I'm Rebecca Hunter and this is Take Out Therapy. As a private practice therapist, I've helped a lot of people work through some of the most common everyday issues using new tools and greater insight. If you have any interest in doing some personal growth work, this might be the perfect place for you.
In the next 20 minutes, I'll walk you through a commonly explored topic in therapy and provide you with actual tools to deal with it. It's that simple. Obviously, this is not a substitute for therapy, but I think it could be helpful.
Thanks for being here. Hello, my friends. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day today to work on your personal growth.
I hope today's subject will be helpful. If you are somebody who has ever suffered with panic, suffer is the only word I can think of for panic, unless you can think of something more apt for such a terrible thing. Panic is a bummer and I want to talk about it today because there's a lot we can do to reduce and manage panic.
Let's get into this. Everyone is worried when they get to the point of having panic. Anxiety is one thing, stress is another thing, feeling really overwhelmed all the time is a whole other thing.
You get to panic and it's worrisome. Does that make sense? That is what sometimes brings people into the therapy office. I'll tell you, a lot of people suffer with panic attacks.
I'll give you my take on it. Here's what I have learned, here's what I know just from anecdotal experience of being a therapist. Panic in most cases is amplified anxiety.
It's anxiety gone wrong, people. It's anxiety basically that has been ignored. Some people have panic attacks out of the blue, absolutely.
There's reasons for that as well. Most of what I've seen is it's people with anxiety who can't get a grip on the anxiety and then they go into panic. It's almost like the body is like, the anxiety is like, oh, come on, we got to deal with a few things.
Things are getting a little stressful, a little bad, blah, blah, blah. That's the anxiety. It's kind of like, okay, yeah, so now there's a lot of fear and things feel really stuck and really not so much in control anymore.
Then the body's like, okay, enough's enough. You need to stop. You need to listen to me.
I want to tell you today that panic is a symptom of ignoring one's body to the point of it absolutely having to knock you sideways to get your attention. Something's up there. It's super interesting.
Panic is a visible kind of fear, is what I can tell. It affects people's lives in such a profound way. You can see it kind of taking over because it's terrorizing.
It's, I was going to say, terrifying. It's terrifying. People that have panic attacks, it's really flip and scary.
They end up in the ER a lot of the time. Yeah, and it makes people feel like they're going crazy. They're like, I swear, something is physically, like I'm going down, man.
And so here they are in the ER and then it's like, oh, you're just having a panic attack. And then the doctor's always like, you should go see a therapist, which is super helpful and not that helpful at all. How do we deal with panic attacks? Are we talking about panic attacks? Are we teaching people about like, well, what is panic? So I think it is really important for us to talk about panic because it's so common.
Actually, start asking some people you know if they've ever had a panic attack, you'll be surprised. I'm telling you, I've had one. It was awful and it was minor.
Okay, so panic attacks, they stop people from living. Really, seriously, panic attacks gone untreated will basically make it so someone can't like work, forget about dating, going shopping, having a social life, right? Driving, that's a big one. Panic knocks driving out first, usually.
Hiking, camping, I mean, the list goes on. Panic attacks make life really small. It's sad.
But I'll tell you, I've seen this. I've seen people conquer panic attacks. So there's tons of resources out about panic attacks.
And I've seen a lot of change happen there. So yes, there absolutely is life after panic attacks. But first, you have to reduce and manage panic.
So let me dig into those things, okay? I'm keeping it short today. I'm right on the point, aren't I? Reduce panic. What does that mean? It means why I haven't panicked in the first place.
Let's back up the truck from there, okay? So this would be kind of like looking in your life for reasons why you might have panic. Okay, so you really have to look in your life. You need to look at your diet, your exercise, your bedtime routine, your general mental health.
Like how's the balance looking for you? How's your stress level? How do you feel as you go about your day? Look in there. Look in the uncomfortable nooks and crannies to see if there are things that you could do differently to bring your overall stress level down. Because panic tends to happen when the stress is looking a little bit like a freight train.
But that is interesting because we don't always know that's happening. And so just kind of looking in your life can help you get really just be instead of reactive, right? You can be kind of planful, okay? Deal with your anxiety. If you have anxiety, you've got to deal with it.
And you guys know I harp about this because I'm an anxiety specialist, but I'm telling you panic is anxiety unchecked. And so just be willing to take some action there. Either invest in doing some therapy or do a course or I don't know.
Just learn about anxiety. Read a book. Listen to a podcast.
The other thing is one of the other ways of reducing panic is this is so ass backwards. Expect and welcome panic, okay? You know how we all have like somebody in our family that we're like, oh, you know, that Aunt Barbara, right? And we're not like super stoked on Aunt Barbara, but like she's part of our family and she gets to be there, right? She'll come to visit whenever she wants to. And you'll always have a place for her even though like she's maybe not your favorite visitor.
