The Psychology of your 20s - 173. Your guide to panic attacks

Episode Date: February 27, 2024

Panic attacks are awful, they sneak up on us in the worst moments and make us feel overwhelmed by an invisible fear. In today's episode we are going to talk through the psychology of panic attacks including:  Why they occur? Panic disorders vs. panic attacks  The flight, fight, freeze or fawn response The car alarm analogy  The function of anxiety and panic Anxiety avoidance vs. acceptance 7 evidence based tips for managing panic attacks  We also have a 7 minute meditation at the end of the episode that will talk you through a visualisation exercise for managing an actual panic attack. Listen now!  If you need immediate help please call your local crisis centre or access the following resources:  988 Mental Health Emergency Hotline (US) 13 11 14 Lifeline (Australia)  https://www.nhs.uk/service-search/mental-health/find-an-urgent-mental-health-helpline (UK)  Follow Jemma on Instagram: @jemmasbeg  Follow the podcast on Instagram: @thatpsychologypodcast See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Hello everybody. Welcome back to the show. Welcome back to the podcast. New listeners, old listeners, wherever you are in the world. It is so great to have you here back for another episode as we, of course, break down the psychology of your 20s. Today, we are going to be talking about a pretty significant emotion, a very core emotion and experience, both in our 20s and I think beyond, and that is the experience of panic, of fear, intense alarm, terror, whatever you want to call it, but specifically, we are going to be addressing panic attacks, that sudden onset of extreme dread and anxiety that engulfs us, normally in response to some threat in the environment. whether that is real or perceived.

Panic attacks are a terrible sensation, really. And I'm saying that as, of course, someone who has had, for years, experienced these as kind of part of my daily, weekly, monthly life. Often in response to things that I couldn't even identify, or which was so ambiguous and non-warisome in hindsight, that I felt like I didn't even know why these, panic attacks were occurring in the first place. They were just coming out of the blue, really, in that sense of confusion.

And more specifically, I think a lack of control felt equally scary. And I think this idea or this sensation that I couldn't control what my mind or my body was choosing to do, kind of kept that cycle continuing because I began to fear the sensation and fear the fear of a panic attack rather than anything in particular. And the more I think I began to actually learn about why that was, how that happened, what a panic attack is, the more I really felt that sense of control I needed. Not just a control over the bodily sensations that accompany this experience, the racing heartbeat, the shortness of breath, the tingles, the mental spiral.

but I also just increased this feeling of capability. I felt like I had a newfound ability to cope and to see panic as no more than just an emotion, an evolutionary response to my environment, an alarm system that was unfortunately broken for me. And although it was quite debilitating for a while, I used to get these really intense week or month-long periods where I was having them twice a day consistently.

I do now feel like I'm at this point where I understand why that happened and I learnt from it. And I learnt the best ways I think of dealing with this very weird sensation, with this very unique type of fear. And we're going to talk about it today. I want to talk you through my best tips for coping, tell you about what I've learned, and kind of provide you with the ultimate guide to panic attacks. We're going to discuss the true causes, some of the misconceptions, the distinction between panic and anxiety. And why it is that some people, perhaps like you and I, have this weird, misguided, malfunctioning alarm system. I always think that psychoeducation talking about the problem is such a valuable tool to begin with when it comes to anything, really,

because how can we feel in control of our panic if we don't even know, where it's coming from. If we don't even understand its emotional, biological, psychological origin, when we understand that psychology, we no longer feel like panic attacks are some big, scary visitor that we can't get rid of. They're just something a lot more simple and tame. They are a series of bodily and mental reactions that have just gotten their wires crossed. It's this combination of sensations that is meant to be helpful, but right now, It's not. And that is all that it is. It is not some big physical thing that is going to come in and ruin your life. You are not going to pass away. You are not going to die. You are not going to

feel like this forever. You will exhaust yourself. You will get through this. So let's talk about it. Before we start a little PSA that the final five, six minutes of this episode are a short relaxation audio if you are having a panic attack right now. So if you want to listen to that, please see the timestamp in the description. And if you are returning to this episode here as your reminder to feel free to skip ahead if that is what you're here for. But let's get started. Learning to deal with overwhelming and intense emotions is kind of part of our journey as humans for some more than others.

