Stop Panic Attacks And Negative Trains Of Thought, Part #2
March 25, 2010 by Alex Taylor · Leave a Comment
I think the easiest way to take you through this train of thought is to talk you through it, a step at a time. It might seem a bit over the top in the cold light of day, but I know you suffer with anxiety too, and I know you’ll appreciate how terrifying this kind of irrational thinking can be while it’s happening.
This train of thought would always happen to me when I was outside. And it would almost always be while I was walking, alone.
It would always start with one of two things – either I’d see something I couldn’t make out and get scared at what it might be, or I’d notice that my vision was unusually bad that day. Because my vision does actually vary from day to day.
So the first point on my train of thought timeline would be “Scared at something I can’t see.” This would usually be a fleeting thought, which would last just a few seconds and cause the next thought in the train, which would be “My vision’s getting worse.” This slow, steady start to a train of thought, where each thought is slightly worse than the one before it, is very common among people with anxiety and panic disorder.
As we go through this together, you’ll begin to see how your own negative trains of thought work this way too. I’ve shown this idea to lots of people with anxiety and panic disorder, and every single one of them has told me that this is how their mind works too. They just didn’t realise it until they started using the ideas I’m about to share with you.
Okay, back to my negative train of thought.
So I’ve had my 2 initial thoughts in the train - I’ve worried about something I couldn’t see, and I’ve worried that my vision was worse. I’d linger on these two thoughts for a minute or two, and then the next thought in the negative train would kick in.
And this one would be, “I’m going blind.”
This thought actually isn’t as extreme as it sounds, because it’s very possible that I will go blind one day. What makes it irrational is that it probably won’t happen until I’m in my 50s or 60s, which is a long way off when you’re 29.
It’s around this point that I’d feel the first real sensation of panic. Nothing major at that point, and nothing I couldn’t control, but it would definitely be there.
I’d stay with the thought of “I’m going blind” for another minute or two, and then it would become a new thought – and this next one would always seem timid to me on the surface, but it was insidious and it was actually one of the worst thoughts I could have.
And this thought was simply, “What if I go blind?”
The reason this one was so deadly for me as an anxiety sufferer was because in just a few seconds it could branch off into dozens of new negative and terrifying thoughts. It’s a perfect example of why these negative trains of thought are so damaging to us as anxiety sufferers. It shows how easily and effortlessly a single thought can spiral out of control and cause uncontrollable panic.
At that stage, when I’d be focused on my “What if I go blind?” scenario, my thoughts would splinter into a dozen new ones.
“How would I ever leave the house if I was blind?”
“Would I need someone to look after me?”
“Who would look after me?”
“Would I burden someone in my family by depending on them for the rest of my life?”
“How long will it be before I forget what people I know look like?”
You can see how one negative thought can quickly become many negative thoughts, each one worse than the one before it. And each one of those I just mentioned had the potential to explode into a dozen more.
Stop Panic Attacks And Negative Trains Of Thought, Part #1
March 25, 2010 by Alex Taylor · Leave a Comment
Like all my other techniques to stop panic attacks, I developed this one because nothing else I’d tried had helped at all. I’d seen my doctor more times than I can remember, I’d been referred to psychiatrists, I’d taken 4 different medications…You name it, I’d tried it, and none of it had done any good.
You might have a similar story, because as I’ve met more and more people who suffer with anxiety and panic disorder, I’ve discovered that we’re all a lot alike. And because of that, I’m confident that what’s worked for me will also work for you.
So, back to the subject of negative trains of thought.
I first became aware of these trains of thought a couple of years ago, around the time my anxiety hit an all-time high. Even though I’d suffered with anxiety and panic attacks since I was a kid, I’d never been conscious of these trains of thought before. They were there throughout my life – looking back I can see that now. But I’d never really been aware of them…not until I came across the concept in a book I just happened to read.
The book was on cognitive behavioural therapy, which is something I’m not a fan of at all. I’ve read a lot of books on it, I’ve tried applying it repeatedly, and it’s never done me any good at all. So even though the idea of these negative trains of thought intrigued me, I dismissed it as just another part of CBT that would make no difference to my life.
But what I’d read had obviously hit a nerve, because it played on my mind, and I kept finding myself thinking about these negative trains of thought.
It was clear to me that these trains of thought I was having were causing the majority of my panic attacks, but I was powerless to stop them. All I had to go on were the ideas that cognitive behavioural therapy gave me, and I already knew those didn’t work.
So I decided to start looking for my own solution to the problem, and 3 months later, to my amazement, I discovered something that worked. Something that doctors and psychiatrists would probably say was reckless and extreme, but it worked. And to me, that was all that mattered.
Before I go into exactly what I discovered, I’m gonna take a moment to show you one of my own negative trains of thought. This is one that I had on a regular basis up until about a year ago, and it would almost always lead to a massive panic attack. By showing you a real-life example it’s gonna be much easier for me to show you how to recognise and overcome your own negative trains of thought.
This example is based on my eyesight, which is extremely bad due to a congenital eye disease I have. The disease means my vision worsens with age, so my eyesight is much worse now in my late twenties than it was in my teens. And it will be much worse in my thirties, and so on.
So I’ve always had a lot of anxiety based on my poor vision. This eye disease accounts for a lot of my anxiety, and was the cause of many of my attacks.
And that brings me back to my example.
