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Barrier 6

Unsure How to Prevent or Respond to Anxiety Attack

COMMON INDICATORS

Thoughts:

"How can I prevent anxiety attacks?" "What do I do when anxiety attacks occur?"

Feelings:

Worried, discouraged.

Actions:

Trying one technique after another.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Just as in sailing a ship one does certain things before problems occur to help prevent their occurrence, during the occurrence of problems to make corrections before things get worse, and after problems have occurred to learn from the mistake and minimize or prevent future problems, the same is true for dealing with the waves of anxiety. As you increase your knowledge and skills in the three previously mentioned areas, you will be better able to minimize and eventually eliminate anxiety attacks.

STEPS TO REMOVING THE BARRIER

The steps for removing this barrier are divided into three sections: Before an anxiety attack, during an anxiety attack, and after an anxiety attack.

BEFORE AN ANXIETY ATTACK

1. Involve yourself in a well-balanced variety of constructive activities such as work, school, family, church, social activities, physical exercise, music, or service. If your life is out of balance in just one area, you will have difficulty making any lasting improvements. Regular aerobic exercise such as walking, jogging, bicycling, or swimming are especially helpful.
2. Develop a healthy mental diet just as you do a physical diet. Feed your mind constructive, uplifting food. Avoid upsetting thoughts as you avoid unhealthy food.
   1. Key Point: What you feed your mind determines what kind of mind you will have.

   Example: People who read wholesome and uplifting material daily are more likely to ride out waves of anxiety without becoming upset than people who read about upsetting things. At the very least, they will be able to overcome anxiety attacks more quickly.

3. Recall some of the anxiety-producing thoughts you tend to think about. Then make a list of those thoughts. Equate your list to identifying the weeds beginning to invade your garden.
4. Seek to be aware of thoughts preceding or triggering an anxiety attack before it occurs and immediately divert your thoughts and attention to something more constructive.

DURING AN ANXIETY ATTACK

1. Determine the degree of anxiety you are experiencing by rating it on a scale of one to ten, with ten being the most intense anxiety ever experienced. Say to yourself, for example, "My body is at a six or a seven."
   1. Caution: Do not cause additional anxiety by saying "I am at a six or a seven." Reason: It is easier to manage your body than your entire being.
2. Acknowledge and accept the degree of anxiety you are experiencing, without trying to force the intensity to go down--especially if the intense anxiety hits suddenly like an earthquake.

Caution: Resist the temptation to analyze why you are having an attack while you are experiencing it. Reason: Unless asking why leads to an action-oriented solution, it will just make you feel worse--especially if you do not come up with a reasonable answer.

1. Reassure yourself you will indeed survive, no matter how badly you currently feel.

   Say to yourself: "Though my feelings seem to be saying I'm dying, my head says otherwise; and when in doubt I choose to believe my head."

2. Despite how you feel, do something constructive--even if it is something small.
   1. Caution: Do not just think about how you feel. Do something.

AFTER AN ATTACK

1. Even after your thoughts and activity are back within bounds, be patient with the way you feel. The length of time it takes your body to relax after extreme anxiety is about ten times as long as the time you were feeling anxious. The ripples in a pond continue long after the rock that caused them is resting on the bottom.
2. Reassure yourself you can learn a great deal from feeling upset, as long as you resist the temptation to ignore your feelings or condemn yourself for having them in the first place.
3. Think about what you can learn from getting upset so you can do something better next time.

   Ask yourself: "What could I have done to prevent myself from getting so upset?" "Once upset, what could I have done to minimize the intensity and duration of the feelings?"

4. Instead of just trying to learn from your mistakes, think of some of the times you started to get upset, but instead of dwelling on it, got yourself involved with something else. Think about how you did it. Ask yourself what was different during those times.
   1. Key Point: Too often people spend more time dwelling on their mistakes rather than on analyzing and learning from their successes, especially if the successes appear to be an accident or an exception to the norm.

   You may wish to study the accompanying chart on the following page to gain a clearer overview of the three different areas of dealing with anxiety attacks.

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Anxiety Chapter Introduction

Copyright @ John R. Fishbein, Ph.D. 2000 All Rights Reserved