But I also don't think that the end goal, when we're talking about panic attacks or any emotion that is scary, I don't think that the end goal should be complete emotional regulation to never feel any negative emotions, constant peace and tranquility. Because I think that's depriving ourselves of some of the useful things that any emotion, does for us, some of the useful things that panic does for us. I know that that sounds a little bit ridiculous, as uncomfortable as panic attacks are. I actually think that the worst thing we can do for ourselves, either before, during, or after is try and ignore it to avoid or suppress the sensations of anxiety and fear by rushing through, by distracting, by pushing them aside, because eventually

it will make them stronger. I think that's... seems really counterintuitive, especially if you're someone who has a panic disorder and you experience these very regularly, it is natural to have a lot of fear towards the incidence of and the prevalence of your panic attacks, right? Like, no one wants to be in a place where they're feeling this uncomfortable. And so naturally, we want to push them away. We want to run away. we want to put our panic, our panic attacks, our anxiety in this box and hide it and hope to never hear from it again. When we rely too heavily, though, on avoidance, especially when it comes to feelings of panic, this only causes us to focus on them more intensely. It also gives them more power because the act of fearing fear, which is essentially what you're doing by avoiding something, increases that fear.

Now, I know that sounds very convoluted. But when we refuse to experience intense emotions like panic, we don't actually learn the skills to deal with them in the long run because we never have any practice. It also just causes them to return, I would say the best word is like to return stronger because every time we avoid thinking or feeling about our anxiety, it in many ways kind of returns with a vengeance because we never provide it with an outlet. And secondly, we never allow ourselves to truly acknowledge what might be triggering our fear,

whether it's internal or external, because we are so scared of looking at our fear directly. We are so scared of examining it. Now, what is it that triggers a panic attack? Panic is what we call a survival emotion. It is a reaction that serves the function of preparing us to fight off or escape danger by creating and triggering a fear that is so strong that it prevents all rational and logical thinking. And it causes us to only really focus on that one thing in our environment or in our mind that we see is dangerous or threatening. So in this way, panic is the result of our fight or flight response.

This response is very evolutionary. It also now includes freeze and it's essentially the automatic urge we have. to address danger and ensure our survival by either fighting back against this force, whatever it may be, running away, or in some cases becoming paralyzed and being unable to really do anything. This is triggered by something that we see as dangerous. I think most people know this, obviously. This automatic response is for our survival. It came.

It has developed for many, many, many generations. and in the past, the purpose that it served for our ancestors was that if there was a very real physical threat, like a big hungry lion or an incoming flood or a sinister neighboring tribe approaching us with weapons, we needed this panic to basically indicate to us to get away or to do something about it. Those were the threats that we faced when this automatic function and process first evolved and came about. nowadays these same triggers are still kind of present maybe not a lion i don't know where you're living though but more commonly these triggers can be anything that we perceive as dangerous sudden stressful or acute events but also a number of internal triggers phobias really bad dark thoughts certain stimulants

like caffeine ongoing stress many other things anything that evokes fear will as a result our fight or flight response because the part of us that is activating that response is not very intelligent. It is not rational. It is not, does not really have critical thinking skills. It is just meant to be there almost like an instantaneous alarm system. It is meant to be responding rapidly. And when something responds rapidly, as in this system, it doesn't have the time to really process what this thing that's scaring us really means. Whether it, it actually is truly dangerous. So when this automatic response is activated,

a particular part of our nervous system, known as our sympathetic nervous system, goes to work switching on all the bodily functions that we will need the most for immediate survival and switching off all of those that we don't need. So things like our digestive system, our sexual organs as a way to divert energy away from one thing, from one part of our body,

and put all of that energy to the systems that are going to help us with the threat in front of us. It floods us with neuropinephrine, with adrenaline, cortisol to get the body ready to fight, flee or freeze. And this subsequently triggers the symptoms that we associate with a panic attack. All of those bodily reactions are racing heart, sweating, dizziness, trembling, hot flushes, maybe that tingling in your arm, that tightness in your chest, a sense of imminent danger, spiraling thoughts. These sensations are caused by our body. They're caused by our involuntary response to danger.

