Most everyone in today's society has gotten the feeling of being out of control, panicky or anxious about a situation. Sometimes those feelings become full blown attacks.
Remember Bob in the movie, "What About Bob"? Movie producers have jumped on the bandwagon showing how serious panic or anxiety attacks affect one"s life. Well, for Bob in the movie, it took baby steps to help him conquer all his fears, and he had plenty of fears. He went on to become a psychiatrist. Funny movie. But panic disorders are anything but humorous.
The same theme of panic disorder appeared in "As Good As It Gets," another comedy, starring Jack Nicholason, as the eccentric writer, and "Runaway Bride," starring Julia Roberts, who flees the scene when she walks down the aisle to be married for the fourth or fifth time. This movie was also a comedy.
I can relate to these characters because I have panic attacks ever so often. I am afraid of riding on an airplane, eating in crowded restaurants, going to a football stadium filled with 100,000 screaming fans or to a full auditorium to a graduation for a family member.
My palms get sweaty, the heart races. I feel hot and sometimes nauseous. The feeling that I need to flee the scene is overwhelming.
Panic disorder is a serious condition. About one out of every 75 people might experience it. It usually appears during the teens or early adulthood, and while the exact causes are unclear, there does seem to be a connection with major life transitions that are potentially stressful: graduating from college, getting married, having a first child, or retiring, etc.
There is also some evidence for a genetic predisposition; if a family member has suffered from panic disorder, you have an increased risk of suffering from it yourself, especially during a time in your life that is particularly stressful.
People with panic disorder are more afraid of the actual attack than they are of specific objects or events; for instance, their 'fear of flying' is not that the planes will crash but that they will have a panic attack in a place, like a plane, where they can't get to help.
Others won't drink coffee or go to an overheated room because they're afraid that these might trigger the physical symptoms of a panic attack.
You probably recognize this as the classic 'flight or fight' response that human beings experience when we are in a situation of danger. But during a panic attack, these symptoms seem to rise from out of nowhere. They occur in seemingly harmless situations-they can even happen while you are asleep or in a dream state
I am a deadline person. Time is always important to me, even if it means hurrying up to finish a story, a project or to keep an appointment or being on the job before the time I am scheduled.
I don"t know where the panic or anxiety disorders come from. I"ve thought back to my parents and grandparents. My grandmother had these disorders, and my father, too. It could be genetic.
But there are ways to deal with panic disorders. And it takes baby steps, just like Bob was advised in the movie.
The classic tale of the tortoise and the hare reminds us that different people take life at different speeds and that one way is not necessarily superior to another. In fact, in the story it is the slower animal that ends up arriving at the destination first. In the same way, some of us seem to move very quickly through the issues and obstacles we all face in our lives. Others need long periods of time to process their feelings and move into new states of awareness. For those of us who perceive ourselves as moving quickly, it can be painful and exasperating to deal with someone else's slower pace. Yet, just like the tortoise and the hare, we all arrive at the same destination, together, eventually.
People who take their time with things are probably in the minority in most of the world today. We live in a time when speed and productivity are valued above almost anything else. Therefore, people who flow at a slower pace are out of sync with the world and are often pestered and prodded to go faster and do more. This can be not only frustrating but also counterproductive because the stress of being pushed to move faster than one is able to move actually slows progress. On the other hand, if a person's style is honored and supported, they will find their way in their own time and, just like the tortoise, they might just beat the speedier, more easily distracted person to the finish line.
It's important to remember that we are not actually in a race to get somewhere ahead of someone else, and it is difficult to judge by appearances whether one person has made more progress than another. Whether you count yourself among the fast movers or as one of the slower folks, we can all benefit from respecting the pace that those around us choose for themselves. This way, we can keep our eyes on our own journey, knowing that we will all end up together in the end.
If introspection does not provide the answers we need, it can sometimes be helpful to ask those around you if they notice anything obvious that you might not be able to see. Remember to ask someone whom you can trust to be kind and sensitive as well as honest. Try to let go of your resistance because whenever there is something we can"t see ourselves, it"s because we don"t want to see it. Try to listen with an open mind, and remember that you are always the final judge of what you need. Anything offered to us from an outside source will need to be processed within before its wisdom can take hold.
Staying in the moment instead of worrying about the next project tomorrow or the next day helps relieve most of the stresses in our day.
Meditation is one key to staying within the moment. It has helped me since I first began having the attacks in 1993 or maybe even earlier. Earlier, I might not have known what these feelings were.