by James P. Krehbiel

Created on: November 23, 2008

People who suffer from panic attacks experience symptoms such as heart palpitations, sweating, loss of control, feelings of impending doom, disorientation, and feeling trapped. Although those who suffer from this disorder feel debilitated, it is one of the most manageable syndromes to treat through the use of cognitive-behavioral therapy.

When people first come for cognitive-behavioral therapy, they may indicate that they have received prior counseling, have made innumerable visits to doctors, and have been treated in emergency rooms for symptoms associated with their anxiety. Patients are usually desperate for answers to alleviate their on-going struggle with panic. Patients are relieved to know that their symptoms are treatable through the use of cognitive-behavioral therapy. Often, patients feel that they are going crazy, although they need to be reassured that having "crazy" feelings is a cognitive distortion and is vastly different from those who might be considered clinically crazy.

Most individuals know the time-frame when they first started experiencing panic attacks. There may have been triggering events that fostered the emergence of panic. The patient may be unable to make an association between the panic and a painful triggering experience. Factors such as a significant illness, job stress, family abuse/ trauma, losing a loved one, and lacking emotional expressiveness may create conditions ripe for panic. Once a panic attack erupts, further attacks usually follow if an individual is not aware of the cycle of self-defeating thinking and behavior which sustains the panic process.

The key to curtailing panic is to help people understand that it's the secondary symptoms that keep the panic alive. In other words, it's the "panic over the panic" that sustains the panic pattern. With cognitive-behavioral therapy, recovery involves educating the sufferer on ways to respond to their self-defeating thought processes during the onset of their attack. For example, let's say that you are taking a mid-term exam during college. You open up the test booklet and immediately react by saying, "Oh my God, none of this material looks familiar; there's no way that I can pass this test; if I flunk this test, I might fail this course for the semester; if my parents find out, there's going to be hell to pay!" In contrast, you can learn to respond rationally by saying, "Wow, some of this stuff doesn't look familiar; just take some deep breaths and relax; I guess I better survey

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