For example, that tingling sensation we were just talking about, that's actually caused by blood vessels constricting and increasing blood to the heart so that we can run faster, fight harder. But it also leaves less blood flow to the rest of the body, causing that strange feeling in our limbs. Those hot flushes that we often experience, that's just caused by an increase in body temperature because of the effect of those crucial stress hormones.

All of those sensations that we fear, that we associate with a panic attack, are nothing more than our body doing what it evolved to do best, which is to help us survive. But sometimes we actually misinterpret those sensations and we begin to think it means something more. It means something in our body has gone wrong. And that just causes our panic and our feelings. to accelerate. The biggest one for me is when my heart starts racing and I think for sure I'm going to have a heart attack. I'm going to die. I can't slow my heart right down. This big essential

life-giving organ is going to burst in my chest. And what I know now is that that is the beginning of fearing the fear because I'm fearing the sensations. I'm not actually fearing the thing that cause those sensations in the first place. We get more worried about that than the actual danger. about our perception of danger. If you are someone who has a panic disorder, meaning you experience more frequent panic attacks of an increased severity, you also begin to fear having an attack at the wrong time,

maybe during a lecture, at work, during a date, and this begins to become quite debilitating because you kind of have to fight back against that very instinctual, natural, normal urge to avoid those situations where you're going to feel exposed. You don't want to be in a public place or in front of other people and having this sense of fear.

And that can actually lead to anticipatory anxiety. And that is that kind of constant panic that you will have a panic attack, that you will experience a panic attack when it's inconvenient when you are unprepared. And the thing about panic attacks, specifically those caused by a panic disorder or even a phoenix disorder, or even a phobia, is that they are often directed towards things that don't pose an immediate threat that are not going to kill us, but that natural and instinctive alarm system has become broken so that it starts firing off warning signs and getting the body prepared for survival

in response to a whole array of triggers. Everybody has an internal alarm system that warns them. of when they are in danger. You need that. It's important. But with anxiety or a panic disorder, our alarm system has kind of become a bit miscalibrated, a bit faulty, way too sensitive, meaning that our threshold for what we should panic about is much lower than other people's. The analogy I think we talk about a lot is having a faulty car alarm, for example. You know, the normal car alarm should really only go off when someone is like out the side of your window with a baseball bat trying to steal your CDs. Like it should be triggered by things that are actually

going to like cause the car to break down or be broken into. But in the brain of someone with anxiety or a panic disorder, that alarm is a lot more sensitive. So using that car analogy, it could be triggered by a leaf falling on the roof. And that is enough to set everything off, to get everything going. I think knowing that that is what causes some people to panic more than others was really comforting to me. And there are a number of reasons that might cause this lowered threshold for emotional and physiological arousal. These include things like a family history of panic attacks. We know that genetics and DNA play such a huge role in a lot of mental health conditions, but also a past traumatic event that has caused you to become hypervigilant

to your surroundings and to your own internal state as almost a survival skill to avoid that event happening again, to avoid future trauma. Another example is really major life changes or shifts that are taking so much energy from you already that there are very few mental resources left over to cope with small things. That's why we often see someone who is maybe going through like a big breakup, they've left their job, they've moved, and then suddenly they're having a panic attack about something that everyone else would think is super, super minor,

like not being able to find their car keys or some small comment that someone has said to them because they don't have the sufficient mental resources to deal with this added stress. remember in those moments though all this alarm system is trying to do is help you not harm you it's just your job in that moment to consciously interpret whether the system is getting it wrong and correct that perception the important thing i want to remind you is that panic attacks just cannot last forever it is not physically possible we will reach a point of exhaustion right? It's taking so much out of you. Most therapists or psychologists will tell you that a panic attack is probably going to peak around 10 minutes. It will most likely, most certainly subside within an hour, within half an hour most of the time. Sometimes obviously we can have multiple panic attacks in a row. So there'll be a small period where you're not panicking. Sometimes we can misinterpret that and feel

like we've had a panic attack for like a whole day, but people will tell you this is not one long continuous panic attacks, but one long, sorry, continuous panic attack, but multiple smaller panic attacks. Panic just takes so much out of you though. We genuinely do not have the resources to sustain such a feeling. This system that alarms you and sets you off and creates all of these changes in your body, it is meant for small concentrated bursts of energy. So over time, all that, it takes so much of your energy that you're going to run out. And I actually think that that's really nice to know. You will get through this. You have to reach an exhaustion point or a breaking point. Now, the reason you might be experiencing a greater

