Not to long ago I was reading about Dan Harris, an ABC anchorman that had a panic attack while he was on air. There were millions of people watching that evening and Dan said it was absolutely the most humiliating experience of his life.

I also watched the video of him having this attack, and quite frankly I couldn’t really tell he was having one. I noticed he was a bit uncomfortable, but nothing that would indicate he was in dire distress.

Then again I really don’t know why I was expecting to see something more dramatic when I know how good I was at masking my anxious feelings from others. People who have suffered from debilitating panic attacks for years, usually have mastered the art of disguising their panic attacks. Continue reading →

I’m sure at this point you already know that when you’re having a panic attack, the horrible symptoms that you feel are caused because of the triggering of the fight or flight response.

Symptoms
Symptoms like rapid heartbeat, sweating and heart palpitations are there because the parasympathetic nervous system has summoned the fight or flight response. The funny thing though is that this whole system is set up not to harm you, in fact it’s there for quite the opposite.

In essence the panic attack appears in order to protect you from what it feels is the onset of a potentially harmful situation or object. It’s like a body guard that is gearing up to fight someone or flee a situation that could hurt you.

Fight or Flight
This is where the fight or flight response is stimulated in order to increase your chances of surviving. The problem is however when this response is initiated when there is only an imagined threat or worst yet, when there’s no threat at all.

Twenty Minute Waves
Panic attacks come in waves of twenty minutes even though it feels like it’s going to last forever when you’re in the middle of experiencing it. But keep in the back of your mind that it’s going to reach it’s peak within 10 min or less. Continue reading →