From the author: During my practice, I have accumulated considerable experience in the treatment of panic attacks, and in this article I want to somehow summarize it and answer the most common questions from clients suffering from this illness. I work in the Gestalt approach. Symptoms of panic attacks (PA) The main symptom of PA is the release of adrenaline, as in acute panic, therefore the official medical name for this phenomenon is “Sympathoadrenal crisis”. Due to the release of adrenaline, all other symptoms already follow, such as increased heart rate, difficulty breathing, shortness of breath, sweating, trembling or tremors, goosebumps, dizziness, fear of losing control, fear of death. It is important to understand that the release of adrenaline puts the body into an increased work mode, but this is not dangerous to health if this state does not occur constantly and the body has the opportunity to rest and recover. You can read more about the symptoms and fears associated with them in this article. I had a panic attack, what's wrong with me? Do I have any health problems? This is usually the first question that a person who has experienced a panic attack asks and goes to check his health with a doctor. As a rule, doctors first do an ECG to check for a heart attack. But in fact, the symptoms of a heart attack are different from the symptoms of PA. During a heart attack, there is severe acute pain in the chest area, so if you did not have severe pain, it means you are not having a heart attack. They also check the endocrine system for hormonal imbalances, but if you have not had problems with this before, and if you are not experiencing age-related hormonal changes in the body or, for example, pregnancy, then this reason can also be dismissed. In general, if you did not have the problems described above and the main symptom is the release of adrenaline, then the cause of this phenomenon is not physical, but psychological. Article on this topic: Causes of PA and VSD What should I do, how to solve the problem? As mentioned above, the cause of panic attacks in the vast majority of cases is psychological. And therefore, you need to deal with this problem from a psychologist. I am very afraid of something and my adrenaline is rushing. Therefore, when working with a psychologist, it is important to understand what I am afraid of and find ways to reduce this fear. If the condition is very serious and severely limits life, for example, it’s scary to even go to the nearest store. It is better to use medications to reduce anxiety. Such drugs can be prescribed by a neurologist or psychiatrist. It is important to remember that medications do not solve the problem, but only temporarily reduce the level of anxiety; in order to solve the problem, you need to work with a psychologist. Psychotherapy for panic attacks. As I see it, the task of psychotherapy for panic attacks is to understand what the client is afraid of and reduce this fear. The peculiarity of the phenomenon of PA is that PA itself and its symptoms are a powerful stress for the client. And at the moment of PA, as a rule, a psychological trauma occurs as a result of which the client, for example, is afraid to go outside, and suddenly there will be PA there again. It turns out that in addition to the initial fear that triggered the first panic attack (let’s call it fear 1), fear from the panic attack itself and its symptoms is added (let’s call it fear 2), which also needs to be worked with and reduced. Some schools of psychotherapy, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, work only with fear 2. As a result of this work, the client is less afraid of PA and its symptoms, and as a result functions better in society, but the overall level of anxiety due to fear 1 remains high, which can lead to some kind of phobias and, in general, living with constantly high anxiety is difficult. Therefore, working only with fear 2 is such a partial solution to the problem. You can clarify the work strategy of a particular psychologist from him himself, whether he works with fear 1 or not. If a psychologist promises quick results in less than 5 sessions, then most likely he only works with fear 2. The reasons for fear 1 can be very different and this is a separate big topic.13372109