number of repetitive panic attacks, it might have to do with something in your environment or within your internal state that is causing you to feel unsafe. It doesn't necessarily need to be some big crazy, eccentric, you know, very obvious threat in your environment. For example, there was a time maybe two or three years ago where my panic attacks were terrible. They were awful. They were so, so frustrating. They happened all the time without control and also without seemingly a trigger. You know, I would be in bed and I would be panicking. What I began to realize was that actually the last few months when I looked back at them had been really, really rough. Really, really hard. I don't know if I want to go into it. And this was in the past. So maybe I will give you some detail. Like there had been

a lot of conflict going on in my life with friends. I was moving to a new city. I was graduating from university. I was saying goodbye to people. I was going through a breakup. I was, I was just slowly being worn down. I was taking a lot of my friends problems on as well. And I realized when I started, actually at the tail end of this period of panic that this had been coming up for a while. Like this had been in the works. This had been slowly brewing, but I kept suppressing it because I just was like, I don't have time to deal with this right now. I don't have time for a panic attack. I don't have time. And the longer I held back that wave, the stronger it eventually was when it burst through. The thing, though, about panic and fear is that although they definitely are villainized

because they are uncomfortable, sometimes you actually just have to feel it to get through it. Putting it off is going to make it worse in the long run. It's almost like playing whackamol, right? Like every time you see like the nose of the panic attack popping out, you try and hit it down and hit it down. But if you just let them pop up, they'll eventually go away. And you'll exert less energy trying to control everything in your environment to ensure that you don't feel fear when fear is actually a really natural response. Anxiety and panic actually serves a purpose. It might indicate that something is wrong and that you're unable to reach a state or a balance of homeostasis. It might show you that there is an ongoing stressor that you need to deal with. And when we see people who don't have that fear response at all,

I always think about Alex Honnold, the very famous free-selling rock climber. He's one of them. These individuals obviously have like a smaller amygdala, a smaller fear center of the brain. And they can't always identify danger. They often do risky things. They can't always, as well, identify other people's emotions. It's often the people who are most anxious that are also the most empathetic. And in some ways, maybe this is a very big claim, but also the most intelligent, because they are the ones who are sitting there thinking everything through,

thinking how everyone else is feeling, thinking how everything can go wrong, all of that catastrophizing. That's a lot of big brain exercises right there. regardless though of how quote unquote functional panic and anxiety might be to us as humans from a scientific point of view i'm sure that if you are someone who has panic attacks you have had a few moments where you would have given anything to live a life without them they're scary they're debilit they're so debilitating they're inconvenient we don't like feeling disrupted by an emotion that we can't control And I get that. I really, really get that. And I want to talk about how we can bring that fear back into the realm of what is conscious, what is actionable, something that we can do something about. How can we manage our panic attacks so they don't feel like this separate entity that is going to storm in and ruin everything for us? I want to provide you with some of my tried and tested tips for bringing you back down to earth and into your rational thinking self during these times.

Maybe you are in a period of panic right now in the depths of a panic attack. Maybe you can save this for a related time. Regardless, we're going to talk through five of my best evidence-based tips for managing panic attacks after this short break. 2%. That is the number of people who take the stairs when there is also an escalator available. I'm Michael Easter. And on my podcast, 2%. I break down the science of mental toughness, fitness, and building resilience in our strain.

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This isn't over until justice is served in Arizona. Listen to Love Trapped podcast on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Often when we are having a panic attack, our first instinct is to fight back because that is our natural reaction to fear. is to fight back or to avoid to distract ourselves. I always find that I immediately, as soon as I feel that like wave of panic coming on, I immediately like feel this weird jittery urge to move about, to get up from where I'm sitting, to move to a new space, to run around, escape, telling myself to stop, stop thinking about it, stop thinking about it, stop thinking about it.

