How to have a panic attack
Recently, I've been getting some practice in finding out 'how' people know to feel certain ways, e.g. how they know to be scared of spiders. I've been trying to get the process they go through to have that fear, rather than the reason that they belive they feel scared. This is going from the NLP-type view that the 'why' isn't all that important. It doesn't matter if somebody is scared of spiders because their parents are, because they found one in their food as a child, or whatever else they belive the reason is. The idea is, that if you can get the process they go through from being calm before seeing (or thinking about) a spider, to being afraid, then you can start to change it.
The biggest problem I've had with this, is being able to ask people the right kind of questions to get the type of answer that I'm looking for. People generally aren't aware of their internal thought process, it happens automatically so they don't pay any attention to it. I tried asking a friend of mine, who has a fear of water to the point of taking a panic attack, about the thought process he goes through to get from being calm to having a panic attack. Just thinking about it is enough to make him feel anxious, so it's a fairly strong response. At first, he was mostly saying things like "I just feel my heart speeding up" or "I just feel scared when I get near to it" - but after asking some strange questions I did manage to get him to describe the process he was going through in his mind. He said he imagines himself drowning in the water, seeing it from his own eyes as if he's actually in the water, and seeing the bubbles of air going up past his face to the surface. No wonder he manages to have a panic attack when he thinks about it in that way.
After getting the description of what he does mentally, it seemed like a good fit for a technique I first read about from one of Richard Bandler's books (I can't remember which one). The technique is to get the person to go through the thought process (in this case, it would be imagining the drowning) and as they're doing it, to turn the brightness right up for the pictures or movie in their mind - just like they would if it was on TV, so that it totally whites out. So they can't see anything apart from whiteness. Then go through the same process a few more times (5 being the recommend number), each time turning the brightness all the way up. The idea is that by doing this, you're effectively brain-washing yourself so that you can't play that internal movie in the same way again. When you try it'll just white out again. A blank white movie isn't enough to scare you or cause any anxiety, so no more fear or panic attacks.
The only downside in this case was that after I explained to my friend what I wanted him to do, he said he didn't like the sound of that, and that the whiteness would just be 'nothing' which might be even worse than what he has now. So I don't actually know if this technique would have helped in this case, but from what I've read of other peoples results they've been pretty successful. No doubt I'll get other chances to practice this kind of thing, but I thought it was an interesting response to not wanting to try it. At least he didn't just say "it wont work for me" :-)
The biggest problem I've had with this, is being able to ask people the right kind of questions to get the type of answer that I'm looking for. People generally aren't aware of their internal thought process, it happens automatically so they don't pay any attention to it. I tried asking a friend of mine, who has a fear of water to the point of taking a panic attack, about the thought process he goes through to get from being calm to having a panic attack. Just thinking about it is enough to make him feel anxious, so it's a fairly strong response. At first, he was mostly saying things like "I just feel my heart speeding up" or "I just feel scared when I get near to it" - but after asking some strange questions I did manage to get him to describe the process he was going through in his mind. He said he imagines himself drowning in the water, seeing it from his own eyes as if he's actually in the water, and seeing the bubbles of air going up past his face to the surface. No wonder he manages to have a panic attack when he thinks about it in that way.
After getting the description of what he does mentally, it seemed like a good fit for a technique I first read about from one of Richard Bandler's books (I can't remember which one). The technique is to get the person to go through the thought process (in this case, it would be imagining the drowning) and as they're doing it, to turn the brightness right up for the pictures or movie in their mind - just like they would if it was on TV, so that it totally whites out. So they can't see anything apart from whiteness. Then go through the same process a few more times (5 being the recommend number), each time turning the brightness all the way up. The idea is that by doing this, you're effectively brain-washing yourself so that you can't play that internal movie in the same way again. When you try it'll just white out again. A blank white movie isn't enough to scare you or cause any anxiety, so no more fear or panic attacks.
The only downside in this case was that after I explained to my friend what I wanted him to do, he said he didn't like the sound of that, and that the whiteness would just be 'nothing' which might be even worse than what he has now. So I don't actually know if this technique would have helped in this case, but from what I've read of other peoples results they've been pretty successful. No doubt I'll get other chances to practice this kind of thing, but I thought it was an interesting response to not wanting to try it. At least he didn't just say "it wont work for me" :-)
3 Comments:
I used to have an issue with spiders, that I sorted out myself with my own brand of exposure therapy because it was really annoying (used to get spiders with 3 or 4 inch leg spans at my old house and after spending a night on the kitchen floor because there was a spider above the door I figured things need sorting).
Anyway - my point is that I read several times way back then that arachnophobia was thought to be a physiological response. Something about the way a spider's legs move triggers a neurological response in a very similar way to the way a strobe light can cause epileptic seizures.
Don't know if that's true, or if it's relevant to other phobias, but that's what I read.
Probably on the web.
Like this is.
By Steve, at 8:24 AM
i know what he means when he says it may scare him more, i too have many panic attacks and they are scary, but the thought of nothingness is a bit worse, if you're picturing yourself drowning then there's nothingness, where does that put you?...dead! he would probably end up passing out and then the attacks may get worse from the fear then of passing out!
By Anonymous, at 11:16 PM
If the thought of nothingness is more scary than the panic attacks themselves, then I think it would be wise to go down a different path than the 'white out' pattern I mentioned in the original post. Maybe using the NLP swish pattern would be more useful here. So instead of saying when you think of [thing that causes panic attack], white it out and think of nothing. You would instead teach them a sequence of thoughts which will automatically (and very quickly) take them from panic-attack-causing-thoughts to positive-comfortable-thoughts. Or possibly going for a more conventional hypnotherapy method (it feels very strange referring to a hypnotherapy as a conventional method :)), or some other method entirely. There are lots of options, so you can move away from having panic attacks.
By Wilka, at 12:36 PM
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