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 The Basics about Panic Attacks - Introduction

The unsayable is in the very essence of the panic attack; defying the logic of the experience - in every other sense the client 'knows' (mostly) they are not going to stop breathing; not going to have a heart attack; is not going to suffocate.

The unsayable is not a failure or deficit of language, rather is itself in the origin of the panic attack.

Panic Attacks and Postmodernity: Gestalt Therapy Between Clinical and Social Perspectives.  Gianni Francesetti (Editor) 2007

The daily life of those who suffer panic attacks is suddenly interrupted, as if they had suffered a severe trauma.  In panic attacks, as opposed to a trauma event, there is no phenomenological source for the client's anxiety; a trauma has occurred - its nature, however is unsayable.

The new ground has its origins in a full awareness of the fragility of existence and in a decision to live life to the full, seeking to contrast the fear of losing what one has with the positive aggressive determination to actively give and take what one wishes.

Below

A number of links to sites that talk about Panic Attacks and Disorder

Panic and Phobias in Children and Adolescents

Specific Symptoms of a Panic Attack

Panic Disorder

Panic attacks may be defined as a necessarily dramatic way of reaching out for a relationship, helping to reconstruct the belonging, which is a constituent part of any integrated and full identity

From a Gestalt perspective panic is consider as a healthy and normal creative-adjustment.  Panic is a phenomenon that serves to protect the individual in situations of extreme environmental danger.  A Panic Attack is the experience of panic in a situation where there is no (apparent) extreme danger.

The concept of figure/ground is pertinent to the understanding of panic attacks.  In the panic attack the individual's ground disintegrates, gives way, and this both prevents the figure formation to complete and shatters the existence of what was perceived as being taken for granted, i.e., the ground

No More Panic

....  or  ... maybe ... HOLD ON TIGHT ... DON'T LET GO ... BREATHE, SLOW, DEEP ...  FOCUS ... ON THE LIGHT ... THE DOOR ... YOUR HAND ... PEACE ...

The following text is an extract from this website - www.patient.co.uk

Try the following for 2-3 minutes. Practice this every day until you can do it routinely in any stressful situation.

 Breathe slowly and deeply in through your nose, and out through your mouth in a steady rhythm. Try to make your breath out twice as long as your breath in. To do this you may find it helpful to count slowly "one" as you breathe in, and "two, three" as you breathe out.

Mainly use your diaphragm (lower chest muscle) to breathe. Your diaphragm is the big muscle under the lungs. It pulls the lungs downwards which expands the airways to allow air to flow in. When we become anxious we tend to forget to use this muscle and often use the muscles at the top of the chest and our shoulders instead. Each breath is more shallow if you use these upper chest muscles. So, you tend to breathe faster, and feel more breathless and anxious, if you use your upper chest muscles rather than your diaphragm.

You can check if you are using your diaphragm by feeling just below your breastbone (sternum) at the top of your abdomen. If you give a little cough, you can feel the diaphragm push out here. If you hold your hand here you should feel it move in and out as you breathe.

Try to relax your shoulders and upper chest muscles when you breathe. With each breath out, try to consciously relax those muscles until you are mainly using your diaphragm to breathe.