I know most of us are battling panic over many years and are very familiar with the symptoms but there's no getting used to them. I find that I can accept my panicky sensations to a degree, try to see them as nagging and uncomfortable rather than of great medical significance but it's the same unhelpful thought: THIS time it's not just anxiety. I fully expect to collapse or some other horrible thing because of some undiagnosed illness.


It's like: brain goes it's just panic. And I can sort of calm down. Then a louder voice says this time it's serious. Oh no!


If you have this unhelpful distressing thought, how do you challenge it?