How I Stopped Having Anxiety Attacks
The background: I used to suffer from debelitating anxiety attacks. It lasted several months and put my life on hold. But I don't have them any more. I cured myself, and here's how.
For me, the best way to beat anxiety was to change the mechanical way my mind and body reacted to adrenalin. A trained CBT therapist would be able to help you do this, but I didn't have a therapist (none available), so I just read up on the subject instead.
The most important thing is to know that anxiety attacks are caused by an excess of adrenalin. The body learns to produce this at the drop of a hat. The physical symptoms can vary massively from person to person (dizziness, disturbed vision, shaking, nausea, chest pain, diarrhoea, various others) but can be very strong and very disconcerting. Obviously if you experience any of this you should see a doctor to rule out other causes. But all of these can be caused by adrenalin and are often mistaken by the sufferer for signs of other serious problems - like heart attack or insanity.
Your mind and body become hair-trigger aware of these symptoms. You start to feel bad. You instantly worry that you're feeling bad. This just makes you produce more adrenalin and feel more bad, spiralling into full-on attack. The whole process can happen in less than a second, which then makes it hard for you to believe that the attack was brought on by your own thought processes, rather than some external cause.
The solution is to prevent the spiral, by nipping the negative thoughts in the bud. For instance, if you are a phobic you might see a spider, think "Oh no, this is going to make me feel bad," and that very thought is enough to produce the adrenalin and hence the attack - making it a self-fulfilling prophecy. The more you suffer from anxiety, the more you start monitoring yourself constantly, thinking "Am I having an anxiety attack? Am I going to have an anxiety attack?" Sadly those very thoughts can be enough to make you start feeling anxious, hence producing the adrenalin, hence having an attack. The more you worry about it, the more likely it is to happen.
The answer is two-fold:
1. First you have to physically retrain your body so that you can force yourself into a state of relaxation at will. If your body is relaxed, it's physically impossible to have an anxiety attack. The way to sort this is by learning relaxation techniques, learning to recognise the signs of tension, getting your body trained to view relaxation as a normal thing. For instance, whenever you become aware of your shoulders hunching up, you consciously lower them, do some deep breaths, do some yoga stretches to unknot your shoulders. Learning relaxation takes time though - you can't learn it overnight and I suspect there are very few people who are totally in control of this.
2. The second part of recovery lies in your own thought processes. It's actually mind-boggingly simple, but that doesn't mean it's easy. Whenever your mind starts to worry, you have to have a conversation with yourself, along the lines of:
-- "Oh no, I'm going to have an anxiety attack!"
-- "No I'm not. I don't have to. I'll only have an attack if I start worrying about it. I can stop this from happening. I can stop myself from producing the adrenalin. I'm learning how to stop this. It doesn't have to happen."
You can also have that conversation with yourself earlier on, when you're monitoring yourself:
-- "Am I feeling anxious?"
-- "No, and there's no reason why I would, particularly if I stop thinking about that and think about something else instead"
...and also in the middle of an attack:
-- "I'm having an attack! This is terrible! My life is over!"
-- "No it isn't. I can make this stop. It's just adrenalin. It won't kill me. It's not bad for me. I can make it stop if I stop worrying about it, let it wash over me, try and relax."
Some important things:
1. Catastrophic thoughts. The "Oh no!" kind. They're sometimes general, sometimes specific ("I'm dying!" "I'm going mad!" "My life is over!"). Be aware of them. Deny them. Argue against them. Try to stop having them.
2. Self monitoring. Try not to do it. It's the origin of the self-fulfilling prophecy. Rather than worry about how you are, try and think of something else. Which brings us to...
3. Distraction. When you're feeling bad, find something else to do. Something that will engage your mind quite fully. I used to do puzzles, and also I used to force myself to find someone and talk to them (even though I didn't want to). That forced me out of my own head and also allowed me to vocalise what I was flapping about and talk myself out of it, out loud.
4. Giving in to attacks. Don't fight an attack, let it wash over you. Remember this is the same basic feeling as a rush of pleasure or excitement, it's just that you're interpreting it negatively. It won't kill you. If you try and fight it you will just make yourself more tense. It will come to an end if you let it.
5. Time. All these techniques work, but not overnight. Don't feel guilty if you carry on having attacks despite knowing all this stuff. It takes time to retrain your mind and body. Try and note small advances. Rope someone else in to notice if the attacks are getting weaker and/or less frequent. Get them to cheer you on, encourage you. They can help to counter the negative thoughts, and more specifically they can argue against them when you express them out loud. Weaker / less frequent attacks are a sign that you're getting better, and the whole thing WILL come to an end.
