Imaging yourself walking along a beautiful stretch of sand beside the Mediterranean Sea. The tiny waves are breaking on the shoreline, you feel the sand under your feet and the sun is gently warming your shoulders. What a great day!
Perhaps you are enjoying this wonderful moment with a friend or loved one. Now create a feeling in your mind of being calm, confident and happy as you just stroll along on this gorgeous day without a care in the world.
Suddenly, out of the blue, you experience a shortness of breath, your heart is pounding, you are shaking, sweating and are struck with fear. You think that you are having a heart attack.
You have no idea why but, you have just experienced a panic attack.
Usually, this feeling peaks within about ten minutes and then fades away leaving you drained and disturbed. This brief and intense experience is so dramatic that you develop a Fear of Fear itself.
These are some of the feelings which occur with panic attacks
- Uncontrollable shaking
- Pounding heart
- Chocking
- Sweating
- Gasping for breath
- Nausea
- Dizziness and being unsteady on the feet
- Feeling unusually hot or cold
- A sense of absolute helplessness
- A fear of dying
What causes panic attacks?
Scientists believe that Panic Attacks stem from an inappropriate “Fight of Flight” response. This can be triggered by many different things, but often relates to some event that has been experienced in the past. A memory hangs around in the subconscious mind and the sufferer may not even be aware of this memory.
How can Hypnosis Help?
There are usually two stages to this treatment.
Under hypnosis the patient can regress back, in a safe and non-threatening way, to uncover the original event, time or place that these feelings first occurred.
Once that has been achieved the hypnotherapist can work with the client to put that event into proper context, reducing the sensitising moment and therefore eliminating the triggering process.