Expect and welcome, okay? Expect and welcome panic because if you're listening to this podcast and you're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, and you're in a phase of life where you're dealing with panic, then more panic will happen, especially if you're resistant, especially if you're moving your life around to avoid it. It really likes that. So what I'm saying is treat it like Aunt Barbara, like not your favorite, but like expect and welcome as a way to learn about how to manage panic, okay? Because managing panic is a whole other skill set.
That's about what to do in panic. So if you expect and welcome and you look in the nooks and crannies of your life and you are taking action and dealing with your just general, general anxiety level, that's reduction, right? But then when panic still happens, you have to be able to manage it. So if you expect and welcome it, you'll recognize it as panic.
So I know it's an interesting mindset, right? But that's why we go to the ER with panic attacks because we think we're dying. We don't recognize it as panic. So what I'm telling you is get to know your panic attacks in a way that you can start to solve for them.
Most people that have panic attacks, they're just afraid of them and they don't want to have them and they're very resistant and they don't learn anything from them. So go into being a learner. So recognize your panic when it comes up and then you can start to do some of the skills that you've heard everywhere, like discipline your mind, pick a focal point, do not accept unacceptable thinking.
There's so much information out about that. And then the other thing is while you're sort of communicating with your mind and saying this is panic, there's set-up statements that you can use. You can sort of just pick a mantra and tell that to yourself instead of thinking about your feelings about the fact that you're having a panic attack and what might else be happening.
Once you recognize it as panic, you have to discipline your mind. And then you have to communicate with the body. So the thing about panic is that your brain has done you a solid favor and let your body know that you guys are in serious trouble.
And so the panic is the body's complete and total overwhelm. And we don't want that. And I'm really oversimplifying this for you because it's not that interesting when we get more complicated, frankly.
Communicate with your body. You're in charge of your mind. You're in charge of your body.
When your mind and your body are misbehaving, discipline them. Communicate calmly to your body that actually you're having some panic and that it's actually not a life-threatening situation. How do we do this? Well, we breathe, for one thing.
Stretching, super helpful. There's all kinds of vagal nerve work that you can do. Look into that.
Just be willing to learn how to communicate calm to your body. If you've listened to my podcast before, you can scroll through and find an episode that will teach you about that, actually. Discipline your mind and communicate with your body.
And then afterwards, here's the big part. You have to assess how you did. You have to evaluate the use of your skills at the proper time, in the proper moment.
Evaluate your willingness to welcome and expect panic. Evaluate and assess, did you recognize it as panic or did your mind do that thing that it does? Be like, oh, I don't know. This is terrible.
We're never going to make it. It's super interesting. I'll just tell you, I work with people all the time in my therapy practice around panic attacks.
And I sometimes, with the right setup, will work people into a panic attack and then bring them back out again to illustrate for them their own capability. And it's fun. Only I would say that's fun.
And actually, it's really good for people because it helps them to process a panic attack right when it's happening. Yeah. And so you should have the same mindset, okay? Bring it is the mindset of somebody who doesn't have panic attacks.
I'm sorry to say it, but that is the mindset of healing. Bring it. Bring it on.
Panic's a brain thing, my friend. And you know what I'm going to say. It's your responsibility to manage your brain.
I'm not saying it's your fault you have panic attacks. Don't get me wrong. But do your part.
Work with your body to reduce and manage panic attacks. And let me know how that works for you. Because they suck, right? Who wants that? Take really good care of yourself this week.
I'll see you soon. Before you go, let me ask you a question. Do you think about things way more than you think you should? Do you go over and over situations or conversations or conflicts in your mind to the point where it basically drives you bananas? Overthinking is a major complaint of people entering my therapy practice and my private group, actually.
And it's not that complicated to get a handle on. It's just like any other personal growth topic, guys. You've got to just be willing to dig into it a little bit.
When people don't get a handle on the overthinking habit, they tend to end up with an anxiety problem. So I created a super affordable online class that will teach you about how to get rid of all that thinking. It's $37, you guys.
And you know me. There will be homework. It's way worth the investment.
It's just a complaint I hear a lot that has a relatively simple path to solution. So I wanted to just share it in a simple method. It's on my website at RebeccaHunterMSW.com. It's called The Overthinking Solution.
Because, you guys, some problems can actually be solved. I hope you found today's show helpful. It would mean a lot to me if you'd rate, review, or subscribe so that we can reach more people with this type of information.
Here's the deal. I'd like to get rid of some of the stigma around mental health, and this is how I'm doing it. We just need to have these conversations.
If you really want to dig in, join me on social media or join my private Facebook group for more tools, support, and possibilities for change. Head to the link in the show notes at RebeccaHunterMSW.com. Way to show up today.