But when you're telling yourself to stop thinking about it, stop thinking about anything, normally that just puts more of a spotlight on that thing because it still remains the subject right stop thinking about this this whether that's anxiety whatever it is is still the main attraction of that thought it just makes us a lot more aware of the feeling that we are trying to escape and over time trying to flee our fear trying to fight back against it trying to escape it becomes really ineffective. Panic attacks are a lot like quicksand. The more you struggle, the further entrenched and in trouble you become.

So you have to kind of force yourself to do the opposite of what your body is telling you to do, to do what is highly counterintuitive in these circumstances and relax into it. It is just a feeling. It is just a sensation. It's just fear. and fear does not have a physical form. It is not going to break through your door and grab you. It is not going to come into your body and shut your heart down and rip your limbs off.

Like it's simply a messenger for something that is going wrong or something that you need to address in your environment. I always like to give my anxiety 30 seconds to do whatever it wants to do when I'm about to have a panic attack. 30 seconds to ruin my life, to scream out loud, to cause my heart to stop. But when that's done, I'm going to move on. I'm giving my anxiety. I'm giving my panic attack, the reins. I'm giving it full control. I'm not trying to hide from it.

I'm not trying to give it more power than it deserves. I'm saying you can do your worst. You can try your hardest, whatever you have, throw it at me. And I often find that in those moments, it never leaves. lives up to what I thought it was going to do. It is like a small little yappy dog. It has a bark that is bigger than it's bite because it is just an emotion and emotions cannot hurt you. The other thing I like to do is to notice the feeling and then visualize it moving away. Visualize the feeling slowly dissolving whether that's being washed away by a tide or the other

one I like to think of is I'm holding my anxiety. I'm holding this trigger. I'm holding my fear. In my hand, it's a ball. It's a big baseball. It's a cricket ball. And I'm going to throw that ball as far away as I can and then I'm going to walk off. And all my fear is left with that object. All my fear is no longer mine to hold. It is in this tangible thing that is left that's left my body. When you notice the feeling and you give it a physical form that is not threatening, it's easier to see how it's in your control. I also find that focusing on those sensations that are very much aligned with a panic attack, very indicative of a panic attack, and choosing to just address one to begin with is really helpful because it takes,

it actually lets me focus on one thing rather than feeling like there are a million things I need to do in order to calm down. When I just focus on one, firstly, once that's under control, the others will probably follow. And secondly, it almost distracts me from what I'm worrying about because I'm focusing on just fixing this one thing, whether that is your breathing and you need to do a really quick breathing exercise of a four in, four hold, four out, five in, five hold, five out, whatever it is, whether it is addressing that tingling sensation, that desire to run, that is basically just pent up energy coming from those stress hormones and from restricted blood flow that is in your body, you can find like a somatic and a physical outlet, give all of that

nervous energy a place to go, whether that is going for a run, going boxing, doing 20 star jumps. Right now, 10 push-ups, I can't do 10 push-ups, but there you go. can try it. It just also shows your body that like, you're like, yeah, okay, you want me to do something about this. You're telling me that I'm in danger. I'll do something about it. I will move around. I will be physical. I will make sure that all of those extra hormones and all those stress hormones or neurotransmitters that you've got flooding through my body. They are serving a purpose. I'm going to do something about this trigger and it tricks the brain into calming you down. I also like to adopt the 5-5-5 rule. There are different iterations.

of this. Sometimes it's the 5-4-3-2-1 rule, the 4-4-4-4 rule. But I always like to do the breathing exercise, or breathe in for 5, hold for 5, breathe out for 5. Identify five things that you can see that are a particular colour and five things that you can touch. And feel exactly how that fabric of that thing, that texture of that thing feels on your finger, feels on your body. Focus on something that is outside of you rather than the chaos and the hurricane of emotions that is within you. What this does is move you away from focusing on the fear and panic sensation, a feeling that is automatic and involuntary, and it gets you to focus on a sensation that you can control, something that you can bring into your orbit and do something about.

