Overcoming Panic Attacks

by Dr. Michael Edelstein

Do you recognize these symptoms:  a pounding heart, legs feeling weak and trembling, a tight throat, light-headedness, and fears of a heart attack or going crazy?  While simultaneously you hate yourself for foolishly worrying about these feelings which your physician assured you were "nothing?"  This is the hallmark of panic attacks.          

Must you remain at the mercy of such episodes striking "out of the blue?"  Absolutely not.  Countless victims--both men and women--have been helped.

If you have never experienced a panic attack, it usually begins with an unexpected physical discomfort, such as chest  pressure or pains, rapid heartbeat, dizziness, weakness, shakiness, a case of the jitters, or feeling vaguely unsettled or "weird."  

Mysteriously, this often occurs for no medically detectable reason.  Being human with imperfectly functioning physiologies, we are all vulnerable to ephemeral physical symptoms.      

But the anxiety-prone person, rather than ignoring those discomforts, dwells on them, magnifying and prolonging them by thinking: "I MUST know precisely why I'm feeling like this; I MUST be certain it's not serious; I MUST never lose control or act crazily; I MUST not do something stupid or look foolish; I  MUST have a guarantee I'm not going to die; I MUST not make myself panic."

Fired with such unrealistic notions, the anxiety-prone individual creates out of thin air, feelings of fright, panic, hysteria and finally depression, while rigidly avoiding uncomfortable sitiuations and increasingly circumscribing his or her life.

Is there a solution to this syndrome, which has reached epidemic proportions?

Thankfully there is, and it is called Three Minute Therapy (TMT).  TMT, a modern comprehensive cognitive-behavioral approach, is described in the popular book, THREE MINUTE THERAPY: CHANGE YOUR THINKING, CHANGE YOUR LIFE.

TMT helps sufferers successfully complete the two-stage process for long-term relief by targeting the panic-creating "MUSTs."

Step one consists of the sufferer recognizing that the "MUSTs"--but not the preferences--are totally false; that although it would be highly preferable to avoid discomfort, it's never a "MUST."  You don't always "HAVE TO" feel entirely comfortable and you usually won't.  

Although it would prove lovely never to unduly upset yourself, being human and imperfect you assuredly will some of the time.  And, in the unlikely worst case scenario, even if you do lose control, go crazy or even die, that's profoundly sad, but if it happpens, it happens--and worrying is surely no cure.  

Step two consists of thoroughly convincing yourself of the truth of those insights. You accomplish that by persuasively, vigorously, persistantly confronting and disputing those unrealistic "MUSTs" until you give them up.  

Also by practicing pushing yourself to do the things you are terribly afraid of doing and by reaffirming with these actions that great discomfort is never horrible, but rather tends to diminish as you consistantly face, rather than avoid, it.

Three Minute Therapy can help you significantly if you are the victim of panic attacks. There is no need to suffer in silence.

Dr. Michael R. Edelstein
(415) 673-2848

 

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