Overcoming Panic Attacks: The Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Approach

Anyone who has experienced a panic attack knows that they can be extremely scary. Your heart pounds, your chest tightens, an overwhelming feeling that you must escape a danger overcomes you. Panic attacks seem to come out of nowhere. The good news is that overcoming panic attacks is possible.

Cognitive behavioral therapy is the basis for treating panic attacks. Treatment is a two-pronged approach. The first prong is to change your false thinking. The second prong is exposure to what is feared.

Think of your panic attack like a burglar alarm that has gone off for no apparent reason. You have the code to disengage the burglar alarm. To do this, it is necessary to find out what thoughts you are misinterpreting as dangerous.

In a panic attack your body is reacting to the feelings you have and the thoughts you are thinking. All of the ways your body responds during a panic attack are perfectly sensible – if there really was a danger. But, since there is no real external danger, the danger is misinterpreted as the panic attack sensations themselves. Then your thoughts escalate the panicky feelings. It is a vicious circle.

Get a piece of blank paper. Make three columns. Label the columns “body sensations, ” “mistaken thought, ” and “alternate explanation.” You are now ready to challenge your thoughts that create the panicking feelings.

Next, list each individual body sensation you feel during a panic attack. Then, in the next column write down what you are thinking at that moment. What are you seeing or identifying as dangerous. Last, come up with an alternative explanation for what you are perceiving as dangerous. Your goal is to be able to do this during a panic attack (not necessarily write it down, but do it in your head).

This will, over a few times, decrease your anxiety level and stop the misinterpreted thoughts in their tracks. What you are doing is replacing the false misinterpreted thoughts with what is actually true. You are re-teaching yourself that the feelings will not hurt you. They are harmless.

Other modalities that go hand-in-hand with cognitive behavioral therapy include things such as meditation. For your own benefit, make a list of several things you can use to self-calm when you feel anxiety rising. Maybe playing the piano, taking a bath, working out or playing a game on your computer will go on your list.

Studies have show that the cognitive behavioral therapy modality is one of the best ways to overcoming panic attacks. Seek out a trained professional to help you perfect the nuances of this therapy.

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