How Your Nervous System Works In Panic
There are many causes of panic: genetic, childhood, personality, precipitating, immediate, physical and sustaining. Let's look first at what happens to you physically, or how your nervous system works in panic.
When your body starts sending confused messages to you and you don't know what is wrong with you, or someone says that you are suffering from "nerves", you usually feel that something has "gone wrong" and that you are somehow at fault. Your nerves are in fact responding accurately to the messages that are being sent to them.
Your nervous system consists of two separate actions: voluntary and involuntary. Voluntary nerves move your muscles and therefore your body - most of the time as you wish. Your nerves are obeying your direct command. Involuntary nerves, on the other hand, allow no direct control over them - they regulate functions of organs such as your heart, lungs and bowels. You do not have to tell them to work - they do so by themselves, so are involuntary.
Your involuntary nerves are divided into two sections: sympathetic and parasympathetic, and under normal conditions, these balance each other out. When you become emotional or excited, the sympathetic usually dominate, and these can stimulate your internal organs and muscles by releasing a number of chemicals including adrenaline into your body. Emotions which can trigger this body reaction include fear, anger and excitement. You may feel your heart race, pound, or skip a beat, or you may sweat or shiver, or feel faint. Your parasympathetic nerves serve to return your body to a natural relaxed state.
Normally, when you are afraid and experience a racing heart or "lump in your gut", you can accept these because you know that you can act in ways that master the fear. You know once you are out of the situation of fear, you will be calm again. You do not have either of these controls when you are in panic, and the experience of panic is so overwhelming, it's often hard to think of anything else.
Certain medications, especially the Tricyclic Antidepressants and MAO Inhibitors, seem to suppress panic for about 2/3's of phobic persons with varying degrees of side effects and relapse following withdrawal of medication.
When fear has grown into panic, the best indirect control is to let the panic happen, wait for it to pass, and let the parasympathetic nerves take over. As mentioned, the symptoms come from a release of natural stimulants to your major glands. These take about two to four seconds for them to go through your entire blood stream. You then experience a jolt or dreadful feeling. They are immediately reabsorbed by your liver, kidney and pancreas (your "cleaning" organs). Then, in two to three minutes, the unpleasant effects disappear, providing you have not added any alarming thoughts or new sources of stress haven't appeared.
When you are first sensitized (conditioned to react in an exaggerated way) to fearful situations or stresses, you may experience a vast range of symptoms including: jelly legs, jitters, faintness, imbalance, difficulty breathing, blurred vision, sweating, nausea, etc. A vicious circle develops of:
body symptoms - worry - anxiety - more body symptoms
To put it another way, worries about what is happening to your body and thinking that you are "going crazy" or that you are "going to die" help to maintain the anxiety and symptoms.
A person who is sensitized begins to fear the fearful state will get worse. This fear of the fear produces more adrenaline and other stimulants which continue to produce more symptoms and then even more fear! In such a way, full blown panic attacks develop quickly and your phobia can spread into other areas of your life.
To recover, you must learn to let the symptoms pass and disappear. If you tense yourself against these symptoms, or tell yourself, "I must not let this get the better of me", you are "fighting" the fear, and not letting it pass. Instead, tell yourself that "this is just a normal alarm reaction of my body to what it sees as a threat. The adrenaline will be reabsorbed by my body and disappear in a few minutes. The symptoms will then disappear and I'll feel fine. I'm just not going to pay much attention to the symptoms and after a rest of 3-4 minutes, I'll go right back into the situation."
If you can do this, then you will have your nervous system working for you instead of against you! And, each occasion of panic can turn into a personal victory.
This article was written by Dr. Richard C. Raynard, whose latest book Panic Free is offering new hope for those suffering from overwhelming and often debilitating panic attacks. For over 30 years he has helped thousands of his patients with the latest refinements in anxiety and panic treatments.
When your body starts sending confused messages to you and you don't know what is wrong with you, or someone says that you are suffering from "nerves", you usually feel that something has "gone wrong" and that you are somehow at fault. Your nerves are in fact responding accurately to the messages that are being sent to them.
Your nervous system consists of two separate actions: voluntary and involuntary. Voluntary nerves move your muscles and therefore your body - most of the time as you wish. Your nerves are obeying your direct command. Involuntary nerves, on the other hand, allow no direct control over them - they regulate functions of organs such as your heart, lungs and bowels. You do not have to tell them to work - they do so by themselves, so are involuntary.
Your involuntary nerves are divided into two sections: sympathetic and parasympathetic, and under normal conditions, these balance each other out. When you become emotional or excited, the sympathetic usually dominate, and these can stimulate your internal organs and muscles by releasing a number of chemicals including adrenaline into your body. Emotions which can trigger this body reaction include fear, anger and excitement. You may feel your heart race, pound, or skip a beat, or you may sweat or shiver, or feel faint. Your parasympathetic nerves serve to return your body to a natural relaxed state.
Normally, when you are afraid and experience a racing heart or "lump in your gut", you can accept these because you know that you can act in ways that master the fear. You know once you are out of the situation of fear, you will be calm again. You do not have either of these controls when you are in panic, and the experience of panic is so overwhelming, it's often hard to think of anything else.
Certain medications, especially the Tricyclic Antidepressants and MAO Inhibitors, seem to suppress panic for about 2/3's of phobic persons with varying degrees of side effects and relapse following withdrawal of medication.
When fear has grown into panic, the best indirect control is to let the panic happen, wait for it to pass, and let the parasympathetic nerves take over. As mentioned, the symptoms come from a release of natural stimulants to your major glands. These take about two to four seconds for them to go through your entire blood stream. You then experience a jolt or dreadful feeling. They are immediately reabsorbed by your liver, kidney and pancreas (your "cleaning" organs). Then, in two to three minutes, the unpleasant effects disappear, providing you have not added any alarming thoughts or new sources of stress haven't appeared.
When you are first sensitized (conditioned to react in an exaggerated way) to fearful situations or stresses, you may experience a vast range of symptoms including: jelly legs, jitters, faintness, imbalance, difficulty breathing, blurred vision, sweating, nausea, etc. A vicious circle develops of:
body symptoms - worry - anxiety - more body symptoms
To put it another way, worries about what is happening to your body and thinking that you are "going crazy" or that you are "going to die" help to maintain the anxiety and symptoms.
A person who is sensitized begins to fear the fearful state will get worse. This fear of the fear produces more adrenaline and other stimulants which continue to produce more symptoms and then even more fear! In such a way, full blown panic attacks develop quickly and your phobia can spread into other areas of your life.
To recover, you must learn to let the symptoms pass and disappear. If you tense yourself against these symptoms, or tell yourself, "I must not let this get the better of me", you are "fighting" the fear, and not letting it pass. Instead, tell yourself that "this is just a normal alarm reaction of my body to what it sees as a threat. The adrenaline will be reabsorbed by my body and disappear in a few minutes. The symptoms will then disappear and I'll feel fine. I'm just not going to pay much attention to the symptoms and after a rest of 3-4 minutes, I'll go right back into the situation."
If you can do this, then you will have your nervous system working for you instead of against you! And, each occasion of panic can turn into a personal victory.
This article was written by Dr. Richard C. Raynard, whose latest book Panic Free is offering new hope for those suffering from overwhelming and often debilitating panic attacks. For over 30 years he has helped thousands of his patients with the latest refinements in anxiety and panic treatments.
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Labels: adrenaline, body symptoms, faintness, fear, heart race, jitters, jolt, nerves, panic attacks
posted by A White @ 12:40 PM
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