Hey Everybody!
Today I am going to talk about panic attacks.
What are they?
(intro music playing)
So like I said today I want to talk about panic attacks.
Many of you have asked me
"is this what I am having?" "Is this a panic attack?"
"People say they have panic attacks!"
"What does that look like?"
And there are a lot of misconceptions out there,
like with anything that we talk about.
Am I right?
Now, panic attacks are a little different.
The first thing I want to make sure you understand
is that panic attacks are not something I can diagnose you with.
"You have panic attacks"
You may have panic attacks
but that is not a diagnostic criteria.
Panic attacks are something that can happen
with any anxiety disorder.
In the DSM, I have my DSM here,
They have what they call specifiers,
or different things you may feel
that will help you better understand if you are having panic attacks,
and then let you know what you can say to your physician,
therapist, psychiatrist, whatever to get the help that you need.
The thing that is interesting about panic attacks
is that the more they happen,
the more we fear they are going to happen,
and then they happen more frequently.
Because they start based on the fear of having more of them.
So the better and sooner we get ahold of it
and understand what is happening
the better the outcome for us.
Does that make sense?
the prevalence in the United States, just so you know,
is panic attacks happen to 11-12% of people.
That's just in the States.
So we know that these happen a lot.
The sooner we get them taken care of and under control,
the better off we all are.
Now some of the specifiers that they talk about,
things you may notice,
(side note:) before I even get into that,
my clients will say things to me like:
"I felt like I was drowning"
or "I couldn't catch my breath! "
"I was taking all these short little breaths and then it progressively got worse."
Panic attacks "peak", they call it the peak,
when it reaches the most intense amount of panic within a few minutes.
So, there aren't things that go on for a full day.
or a full week.
These are things that peak quickly and then slowly go down.
Now, everyone's experience is different.
This is just the overall mean for how long panic attacks last.
Now, panic attacks can feel like:
palpatations, pounding heart accelerated heart rate,
some people will say
"I felt like I was having a heart attack."
sweating, a lot of people's palms will sweat suddenly,
or their back, and they will be embarassed
because they are somewhere
and they are like,
"Oh no, Oh no!"
Trembling or shaking,
sensations, shortness of breath, like being smothered.
Some people will feel like I said,
taking short breaths, like they couldn't catch their breath.
Feelings of choking,
chest pain or discomfort,
which is why a lot of people will report
that it feels like they are having a heart attack or drowning.
Nausea, or abdominal distress.
Now I dont hear that one as frequently as others,
but everyone experiences things differently,
so if you feel anxiety in general in your stomach,
them maybe you feel it there during a panic attack.
Feeling dizzy, unsteady, lightheaded, faint
which leads to that fear of having it,
and feeling like we need to sit down
and catch our breath.
People will feel that a lot.
Chills or heat sensations,
numbness or tingling sensations,
derealization, kind of depersonalization,
I have a video actually about dissociation.
I have done videos with Melissa 'Idranktheseawater' (youtube name)
about maladaptive daydreaming,
all of those things where we have an 'out of body' experience.
We can have that happen.
For many of you who struggle with dissociation,
having panic attacks you will find you go into that automatically.
And really what that is is a coping skill for our mind
because it feels like things are getting a little too intense,
and it needs to take a break.
Fear of losing control, or going crazy,
A lot of people have said that to me,
"I feel like I am just going crazy!"
"I don't know whats happening!"
and lastly fear of dying.
A lot of people because they think
it's a heart attack or they feel like they are being smothered,
they can't catch their breath.
You can understand why then they
feel like they are dying
and it can be really really scary.
I think that's the most important thing
that I want to make sure you understand
is that panic attacks happen to a lot of people.
And they can be really scary.
And they feel completely out of control.
And that fear, having that fear of them happening,
and then when we have any kind of sensation,
some of my patients struggle to go underwater,
they had little swim tests at this college,
on of my clients had to go underwater
and hold her breath for a certain amount of time
and made her so anxious,
I had to write her a letter
we were afraid she would have a panic attack,
which can be dangerous if you are underwater.
And so it can be a scary experience.
But the more we know about our situation,
the more we talk about it, the better.
I would encourage any of you
if you are worried that you are having these,
had some,
or you are having them all the time,
please, please please reach out
to a physician in your area.
It can be your general doctor,
they can refer you to someone who may specialize in it,
or a lot of medications
are out there to help with this.
Whether you believe in medication is completely up to you,
but know that their are options.
And the sooner we reach out,
the sooner we can realize if what we are having
is panic attacks, and is it part of our anxiety disorder
that maybe we are not even aware we have.
Maybe we have PTSD
but we never actually realized we did
and now we are having panic attacks.
The sooner we get a hold of this,
the sooner we talk to someone, the better!
So I encourage all of you to reach out for support.
Even hop on my website: www.katimorton.com
There are chat rooms, forums
and places to talk to one another about this.
So you can get more information
about what things look like.
I mean I have videos about what the first appointment looks like,
and all sort of stuff like that, if that worries you as well.
But know that we are working together.
We are in this together.
Towards a healthy mind and a healthy body.
As always, don't forget to subscribe to my channel.
I put out videos all the time
and you don't want to miss them!
and like I said, hop on: www.katimorton.com
because good stuff is happening there.
(end video)
(bottom right video plays a sample of past video)
"everybody talks about that too,
and that falls under this as well.
Now, Agoraphobia differs from social anxiety or social phobia..."
(end clip)
Subtitles by the Amara.org community