What is happening?

If you have experienced a severe panic attack, or know someone who has, you will know how frightening it can be. It is all the more frightening when you don't know what the problem is. My wife has MS, and when she first had what we described as an 'episode', we thought it might be related to that. We imagined all kinds of terrible things going wrong.

It came from nowhere, when she seemed to be relaxed. She felt tingling running up her body, became cold and clammy and started to struggle to breathe. Her whole body tensed as she fought to stay in control. It was about 20 minutes before she finally calmed down.

We saw our own doctor who offered little help. Then on a scheduled visit to a neurologist, we described the symptoms to him. He tried several exercises to try to induce an attack, but failed. He couldn't tell us what it was or if it might be related to MS. We were no further forward. We didn't know what the attack was or if they would be more of them.

The Fear Factor

Unknowingly, we had discovered one of the great problems of panic attacks. The fear that you will have another attack, plays its part in perpetuating them. They did recur over more than a year. Finally, there was the worst one yet. My wife was in so much distress, and I was pretty worried too, that I had to call an ambulance.

The paramedics immediately recognised that it was a panic attack. They did some checks to rule out other possibilities, but they were pretty sure. They didn't seem to have any way of treating panic attack, except to reassure us that there was no physical danger. They tried to get her to control her breathing and calm down. But the nature of a panic attack is that you are not in control.

When the attack had subsided naturally, they left us, still knowing nothing. I had heard of panic attacks, but had no idea they were like this. Would they continue? Would they get worse? We didn't know. Was there anything we could do to prevent panic attacks in the future? Fortunately, I stumbled upon a solution.

A very informative website

It was in the form of a website about a book called The Panic Away Program, (It is due to be retitled, 'The Anxiety Release Method', sometime in 2009). It immediately struck a chord with me. Some of the symptoms it talked about were exactly what my wife had experienced.

But what caught my attention was the many testimonials from people who had been helped by the program. We had been left in the dark by the medical profession. But these people seemed to have tried every drug and therapy on offer, without success, until they found this program. I had no idea that panic attacks were so widespread and seemed to be so difficult to get rid of.

The website provides a lot of useful information and more is available by email. It is written by Joe Barry, a victim of panic attacks for 30 years. when nothing worked for him, he finally did his own research and came up with this one himself. You can tell from the way he writes that he really understands the problem.

He points out that the fear of another panic attack can start the spiral of anxiety. That was exactly how my wife felt. Any little unusual sensation or dark thought and she would imagine that another one was on the way. And the thought that it was happening tended to make it happenl. The way he wrote about it, it was as if he was talking to us. We had to buy the book.

What's in the book?

Before I go on to talk about the book, I should say that, although I found it very readable, reading is not some peoples favourite passtime. For you, all the information is also presented in a series of video presentations

The book begins with a fictional account of a woman experiencing a first panic attack and the aftermath of it. This will be familiar to many sufferers. Then there is a discussion of the various theories about the causes of panic attacks. The one that the author favours makes perfect sense to me. This is followed by a brief, one line description of each of the three stages of the program.

The Three Stages

Stage 1: Trust

Here there is a detailed description of the physical and emotional responses that take place during a panic attack. It reassures you that what is happening is just the bodies perfectly natural reaction to a perceived threat. As frightening as it may feel, you cannot really be harmed, either physically or psychologically.

This is just the 'fight or flight' response, which is actually designed to protect you in times of real danger. And when the danger is passed, a second system automatically restores everything to normal, without your intervention.

The way of dealing with this response is known as the 'One Move Technique'. This involves a having a totally different mindset when you feel an attack beginning. I have to say that this is the opposite of what you might expect. In fact, on first reading, you might think that you might not be able to or even want to do this.

Even if when you see the logic of it, how would you remember what to do in the midst of an attack? Don't worry. A friendly audio is provided that talks you through the process. This technique really does help to overcome the fear factor, both during an attack and in relation to future attacks.

Stage 2: Accept

A panic attack is an extreme reaction to a trigger that would not normally bother you. This is due to a higher than normal, general level of anxiety that makes you more sensitized to what life throws at you. The book provides a method of accepting and embracing this, as a first step in reducing it to a more normal level. There are also lots of small, easy, lifestyle changes that can contribute to this process, as well as mental and physical exercises you can use.

Stage 3: Persist

This book doesn't pretend to be a quick fix. If you have been a victim for years, you wouldn't expect that. This method does require some commitment to make it work. But it needn't take as long as you might think. You could be free of anxiety attacks in a matter of weeks. The book makes it clear that there are likely to be setbacks. This section is designed to help you to carry on through these, and even regard them as part of the healing process.

After completing the explanation of how to prevent panic attacks, the last part of this section returns to what they are all about. It explains some of the physical sensations that people have and the emotional responses that these produce. The book gives reassurance that these are usually perfectly natural and nothing to be alarmed about, although it does suggest that you get certain things checked out, just to put your mind at rest.

A note of hope

In the conclusion to the book, the author asserts that anyone is capable of being free from anxiety attacks. He was certainly an extreme case himself, and he came through it.

From our own point of view, we have not had time to implement the entire system so far, but my wife is already in a very much more positive frame of mind. She has had the kind of feelings that might have once been the beginning of an attack, but so far, so good.

I really do believe that removing the fear of an attack defuses it and stops the escalation into a full blown attack. I don't think that I will be seeing her gripped by panic again.

The Panic Away website provides a lot of useful information and is quite reassuring in itself. It is worth signing up for the free email newsletter.