Sudden bouts of panic

[OnEdge]

Hi,

I have been experiencing waves of panic only for a few seconds or so over the space of roughly one year and a half. They are brought on by anything especially thoughts. Can these mini waves turn into full on panic attacks? I hope not because I don't want to go through a big panic attack again! I have suffered from anxiety my whole life and I don't recall ever experiencing these waves.

oe

[Ethansmom]

I'm getting the same waves of panic. All of a sudden i'll feel a rush of warmth in my chest and face!

[Citydeer]

Sorry to hear. I can relate, these waves are scary because it feels like they could develop into more. I am noticing that whether or not they do develop into a full blown attack seems to depend on how much power I give them. If I freak out worrying they will turn into a panic attack, sometimes they do. If I try to just let them be what they are in the moment and not think about how i could feel "later", and calm myself down as best as I can at the time then they do tend to calm down and not develop any further. I remind myself that anxiety feeds on our fears and thoughts, we don't need to give it any more power than it is having already.

[DoraFlora]

I sometimes get those too. While I am doing seemingly normal things like working or watching tv or eating dinner. I will get a hot flush, sometimes a feeling like I could gag, a racing heart, and then it will go.
I think it mostly goes because I am able to recognize it for what it is, try and control my breathing, remind myself I am safe and try and get back to whatever I was doing. Sometimes this is easy, other times absolutely not.

But I think the waves are just the body's fight or flight response trying to kick in, but us not giving them the fuel they need to really take off.

(Or maybe I'm foolish to think we have any magic control at all! hahaha)

-Dora

[Citydeer]

(Or maybe I'm foolish to think we have any magic control at all! hahaha)

-Dora

nooo you're not foolish!! we may not be able to control things like the random heat flushes that come out of nowhere or the racing heartbeat all of a sudden when doing a relaxing mundane activity... but we can definitely learn to control our response to them! whether we start thinking "oh my god i'm dying!" or instead feed ourselves reassurance such as "hang on, this has happened before, it was just a flare up of my anxiety and it went away". The thought pattern we choose to invest in during such times has a huge impact on whether the physical symptoms and anxiety will escalate. the best we can do is nip it in the bud as soon as we see it for what it is...a sneaky liar trying to make us worry about things we don't need to!