Martin Burridge
09-02-11, 21:18
I noticed that a lot of my clients with panic disorder worry about telling other people. I also notice that a lot of people who have never known someone with an anxiety disorder really can't seem to understand it. To help bridge this gap I made this information sheet for my clients which I thought I would share on the forum.
How to explain panic disorder
Firstly acknowledge that they don’t understand.
Say something like “If you have never had a panic attack you will not understand it”
However they will have had a genuine fight or flight response at some time in their life.
Say something like “Think of a time that you have been really scared just for a moment. For example when you had a near accident or an actual accident in a car or when someone attacked you are or friend in a pub. What happened? Your heart rate got faster. Your breathing got faster. You felt a surge of adrenaline and your muscles tensed. Well that’s called the fight or flight response and its controlled by something called your sympathetic nervous system. Its there to protect us. When the danger is gone everything returns to normal. Well in people with panic disorder our sympathetic nervous systems get too highly tuned so the fight of flight response happens when there is no real danger. So we are feeling the same level of fear that you felt during that accident or incident. It is thought to be partly genetic and partly due to environmental factors like stress.”
Then explain how you are dealing with it
“Im learning to deal with it by trying not to respond to the confused danger message from my sympathetic nervous system. i.e. Im not running away, fighting it or avoiding situations but its not easy so sometimes you may see me panic or having to leave a situation. You can help me by just reminding me that everything is ok and the feeling will pass and trying to encourage me to stay and not to fight it. Just tell me “let it pass”.
Saying things like pull yourself together will not help because naturally I am a bit self conscious about this so it will just add to my anxiety.
If they still struggle to see how you can be scared when there is no danger try this
“What happens to most people when they have to give a speech in front of lots of people for the first time. Their heart races. Breath faster. They may go red in the face. Well that’s the sympathetic nervous system again. Is it logical? – No. Why should speaking to a 100 people be more dangerous than speaking to 2 friends. Yet for a few people they can speak quite comfortably in public for the first time. That’s because they are genetically built that way. For most people they have to practice and do it several times until they become comfortable with public speaking. They are teaching their sympathetic nervous system that there is no real danger just like I am doing.”
How to explain panic disorder
Firstly acknowledge that they don’t understand.
Say something like “If you have never had a panic attack you will not understand it”
However they will have had a genuine fight or flight response at some time in their life.
Say something like “Think of a time that you have been really scared just for a moment. For example when you had a near accident or an actual accident in a car or when someone attacked you are or friend in a pub. What happened? Your heart rate got faster. Your breathing got faster. You felt a surge of adrenaline and your muscles tensed. Well that’s called the fight or flight response and its controlled by something called your sympathetic nervous system. Its there to protect us. When the danger is gone everything returns to normal. Well in people with panic disorder our sympathetic nervous systems get too highly tuned so the fight of flight response happens when there is no real danger. So we are feeling the same level of fear that you felt during that accident or incident. It is thought to be partly genetic and partly due to environmental factors like stress.”
Then explain how you are dealing with it
“Im learning to deal with it by trying not to respond to the confused danger message from my sympathetic nervous system. i.e. Im not running away, fighting it or avoiding situations but its not easy so sometimes you may see me panic or having to leave a situation. You can help me by just reminding me that everything is ok and the feeling will pass and trying to encourage me to stay and not to fight it. Just tell me “let it pass”.
Saying things like pull yourself together will not help because naturally I am a bit self conscious about this so it will just add to my anxiety.
If they still struggle to see how you can be scared when there is no danger try this
“What happens to most people when they have to give a speech in front of lots of people for the first time. Their heart races. Breath faster. They may go red in the face. Well that’s the sympathetic nervous system again. Is it logical? – No. Why should speaking to a 100 people be more dangerous than speaking to 2 friends. Yet for a few people they can speak quite comfortably in public for the first time. That’s because they are genetically built that way. For most people they have to practice and do it several times until they become comfortable with public speaking. They are teaching their sympathetic nervous system that there is no real danger just like I am doing.”