o go.
“I’m going crazy.”
You can’t go crazy during a Panic Attack.
Reduced blood ﬂow to your brain during a panic attack is due to arterial constriction, a normal consequence of rapid breathing. This can result in sensations of disorientation and a feeling of unreality that can be frightening.(1) If this sensation comes on, remind yourself that it’s simply due to a slight and temporary reduction of arterial circulation in your brain and does not have anything to do with “going crazy,” no matter how eerie or strange it may feel.
No one has ever gone crazy from a panic attack, even though the fear of doing so is common. As bad as they feel, sensations of unreality will eventually pass and are completely harmless.
People do not “go crazy” in a sudden or spontaneous way. Mental disorders involving behaviors that are labeled “crazy” (such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder) develop very gradually over a period of years and do not arise from panic attacks. No one has ever started to hallucinate or hear voices during a panic attack.(6)
“I’m going to completely lose it”
A Panic Attack cannot cause you to lose control of yourself
Because of the intense reactions your body goes through during panic, it’s easy to imagine that you could “totally lose control.” But what does completely losing it mean? Becoming completely paralyzed? Acting out uncontrollably or running amok? There are no reported instances of this happening.
If anything, during panic your senses and awareness are heightened with respect to a single goal: escape. Running away or trying to run away are the only ways in which you would be likely to “act out” while panicking. Complete loss of control during panic attacks is simply a myth.
The first step in learning to cope with panic reactions is to recognize that they are not dangerous. Because the bodily reactions accompanying panic feel so intense, it’s easy to imagine them being harmful to your body. Yet in reality no danger exists.
The physiological reactions underlying panic are natural and protective. In fact, your body is designed to panic so that you can quickly mobilize to flee situations that genuinely threaten your survival. The problem occurs when this natural, life-preserving response occurs outside the context of any immediate or apparent danger. When this happens, you can make headway in mastering panic by learning not to imagine danger where it doesn’t exist.
Healing Fear: New Approaches to Overcoming Anxiety Edmund Bourne, Ph.D.
1.Gleitman, Henry, Fridlund, Alan J, Reisberg, Daniel (2004). Psychology (6 ed.). W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-97767-6.1.
2.Olpin, Michael. “The Science of Stress”. Weber State University. Retrieved August 11, 2013. http://faculty.weber.edu/molpin/healthclasses/1110/bookchapters/stressphysiologychapter.htm2.
3.American Heart Association. “Warning Signs of a Heart Attack. Retrieved August 11, 2013. http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/HeartAttack/WarningSignsofaHeartAttack/Warning-Signs-of-a-Heart-Attack_UCM_002039_Article.jsp3.
4.Stress Management for Health Course. “The Fight Flight Response”. Retrieved 19 April 2013. http://stresscourse.tripod.com/id11.html4.
5.Grohol, John. “What’s the purpose of the fight or flight response?”. Retrieved 18 April 2013. http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2012/12/04/whats-the-purpose-of-the-fight-or-flight-response/5.
6.Cistler, Josh; Bunmi O. Olatunji, Matthew T. Feldner, and John P. Forsyth (2010). “Emotion Regulation and the Anxiety Disorders: An Integrative Review”. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment 32 (1): 68–82. Retrieved August 11, 2013. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2901125/6.