UNDERSYANDING-ACCEPTANCE: PANIC ATTACKS
A panic attack, either spontaneous, cued or situationally predisposed; is diagnosed when we experience four or more of the symptoms described in chapter two. However, a large group of us also experience other sensations as the attack, and we panic as a result (Arthur Jones et al 1994).
Notice the separation of the words ‘panic’ and ‘attack’. Many of us experience an attack and then react with fear and panic. Learning to see this separation is an important step in recovery.
Some people will dissociate first, and panic at the sensations of dissociation. Other people describe their attack as being like an electric shock, or an intense burning, tingling sensation moving through the body. Some report that it feels like a wave of unusual energy surging through them. The attack itself is usually experienced as beginning in the feet, surging through the body, over the head and back down through the body again (Arthur-Jones 1994). Or it is likened to a white-hot flame, starting ‘just below the breast bone, passing through the chest, up the spine, into the face, down the arms and even down to the groin and to the tips of the toes’ (Weekes 1992).
These sensations can occur at anytime during the day or night. They have been described in sleep research literature since 1890 and are said to occur during the hypnagogic first stage of sleep and/or during the transition from REM sleep to the deeper stage of sleep. Sleep researchers describe it as an ‘upward surge of indescribable nature, an electric sort of feeling ascending from the abdomen to the head, sometimes followed by bodily jerks or a violent explosion and/or a flash of light’. The researchers also note that *a sense of alarm follows the experience’ (Oswald 1962).
For the sake of brevity I call all the above experiences ‘surge’ attacks. Throughout the rest of the book I will refer to all panic attacks as ‘attacks’. When I am describing particular attacks, I will refer to them by their individual ‘name’.
As the ‘surge’ goes through our body, our heart and respiration rates increase, we may feel nauseated, we may feel dizzy as if we are going to faint, we may shake or tremble, we may feel hot or cold flushes, and may dissociate. The attack is extremely powerful and most of us feel as if we are going to die, so it is completely natural and normal to become frightened and panic. Recovery means we may occasionally experience these sensations, but instead of reacting with fear and panic, we now just let them happen. As I have said, we need to develop an attitude towards them of ‘so what’ instead of ‘what if. I will discuss this further in chapter eight.
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