You'll be all right. Give yourself time. Argue against yourself. You'll get there. I did.
For me, the best way to beat anxiety was to change the mechanical way my mind and body reacted to adrenalin. A trained CBT therapist would be able to help you do this, but I didn't have a therapist (none available), so I just read up on the subject instead.
The most important thing is to know that anxiety attacks are caused by an excess of adrenalin. The body learns to produce this at the drop of a hat. The physical symptoms can vary massively from person to person (dizziness, disturbed vision, shaking, nausea, chest pain, diarrhoea, various others) but can be very strong and very disconcerting. Obviously if you experience any of this you should see a doctor to rule out other causes. But all of these can be caused by adrenalin and are often mistaken by the sufferer for signs of other serious problems - like heart attack or insanity.
Your mind and body become hair-trigger aware of these symptoms. You start to feel bad. You instantly worry that you're feeling bad. This just makes you produce more adrenalin and feel more bad, spiralling into full-on attack. The whole process can happen in less than a second, which then makes it hard for you to believe that the attack was brought on by your own thought processes, rather than some external cause.
The solution is to prevent the spiral, by nipping the negative thoughts in the bud. For instance, if you are a phobic you might see a spider, think "Oh no, this is going to make me feel bad," and that very thought is enough to produce the adrenalin and hence the attack - making it a self-fulfilling prophecy. The more you suffer from anxiety, the more you start monitoring yourself constantly, thinking "Am I having an anxiety attack? Am I going to have an anxiety attack?" Sadly those very thoughts can be enough to make you start feeling anxious, hence producing the adrenalin, hence having an attack. The more you worry about it, the more likely it is to happen.
The answer is two-fold:
1. First you have to physically retrain your body so that you can force yourself into a state of relaxation at will. If your body is relaxed, it's physically impossible to have an anxiety attack. The way to sort this is by learning relaxation techniques, learning to recognise the signs of tension, getting your body trained to view relaxation as a normal thing. For instance, whenever you become aware of your shoulders hunching up, you consciously lower them, do some deep breaths, do some yoga stretches to unknot your shoulders. Learning relaxation takes time though - you can't learn it overnight and I suspect there are very few people who are totally in control of this.
2. The second part of recovery lies in your own thought processes. It's actually mind-boggingly simple, but that doesn't mean it's easy. Whenever your mind starts to worry, you have to have a conversation with yourself, along the lines of:
-- "Oh no, I'm going to have an anxiety attack!"
-- "No I'm not. I don't have to. I'll only have an attack if I start worrying about it. I can stop this from happening. I can stop myself from producing the adrenalin. I'm learning how to stop this. It doesn't have to happen."
You can also have that conversation with yourself earlier on, when you're monitoring yourself:
-- "Am I feeling anxious?"
-- "No, and there's no reason why I would, particularly if I stop thinking about that and think about something else instead"
...and also in the middle of an attack:
-- "I'm having an attack! This is terrible! My life is over!"
-- "No it isn't. I can make this stop. It's just adrenalin. It won't kill me. It's not bad for me. I can make it stop if I stop worrying about it, let it wash over me, try and relax."
Some important things:
1. Catastrophic thoughts. The "Oh no!" kind. They're sometimes general, sometimes specific ("I'm dying!" "I'm going mad!" "My life is over!"). Be aware of them. Deny them. Argue against them. Try to stop having them.
2. Self monitoring. Try not to do it. It's the origin of the self-fulfilling prophecy. Rather than worry about how you are, try and think of something else. Which brings us to...
3. Distraction. When you're feeling bad, find something else to do. Something that will engage your mind quite fully. I used to do puzzles, and also I used to force myself to find someone and talk to them (even though I didn't want to). That forced me out of my own head and also allowed me to vocalise what I was flapping about and talk myself out of it, out loud.
4. Giving in to attacks. Don't fight an attack, let it wash over you. Remember this is the same basic feeling as a rush of pleasure or excitement, it's just that you're interpreting it negatively. It won't kill you. If you try and fight it you will just make yourself more tense. It will come to an end if you let it.
5. Time. All these techniques work, but not overnight. Don't feel guilty if you carry on having attacks despite knowing all this stuff. It takes time to retrain your mind and body. Try and note small advances. Rope someone else in to notice if the attacks are getting weaker and/or less frequent. Get them to cheer you on, encourage you. They can help to counter the negative thoughts, and more specifically they can argue against them when you express them out loud. Weaker / less frequent attacks are a sign that you're getting better, and the whole thing WILL come to an end.
You'll be all right. Give yourself time. Argue against yourself. You'll get there. I did.