It's also why things like ice on your wrists or immediately putting something sour in your mouth, I always have wotheads with me, is really useful because your brain is like, wait a second, what is this weird feeling that is suddenly happening? Like, we need to focus on that because it's so shocking and out of the blue, like that intense cold or that intense sour taste. Really, like your brain cannot juggle too many stimulus or stimuli in the environment, too much information at once. So it needs to choose what to focus on. It's going to focus on the thing that just feels most immediate. And that might not be your panic if that, there is something else more pressing in your environment,

like a really intense sensation that is going to drag you away from focusing on your fear. I also find that grounding exercises are incredibly useful, particularly ones that allow you to feel connected with nature. So going outside, taking your shoes off and putting your feet on the dirt, putting your feet in the grass, feeling how squishy it feels, how kind of dirty it feels, the tingling, the tickly sensation of the grass, feeling connected with nature. And we've seen study after study that has indicated that this naturally calms down our brain.

Whether it's because of the wide open spaces give us a sense of like a place to escape to, whether the fresh air does something to bring us back to a state of like homeostasis into a feeling of a place of calm. One particular study that focuses on this says that the reason nature is such an important tool for integrative health but also for anxiety is that grounding and earthing in particular utilizes the electric charge from the earth and utilizes our nerve cells on the surfaces of our body to bring us into contact with the natural material and this as a result stabilizes a lot of that stress. it improves blood flow, it generates just a greatest sense of calm because we're focusing on what these things feel like for us. And it's bringing all that blood back into the nerves that are on our extremities rather than all concentrating on the heart and the lungs and the brain that's creating all that panic, that hot, flush sensation, that tingling. I feel like this goes

without saying, but if you are someone who is having a lot of panic attacks, I don't know what you're doing drinking caffeine or drinking alcohol excessively. Maybe that is all I need to say, but caffeine is a natural stimulant. And we don't often think about this. Alcohol as well has an anxious effect the morning after. Alcohol is a depressant. It does slow everything down. It might make you feel calm when you're drinking it. But the next morning, you're going to experience this huge spike in hormones and neurotransmitters that want to bring you back to that stable level. In the moment when you're drinking, it slows everything down. It releases these neurotransmitters and these hormones that really bring like almost a sense of calm. Really, it's just

ethanol being processed by the body. The next morning, the next day, your body needs to bring back a sense of alertness. But because the sense of calm has been so intense, it kind of swings too far on the opposite direction, creating anxiety, contributing to panic attacks. Now, not everything is going to be entirely effective for you in managing this. Don't keep forcing habits or practices on yourself that don't work because you're just going to feel more frustrated and less in control because you're trying and not succeeding. I have a checklist in my phone of everything that I know works for me. And there are about, I think at this stage, over 30 things that I know I can do that are going to calm me down. So if the first one doesn't work, well, the second one probably will.

And if that one doesn't work, I've got the third, fifth, all the way to 30 of options for me. And even the understanding and even like the fact that I know I have that list makes me feel so much better because I know that I have resources and options available that I'm not going to be stuck in that panicked moment because I've done that before. The biggest ones for me are meditations. I love going through my photo albums as a distraction, cleaning out all my photos. And I have my affirmations, my little reminders that I have survived this before. I will survive this now.

I am safe. I'm going to inhale the good thoughts, exhale the bad ones. And I'm just going to sit with that feeling for a little bit and give it a chance to hurt me. And after a while, I realize that it won't. It won't hurt me. The final thing that really helps me that I return to again and again in my own life are these short five-minute visualization exercises that I can put on, listen to, and I find it really calms me down.

I even imagine them when I don't have immediate access to that audio, like on a plane or someone without Wi-Fi or an internet. So I want you to pause with me for a second. And we're going to go through one together. right now. I know that right now it feels like your panic is taking over. That's okay. Remember, it is just a feeling, no different to feeling joyful or frustrated or happy or angry. These emotions exist only within you and your panic is not going to hurt you. It is not physical. It has come from you and therefore you can control it. I'm here.

with you now in this moment and you and I are like partners. I'm going to watch out for you whilst you take some time to realign all of your senses, make sense of this feeling and in only a few minutes you're going to be able to return to whatever it is you were just doing. Don't worry about what's going on around you. I can do that for you. All I need you to focus on right now is your body and what your feeling. I want you to focus on your breathing with me. We're going to breathe in for five seconds now. Five, four, three, two, one. Now hold for five, four, three, two, one, and breathe out for five seconds. Good job. I knew that wouldn't be too hard. I want you to pause for a second and repeat that three more times. I'm sure you're feeling better now. I can see that. Good job. I'm proud of you.

