest notes. And spectators experiencing panic attacks are a coloratura soprano. Their emotional tuning fork is tuned so subtly that it reacts even to psychophysical vibrations of the ether inaudible to the ordinary ear …
In ancient society, tuning forks were the daytime guards of the human flock. It was they who were able not only to discern the impending danger in time, but also immediately warn their fellow tribesmen about it - a panic attack, covering them entirely, without a trace, was instantly read by the flock. Visual guards, better than any modern alarm system, conveyed a danger signal - a frightened scream, the smell of fear pheromones that were released with sweat, nervous tremors and convulsions of horror that seized them when there was a danger to life, whatever form it took.
Thus, the fear of death underlies the mechanism of the effect of panic attacks on the body. And even if panic attacks are outwardly provoked by some other, specific fears or situations, the roots of these attacks go to the fear of death. It is he who launches a chain reaction and makes the heart beat in horror, the hands go numb, and the body sweats and trembles … Why did evolution keep this "notification mechanism", which has long been no practical application?
According to statistics, panic attacks torment 5% of humanity, which means that every twentieth person experiences sudden attacks of animal terror from time to time. One way or another, trying to get rid of the problem, all these people walk in a vicious circle: psychotherapists - sedatives - antidepressants - meditations - sports - yoga - breathing exercises - auto-training and again psychotherapists …
Knowing the underlying causes of panic attacks made it possible to get rid of them. System-vector psychology is far from a descriptive science, it is a real practical tool in the hands of those who want to get rid of problems, who want to live without fear and in harmony with themselves. Today, panic attacks are on the list of problems solved with the help of SVPs. At the trainings of Yuri Burlan, you can get the necessary knowledge and finally break this vicious circle.
