Brain & Body ( Biology of Panic )
This rapid, pounding sensation in the chest is frequently mistaken by individuals experiencing a panic attack for a heart attack.
What is heart palpitations ( or an increased heart rate )?
This distortion involves jumping to the absolute worst-case scenario during a panic attacks, such as thinking " I am going to die " or " I am losing my mind ".
What is catastrophizing?
This deeping breathing technique involves expanding the belly rather than the chest to help slow down a racing heart.
What is diaphragmatic?
Myth or Fact: A panic attacks can physically cause you to completely stop breathing or swallow your tongue.
What is a Myth (The body's natural reflexes prevent this)?
This anxiety disorder, which frequently develops along side panic disorder, involves a fear of being in places where escape might be difficult or help unavailable during a panic attack.
What is Agoraphobia?
This evolutionary mechanism is triggered by the amygdala during a panic attacks, even when no real external danger is present.
What is fight-or-flight response?
The cognitive trap of assuming that because you feel an intense amount of fear, you must actually be in physical danger.
What is emotional reasoning?
This common sensory grounding technique uses five senses- specifically asking you to acknowledge 5 things you can see, 4 you can touch, 3 you can hear, 2 you can smell, and 1 you can taste.
What is the 5-4-3-2-1 technique?
Myth or Fact: While incredibly uncomfortable, panic attacks themselves are not inherently lethal or dangerous to your physical health.
What is a Fact?
Actions taken to prevent a panic attack- such as carrying a water bottle everywhere, staying near exits, or only driving with a trusted person- are known as these behaviors.
What are safety behaviors?
Rapid, shallow breathing that can cause dizziness, tingling in the fingers, and chest tightness during a panic attack.
What is hyperventilation?
The psychological cycle where a person notices a normal bodily sensation ( like a skipped heartbeat ), panics about it, which then makes the sensation worse.
What is the panic loop ( or fear of fear )?
This gold-standard psychological therapy focuses on changing unhelpful thought patterns and behaviors to manage panic disorder.
What is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy ( CBT )?
Myth or Fact: The best way to get over panic disorder is to permanently avoid any places or situations that make you feel anxious.
What is a Myth (Avoidance reinforces and increases the fear over time)?
This common dietary substance is a central nervous system stimulant that can mimic or trigger physical panic symptoms like a racing heart and jitters.
What is caffeine?
A distressing physical symptom of panic where an individual feels detached from their own body, as if observing themselves from the outside.
What is depersonalization?
This term describes a person's hypersensitivity to internal bodily sensations and the tendency to interpret them as dangerous.
What is anxiety sensitivity ( or interoceptive awareness )?
A behavioral technique where a person intentionally induces feared physical symptoms (like spinning in a chair to get dizzy) in a safe environment to reduce their fear of the sensation.
What is interoceptive exposure?
Myth or Fact: Most panic attacks reach their peak intensity within 10 to 12 minutes and then naturally begin to subside.
What is a Fact?
Unlike situational anxiety, the DSM-5 states that panic attacks in panic disorder must occasionally be " untriggered " or this 10-letter word.
What is unexpected ( or spontaneous )?
This branch of the autonomic nervous system acts like a " brake pedal" to calm the body down and reverse the effects of a panic attack.
What is the parasympathetic nervous system?
Believing that a past panic attacks guarantees a future one will happen in the exact same environment in an example of this distortion.
What is overgeneralization?
This practice involves tensing and then releasing different muscle groups through-out the body to combat physical tension.
What is Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR)?
Myth or Fact: Passing out from a typical panic attack is incredibly common.
What is a Myth? (Panic raises blood pressure, which actually prevents fainting, unlike a vasovagal response to blood/needles).
To meet the diagnostic criteria for panic disorder, a person must worry about having another attack or change their behavior for at least this length of time.
What is one month?