The Unknown Habits That Cause Your Panic Attacks
March 25, 2010 by Alex Taylor · Leave a Comment
Hi, it’s Alex, and I’ve got something today that I hope will help to stop a lot of your anxiety.
I’ve realised that almost all severe anxiety starts out small and then gradually builds up until it’s unbearable or until it causes a panic attack.
But there’s a way to stop that original small anxiety while it’s still small, and when you can do that it never has to become unbearable and it never has to cause panic attacks.
I’m going to show how to stop your anxiety while it’s still small by using a technique that interrupts some bad habits you’ve developed that are causing a lot of your anxiety.
When you learn this technique and you use it regularly, you’ll find that you have the power to control your anxiety well enough that it never has to get out of hand or lead to severe anxiety or panic attacks.
The technique is simple and it’s all about getting you to stop the small, physical habits you automatically perform when you’re anxious. These habits cause the small anxiety to become big anxiety, so when you know how to stop them, you’ll also know how to stop the anxiety getting out of hand.
You’re probably already aware that your mind and body are linked in some very basic ways. Your emotions and your physical self are very closely linked.
If you’re incredibly happy, for example, you’ll automatically smile, stand tall, your head will be up, and you’ll do all that without thinking about it. It’s just what you do when you’re happy.
If you’re very sad, your head will sink, your shoulders will slump forward, your mouth will tighten, you’ll frown, and again, all this will happen automatically without you doing anything.
As you may already know, you can reverse this process.
Instead of you feeling an emotion first and your body reacting second, you can intentionally change your body first and the emotion will change second.
One of the reasons this works is that your mind has become trained to feel a certain way when your body is in certain positions or performing certain movements. It’s kind of like an emotional reflex.
All your life, when you feel happy you smile and stand tall. The emotion becomes so linked to the physical actions of smiling and standing tall that if you smile and stand tall anytime you can often make yourself feel happy.
There’s a good chance you know all this already, because a lot of people teach the technique of changing your posture to make yourself feel better. And it works, so I’d suggest you try it if you never have.
But here’s where I took this in another direction.
I realised that I had a handful of “physical anxiety habits” I would perform whenever I was feeling worried or anxious. I was completely unaware of most of these habits until I started looking for them.
It suddenly dawned on me that these habits were linked to my anxiety the same way a smile was linked to being happy.
I started to wonder if I could stop my anxiety by stopping the physical anxiety habits I’d developed over the years.
So I tried it. I did my best to immediately stop all the habits I would perform when I got anxious. And after I’d tried doing this for a few days, it suddenly started working. And it worked incredibly well.
The moment I felt worried or anxious I immediately forced myself not to perform any of the habits that I’d normally perform when I was feeling like that.
To begin with, it felt awkward when I did this, because my mind was too jumbled with trying to deal with all the anxiety, plus all this new stuff going on in my head about stopping these habits.
It only started working really well when I simplified the technique, and broke it down into some very basic steps. And it’s those steps that I’m going to share with you now so you can start using this technique right away.
The first step is finding out what your own physical anxiety habits are.
To do that, just wait until the next time you’re feeling anxious or worried. Now that you’re paying attention to your body at times of increased anxiety, you’ll find that there are certain movements that you instinctively want to make.
They’re instinctive because for years you’ve been making them when you feel anxiety or worry.
At this stage, don’t try to stop them. Let them happen as naturally as possible so you can see them in full, and see which other physical anxiety habits they lead to.
You’re looking for any movement at all that you make instinctively or automatically when you feel your anxiety increase.
It could be something as small as biting your lip, or something as big as pacing around your living room.
Over the next day or two, take a few notes of the physical anxiety habits you spot. If you have lots, then just make a list of the top 10 biggest ones.
The second step is all about stopping each of the habits on your list.
It’s very important that you only try stopping one habit at a time. When I tried stopping all mine at once it was too much to think about and the technique didn’t really work.
So start with the habit you felt most compelled to perform when you had increased anxiety.
The next time you feel increased anxiety, you’re not going to let yourself perform this habit. Absolutely refuse to let yourself do it.
If your physical anxiety habit is biting your lip, make it impossible to bite your lip by putting your finger between your teeth. If your habit is pacing around your home, make it impossible to pace around by sitting or lying down. If your habit is biting your nails when you have increased anxiety, make it impossible to bite your nails by sitting on your hands.
There’s no physical anxiety habit that you can’t stop. You can find a way to make anything impossible.
So make it impossible for you to perform your physical anxiety habit, and don’t give in until your anxiety passes or decreases. You’ll find it decreases faster than normal too, because you’re denying yourself of your strongest habit, and your mind is distracted by this new technique.
The third step in this technique is slowly stopping all the physical anxiety habits on your list.
Stop them one at a time, in exactly the same way you stopped the first one. But don’t move on until you feel in full control of the ones you’ve already stopped.
You’ll find that after a week or two you can stop yourself performing every single physical anxiety habit on your list. And when you can achieve that, you’ve completely removed one of your anxiety’s biggest fuels.
I’ve shown this technique to lots of people, and every single one of them has said it’s helped. For some people, it can completely prevent panic attacks. For others, it dramatically reduces their general day-to-day anxiety.
Until you try this for yourself, you won’t know how helpful it can be, so make sure you actually use this technique. It takes almost no effort, but the results it can give you are potentially huge.
The chance of stopping your panic attacks and your general anxiety has to be worth the 10 minutes it will take you to make your list of physical anxiety habits, so start making that list the moment you next experience any anxiety at all.
