The Panic Prevention Course

Tutorial Five - The brain and panic attacks - 'emotional hijacking'

In Tutorial 5:

The Brain and Panic Attacks: 'Emotional Hijacking'

Other Techniques for Getting Rid of Panic Attacks
Be AWARE of Panic Attacks
The Next Step

Mark Tyrrell, Co-founder

Hi Sundar

Welcome to Tutorial Five. In this section, you'll learn about how the brain behaves during
panic attacks, why this is important, and 2 great techniques for getting control over panic.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Part 5 : The Brain and Panic Attacks: 'Emotional Hijacking'
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When you have a panic attack, or become very anxious, your emotional response can
actually bypass your 'thinking brain'.

The amygdala, a very primitive part of the brain, is involved with creating a 'faster than
thought' panic attack.

It is very difficult, or impossible, to think clearly when highly emotional because the part
of the brain you think with is inhibited.

This primitive response is designed for survival, rather than problem solving in complex
situations. The most common comment from people who have panic attacks is 'It's totally
irrational', which is quite right. It's not the rational part of the brain that deals with panic
attacks. This is why people often find it hard to make decisions during a panic attack.
This response has been termed an 'emotional hijacking' by Daniel Goleman, who wrote
the best selling book 'Emotional Intelligence'. By this, he means that your thinking,
planning rational mind is hijacked by your emotional response.

The first sign that your panic attacks have gone may be when you notice you can't have
them any more. This is because something fundamental will have changed in the way the
mind responds.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Other Techniques for Getting Rid of Panic Attacks

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Scaling Panic Attacks Down

The first technique is this: if you experience anxious or panicky sensations, you can rate
their intensity from 1 to 10, full-blown panic being 10 and deep relaxation being 1.

So, for example, if you are in a situation and begin to feel uneasy you could say to
yourself 'I am now at a scale 5'. If you began to feel worse you might say inwardly 'I am
now at a scale 6'.

As you begin to feel better, you can count yourself back down to a 2 or a 1.

By scaling anxiety in this way, you are doing three things.

1 - You are 'putting a fence' around the experience so the limits are clear. After all, it's
impossible for panic to go up indefinitely - it has to level off.

2 - You are using the thinking part of the brain. In order to stop and think about where
you are on a scale of anxiety you have to use the neo-cortex; the part which is not so
concerned with emotion but more with thinking.

3 - For the time it takes for you to grade the panic you are less 'in' the panic attack and
more outside it - like an observer. This dilutes the emotional content.

-----------------------------------------------------------

You will also get some better data on how long the panic attack lasts, how intense it is
etc. This gives you more control. Although it can feel that panic attacks go on for ever,
they can actually only continue for short periods - they are short-term survival responses.

The simple rule is that by giving the thinking brain a task we diminish the experience of
unpleasant emotion. In the panic attacks audio program we look at how to amplify your
positive emotions and diminish the less pleasant ones.
It's good to use a pen and paper to scale anxiety because then you can see how things are
improving. It also gives you something to do during a panic attack although people
sometimes find it a little difficult to write as the brain is concentrating on larger
movements at these times, rather than fine ones.

------------------------------------------
Be AWARE of Panic Attacks
------------------------------------------

The next technique with which I would like to arm you is the AWARE technique. You
will find a card (see below) carrying the details of this technique attached to the insert in
the panic attacks audio program. You can detach this and carry it around to use if you
need it.

---
A
---

The 'A' in aware stands for 'Accept the anxiety. Decide just to go with the experience.
Fighting anxiety, getting angry or scared just fuels the fire. After doing this course, you
know a panic attack is a perfectly natural response, so although it can be frustrating, there
is nothing to be afraid of.

---
W
---

The 'W' in aware is for 'Watch the anxiety' Observe it without judging it to be good or
bad. Remember - you are more than just your anxiety.

---
A
---

The next 'A' in 'aware is for 'Act normal'. Behave normally and continue doing what you
intended to do. Breathe normally focusing on extending the out breath (use 7:11
breathing). If you run from the situation your immediate anxiety will of course decrease
but this may lead to an increase in future anxiety.

Staying in the situation helps 'decondition' the panic response as your mind gets the
message that it is not really threatening. This is why people often say that the first few
minutes of public speaking are the worst. If you continue for longer than a few minutes
then the mind gets the message that it's not really that threatening.
---
R
---

The 'R' in is for 'Repeat the steps'. Continue accepting your anxiety, watching it and
acting normal until it goes down to a comfortable level.

---
E
---

And finally the 'E' in 'aware' is for 'Expect the best'. What you fear may never happen.
You will surprise yourself by the effective way you handle situations when using the
'AWARE' technique.

---------------------
The Next Step
---------------------

The next step in getting rid of panic attacks for good is to re-educate the unconscious
mind so that it understands that the situations that currently trigger your panic attacks are
not actually dangerous.

Our audio program, The Panic Prevention Program is devoted to this. You can read more
about it here.

-------------------------------------------------------------

That's all for now! Tomorrow, your email will contain a summary of the course, with
references for the most important points.

I'll see you then!

Best Wishes

Mark

Mark Tyrrell