Panic attacks are no joke. Panic attacks involve overwhelming feelings of fear and anxiety, and are often accompanied by physical symptoms such as chest pain, nausea, sweating, chills, and difficulty breathing. They can come on suddenly and be horribly debilitating.
So what should you do if you feel like you’re panicking? And how can you end these events as quickly as possible?
That’s Us – hosts Raj Punjabi and Noah Michaelson HuffPost Am I doing it wrong? podcast — asked charles schaferpsychologist, adjunct professor at New York University, and author of the book when panic occurswhen he visited our studio recently.
“[With panic]”One part of the nervous system malfunctions and sends out an emergency signal that begins to be transmitted to the rest of the system,” Schaefer said. “In the book I say: [panic] something like blue shell. no matter what you’re doing mario kartwhat happens when you see that blue seashell? No matter where you are in the race, what will happen? You’ll be taken away. Therefore, panic often causes the same thing in the nervous system. ”
To prevent a system from shutting down due to a panic, Schaefer recommends finding a way to distract or even restart the system, which is ultimately a primitive and relatively simple solution. He says it’s a thing.
“We think of ourselves as sophisticated machines, but we’re really not,” he says. “We’re very talkative monkeys. That’s basically it. But a lot of the software underneath is the same as mammals and is quite old. It’s not talkative, it’s just sensory. It’s It feels like fight or flight.”
If we can divert our minds and bodies from panic to other perceived threats, we can defuse the fear bomb that is exploding within us. And there’s one simple item you probably have in your kitchen right now that can provide instant relief.
“For example, if you’re exposing it to ice, squeezing the ice cube can trick your hand into thinking, ‘This is a threat that you need to pay attention to,'” Schaefer said. “You’re feeling a really unpleasant sensation of freezing. It pulls your attention and your nervous system into your hands.”
When you do this, Schaefer explained, you shift your body’s focus away from other physical areas and internal systems that are affected by the panic.
“It actually opens up all these lanes [in our bodies] Again,” he said. “Now I can breathe deeply again and my heart rate has slowed down, because when my nervous system thinks I’m freezing, it automatically slows down my heart. , it’s about bringing me back to life, not talking about it, right?”
Taking a cold shower or splashing cold water on your face can also help.
