3. Stressful Thoughts
Another issue with a panic attack is that it triggers highly stressful thoughts and racing thoughts.
Very often, we believe that our thoughts create our emotions and our physiology follows. In fact, though, the reverse is often true. In other words, our heart rate increases, and our muscles contract and this sends the signal to our brain that we must, therefore, be stressed. Here, it is the thoughts that are following the physiology!
As mentioned, it is quite common for patients to mistake their symptoms for a heart attack and therefore only to get more stressed. Likewise, many people will find that they panic about the panic attack itself! They don’t want to feel stressed, they don’t want to look nervous, they don’t want to be sick and they certainly don’t want to faint… Again, this only serves to work them up more.
Something you can do to solve this problem then is to accept the reality of the panic attack, to observe the symptoms, and not to ‘fight’ them.