What to Do When you Feel a Panic Attack Coming Part 3: Facing the Demon

Exposures involve voluntarily bringing on a mild to moderate level of anxiety In other words, exposures show you ways to face the demon, challenge him head on, and kill him once and for all.

There are two keys to exposures:

1. They have to be voluntary (which means that you can’t do them all the time, because you won’t always be in the mood)

2. If you imagine your anxiety from a 0-8 (with 0 being calm and 8 being a panic attack), you want to hit a 4 during any given exposure (because if you go above a 4, the anxiety might get ahead of you and no longer be voluntary and under your control).

Exposures are used to gain mastery over any phobia. They work for panic disorder because the core of panic disorder is usually phobia as well: A phobia to certain physical sensations. Whether it’s a racing heart, dizziness, nausea, a choking sensation, or a certain pain, every panic disorder patient has at least one or two physical symptoms that trigger their panic cycle. Exposures show you how to experience these sensations in such a way that you finally stop being triggered by them. After 1-2 months of exposures, most patients find that coping techniques begin to be effective (i.e. the shield actually starts working). Once patients are good at exposures, they can often use them to actually stop a panic attack that is coming on. In other words, once the demon appears, they can turn the tables on the demon, challenge it, and get it to run scared with it’s tail between it’s legs. After several months of exposures, most of my patients become completely panic free (and can usually be taken off on any panic-related medications they have started).

Exposures are at the heart of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and they are by far the most useful techniques for killing the Demon and gaining mastery over panic once and for all.

By: Dr. Lindsay Kiriakos (Free Download Anxiety Treatment eBook)

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Similar Posts:

• What to Do When you Feel a Panic Attack Coming Part 1: the Demon Analogy
• What to Do When you Feel a Panic Attack Coming Part 2: the Shields
• What Is Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)?
• Dealing with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Panic Attacks
• Anxiety Help – Need More Anxiety Help?

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