Overcoming Panic And Anxiety Attacks

Wikipedia defines panic attack as a “period of intense fear or psychological distress, typically of abrupt onset.” It is distinguished from other forms of anxiety by it’s intensity and it’s sudden episodic nature. Symptoms include fast-beating heart, tense muscles, shortness of breath, dizziness, etc.

I know how difficult to help a person paralyzed with this kind of fear. I have a close relative who experienced episodic anxiety attack and it took a year before she seemed to regain control of her “fears”. I would like to share with you some strategies that helped her recover It is called the Morita Therapy, a psychological treatment named for the late Japanese psychologist Shoma Morita.

Here’s some of the strategies developed by Morita :

* Accept your anxiety. Stop rejecting it, stop trying to control or eliminate it and stop seeing it as a personal weakness or mental abnormality.

* Develop a new way of relating to your anxiety. Realize your anxiety is yours. It is not some foreign thing that invades your life and renders you powerless. It has come from within you. It is you, and must be prepared to claim it as your own. Once you decide to give up the fight, you will experience the relief that comes from no longer having to be constantly prepared for the battle. This allows you to work with it.

* Develop an awareness of anxiety as an emotion. The thoughts running through your mind must be considered. The anxiety you have are simply feelings and like all feelings, they come and go as they please, and the only thing to do with emotions is to let them be.

* Get behind your negative thoughts. Remember that they have energy that can either weaken or strengthen you. Eliminate negative thoughts.

* Learn about your anxiety. Take responsibility of your condition. Knowledge restores confidence, increases self-esteem and brings power.

In my friend’s journey, throughout the treatment, she learned to link with God and trust it all to Him. How freeing it is to recognize that when we are found with days of uncertainty, we do not have to panic. We can depend on God to control the outcome.