Now I want you to focus on your heartbeat for a few seconds and you take a few more deep breaths. Just notice how it begins to slow down. You're doing that because you're in control. Your anxiety doesn't have as much control as it would like. You are the one in charge. You're a bit like a scientist in this moment. I want you to think of this panic you're feeling as an interesting specimen you want to understand better. It's sitting right in front of you,

behind a nice, reinforced pain of glass. It can't hurt you, it can't touch you, but you can observe it. And notice what it's responding to. as you relax it will too and if you can't that is okay you can always walk out of the room and leave your anxiety behind it is not going to escape it's not going to hurt you because you are in control you have the key and you alone to test this i want you to give your anxiety 30 seconds to break free 30 seconds to try and escape, to take over, to do its worst.

You're being really generous with your anxiety. You don't have to do this for it, but you are deciding to be kind today. You're going to look at your anxiety right now and say, okay, it's your turn, do whatever you would like, destroy the room, jump around, whatever you want to do. But after 30 seconds, you have had to have. had your chance and now it's my turn. So let's count down together. Okay. 30, 29, 28, 27, 26, 25, 24. You might feel like your anxiety is fighting very hard right now to get out of that room, but it's still trapped behind that glass while you're sitting calmly in the

nice comfortable chair watching each of its moves not needing to react 23 22 21 20 20 19 18 your anxiety is getting tired now you can see it losing its steam it knows it's not going to win this time or the next it's slowly losing its energy. 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 13, 13, 12, 12, 11, 11, 11, 10. Your anxiety has run out of energy. It's not screaming or yelling anymore. It is slowing down, its eyes are closing. nine, eight, seven, six, five. There's your anxiety sitting calmly in the corner. Four, three, two, one.

Now, it's your time. Focus on your breath again for me. breathe in again for five four three two one now we're going to hold and finally breathe out with me five four three two one if you need to you can do that a few more times it's always going to be up to you as you continue to breathe deeply i want I want to remind you that you are safe and supported in this moment. Panic attacks can be overwhelming, but you have the strength within you to overcome them, like you just did. Remember to be gentle with yourself and to acknowledge those feelings.

You are so capable and brave and strong and I am so proud of you. I want you to talk to your panic now. talk to your anxiety. You can see, really, that it's just this weak little creature sitting in the corner of the room. You feel slightly sorry for it and you're going to speak to it with compassion.

I know you're scared anxiety and that's okay. I'm going to be gentle with you. You can be at peace here. Nothing is wrong. We are alive. We are breathing. We are loved.

and you are welcome here. I know that you have been misunderstood in the past. I know I've been scared of you, but I can see that under that scary exterior, you are just an emotion trying to be seen. I see you. I acknowledge you. You can stay here for a while,

but in exchange, you don't get to be in control. I'm in control. So feel free to get comfy, to rest. let me know if you need anything and we can talk again but for now i'm going to leave this room and get on with my day i'm going to leave in three two one goodbye anxiety are you feeling better i really hope so and if not please feel free to listen again when we visualize our anxiety as something that is harmless something that we can see we can hold that we can approach.

We release a lot of that additional fear we have around what it can do to us, the harm it can cause. Because at the end of the day, something that we forget is that it is just another emotion and you are the house, the home of all of these emotions. They are you. You have the final say. I really hope that this episode helped you, just giving you more information about what panic attacks actually are guiding you through what to do about it, some of my tactics

and my tips providing you with that psycho education. I hope you're just feeling better. I hope that if you need to return to this episode that you do, it will always be here. Feel free to come back. I will still be here eternally in this little voice, in this little episode clip. But if there is someone you know who might need to hear this,

please feel free to share it with them. As always, if you enjoyed this episode, please feel free to leave a five-star review wherever you are listening right now. If you liked this episode, I know it's a bit different to what I usually do. Please let me know if it was of any help, if you would like me to do more episodes like this. You can DM me over on Instagram at that psychology podcast. I would love to hear from you.

I'm sending you love. I'm sending you strength. I'm proud of you. Good job. You got through it. And we will be back next week with another episode. 2%. That's the number of people who take the stairs when there is also an essay.

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And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a year, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. With our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors. Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s. 84 was a wild year. It was a wild year. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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