Questions and Answers About Anxiety, Depression, Panic and All Things Related
Here again is the obligatory reminder that you are reading my own experience driven answers but always check with your Physician, Licensed Counselor, Certified Pharmacist, Master of Ceremonies and PHD bearing Gurus.
A. Yes, I understand people are anxiously searching the net for the closest thing to an ‘instant cure’ they can find and there is something I would volunteer as the most immediately ‘quick fix’ and that is the sort of meditation technique where you will basically sit for 30 minutes and absolutely focus on something like a ‘letter’ with the main intention of disallowing any other thoughts. In the Review section I have a link to Roy Masters MP3 ‘be still and know’ but you can do this on your own. IF you could pause the racing thoughts for even a minute you might be amazed at the sort of instant relief you can have. Some say they have focused intensely on an item or some word they repeated. The sole intent is to forbid any thoughts, chatter, scripts, and effectively zone into silent mind. It is the single most effective ‘quick fix’ a person could do within about 30 to 60 minutes providing the most ‘relief per minute’ so to speak.
Q. Are people born with anxiety disorders?
A. It may be true that some people come into the world with naturally robust sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems where others are not as blessed. One of my Doctors is convinced there is a genetic factor in people with chronic anxiety and depression. Some studies suggest that Caucasians in Brazil have higher rates of anxiety disorders and depression than people of mixed races.
Having said that you can liken this to research showing some are inherently prone to storing fat and developing diabetes. This person still has to take on the behavior patterns of eating fatty foods and eventually developing diabetes and just as easily can learn to eat less (given their inherent condition) and to be more skillful in choosing food that will keep them from ever developing Diabetes.
What we do know is that chronic worry, anxiety and panic disorder do happen where there is corresponding cognitive behavior, lifestyle, recurring thoughts and beliefs and that the same people can eventually develop ‘nerves of steel’, relaxed states and eliminate chronic worry and anxiety from their life by changing their thinking patters, beliefs, cognitive behaviors, lifestyles.
Please do not tell yourself you were ‘born this way’ or decide that worry and anxiety are something you will always have because it’s ‘the way you are’. This, in my opinion, is one of the worst possible things anyone can tell themselves and becomes one of the biggest showstoppers on the way to recovery. You can decide to change. You were not born like this.
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A. People do not faint from panic attacks. The very point and purpose of a flight-or-flight response is to put your body in the highest state of alertness it can. It would be a cruel hoax of nature if it then caused you to faint. There are physiological sensations that may cause someone to mistakenly believe they are going to faint. One such reported sensation is that of the vision narrowing into a tunnel-vision as if the outside field of vision is closing in. Some say this ‘tunnel-vision effect’ may be a very helpful flight-or-flight reaction caused by eye muscles forcing a narrow focus for perhaps maximum A-t0-B vision. No matter what, the point is that you are definitely not going to faint. The fear of fainting is a large part of the ‘panic cycle’ and that fear of fainting may as well be thrown in the trash. It doesn’t happen.
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A. I am convinced that this myth comes almost exclusively from film and television culture where the classic and cliche dramatic moment was the corset-wearing maiden swooning from surprise or fainting from fright into the arms of the hero. This iconic image is surely based on real problems caused by rib-busting corsets which nearly suffocated their wearers and, in fact, it would not require a ‘panic attack’ to collapse the victim/wearer. The point is that this is a Hollywood corset-wearing fantasy and does not happen in real life. Unless you are wearing a diaphragm destroying corset you can throw this image away from reality.
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A. Out of hundreds of cases I know about there were just two people who insisted they did faint from a panic attack. Upon more thorough investigation and careful reflection they agreed that they had not truly ‘fainted’ but in fact became so convinced they were ‘blacking out’ that they made the instinctive reaction to go for the floor (or desk in one case) to protect themselves from what they believed was the impending fall.
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A. Fair enough. Exceptions proves rules but I hate discussing this because the very bad habit of anxiety-suffers reading this will be to convince themselves they are the exception. In fact, some people have low-blood pressure conditions where they could faint though not necessarily ‘from’ a Panic Attack. Others may have diabetes or epilepsy conditions. Again, the ‘fainting’ they experience isn’t from ‘panic attacks’ but an already preexisting medical condition they deal with whether they ever had anxiety attacks or not.
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A. This is a sort of ‘dream state’ that is experienced by both high-anxiety sufferers and those who win lotteries or prizes or are experiencing the most wonderful and exciting times of their lives. This ‘dream state’ gives the sensation of being ‘outside or behind’ ones own body. Some described it as if ‘watching their own selves in a movie’ and other similar but abstract ideas. The sensation itself seems to be entirely harmless and those in this state have reported consistently functioning perfectly well during rerealization states including driving, work, conversations etc. The real problem is when the chronic worrier supposes this feeling may be a sign they are going mad, losing their mind, losing control and then begins to fear the ‘derealization’ state which of course fuels more anxiety which can fuel the states etc etc. The important thing to understand is that ‘unreal states’ are nothing to worry about and go away when anxious thinking subsides. You are not going crazy. It seems these states are the brains way of taking a break from excessive worrisome thoughts. Probably natures way of defending you and helping you stay sane. Besides… just think a lot of people pay quite a lot of money for tobacco like products to try and self-induce ‘derealization’ so think of the money you save? Yes, I am joking.
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