Counselling Therapy Treatment
PANIC ATTACKS
One in three people will suffer a panic attack at some point in their lives (National Phobic Society 2001). Anxiety disorders are common affecting five percent of the population at any one time (Royal College of Psychiatrists 2000).
Here is a description of the symptoms of panic attacks, causes and cure.
Symptoms of a panic attack
The person usually develops a severe sense of fear that peaks within ten minutes. During this period, four or more of the following symptoms occur:
Chest pain and discomfort
Chills or hot flushes
Racing heart or heart skips beats
Fear of dying
Nausea or other abdominal discomfort
Numbness or tingling in fingers and hands
Sweating
Trembling
Shortness of breath and smothering sensation
Fear of loss of control
Fear of going insane
Dizziness, light-headed, faint or unsteadiness
Depersonalisation (feeling detached from oneself), de-realization (feeling unreal)
Fear of the fear of having panic attack
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Some Causes of Panic Attacks
The fight or flight response is a natural reaction to a perceived threat. It is present in humans and animals alike. When triggered, hormones are released into the bloodstream to enable a person to either fight (defend oneself) or fly (run away) from a potentially dangerous situation. The effects of the fight or flight response include an increase in the heart rate to pump blood faster to the brain; improved senses for better awareness of potential dangers and altered breathing patterns to speed up the hormonal distribution process. Once triggered, the brain creates a template for panic attacks causing the panic conditioned response to fire off inappropriately and ever more frequently.
Other factors that encourage panic attacks are lifestyle, thinking style, eating habits, consumption of alcohol, stress and living conditions.
Treatment of panic attacks
Much research has been conducted on various forms of therapy for panic attacks. Statistics have shown that the most effective form of treatment is a combination of cognitive-behaviour therapy and clinical hypnosis.
Solution-focussed, cognitive-behaviour therapy involves a thorough appraisal of the lifestyle of the individual as well as an assessment of the panic attacks and its triggers. Tasks may be assigned such as keeping a diary of when the attacks occur, the circumstances and intensity. Once obtained, this information gives a clear indication of physiological triggers such as excessive caffeine intake or allergies to certain pharmaceuticals and psychological triggers including stress and situations.
Any prevalent distorted thinking patterns (fearful thoughts causing anxiety before the attack has started) also become evident. Armed with this knowledge, the therapist can begin the next stage of prevention and cure.
This stage is composed of relaxation techniques including breathing and visualisation exercises, panic management strategies and desensitisation processes (gradual exposure to the panic producing triggers). NLP and clinical hypnosis can also be used to de-condition the fear aspect of the panic attacks as well as creating a new healthy mental template based on positive and creative use of the imagination of each individual.
Therapy is driven by the needs of the individual; their circumstances and situation so that the skills learned and adopted can continue after the therapeutic process is complete thereby preventing relapse. The individual completes therapy feeling reassured and at peace.
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Guide to do every day
1. Study something new every day-
2. Do at least one new thing different every day and make it part of your life
3. Keep a positive dairy
4. Go for a walk if possible
5. Get out of house at least once a day
6. Be nice to someone else at least once a day
7. Be good/treat yourself at least once a day
8. Phone at least one person everyday
9. Be good to yourself
10. It is ok to feel
11. It is OK to Think
12. Act as if to give the Confidence to achieve
13. Learn to trust yourself
14. Learn to trust others
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LET IT REALLY SINK IN - THEN CHOOSE.
John is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood
and
always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he
was
doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!"
He was a natural motivator.
If an employee was having a bad day, John was there telling the employee
how to look on the positive side of the situation.
Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up and asked
him, "I don't get it!
You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?"
He replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have two
choices
today. You can choose to be in a good mood or ... you can choose to be
in a bad mood.
I choose to be in a good mood."
Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or...I can
choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it.
Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their
complaining or... I can point out the positive side of life. I choose
the positive side of life.
"Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested.
"Yes, it is," he said. "Life is all about choices. When you cut away all
the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to
situations. You choose how people affect your mood.
You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your
choice how you live your life."
I reflected on what he said. Soon hereafter, I left the Industry to
start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when
I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.
Several years later, I heard that he was involved in a serious accident,
falling some 60 feet from a tower.
After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, he was released
from the hospital with rods placed in his back.
I saw him about six months after the accident
When I asked him how he was, he replied, "If I were any better, I'd be
twins' Wanna see my scars?"
I declined to see his wounds, but I did ask him what had gone through
his mind as the accident took place.
"The first thing that went through my mind was the well-being of my
soon-to-be born daughter," he replied. "Then, as I lay on the ground, I
remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or...I could
choose to die. I chose to live."
"Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked.
He continued, "...the paramedics were great.
They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me
into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and
nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read 'he's a dead man'. I
knew I needed to take action."
"What did you do?" I asked.
"Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me," said John.
"She asked if I was allergic to anything. 'Yes, I replied.' The doctors
and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep
breath and yelled, 'Gravity'."
Over their laughter, I told them, "I am choosing to live. Operate on me
as if I am alive, not dead."
He lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his
amazing attitude... I learned from him that every day we have the choice
to live fully.
Attitude, after all, is everything. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
After all today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.
You have two choices now:
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Unhelpful Thoughts
1. Over-generalisation. Making a sweeping statement about oneself following a single incident; “She didn’t want to go out with me – that means no one will.
2. Personalisation. Attributing failures to oneself when other factors may be at least as much to blame: “She didn’t enjoy the cinema this evening because she was with me”.
3. Magnification. Misinterpreting a minor setback as a major disaster, ‘making a mountain out of a mole hill’ “Since she said she couldn’t go out with me that evening it’s pointless asking her out again”.
4. Minimisation. Misinterpreting one’s achievement so that it’s actual worth is underestimated: “She seems to enjoy my company, but that’s only because there’s nobody else available”.
5. Dichotomous reasoning. Categorising oneself as one thing or the other, as a success or a failure with no intermediate position: “She doesn’t like me, that’s because I’m basically unlikeable.
6. Arbitrary inference. Making a negative inference from something without taking into account alternative explanations: “She arrived late which means she didn’t really want to come anyway”.
7. Selective Abstraction. Basing a conclusion on one fact taken out of context while ignoring any conflicting evidence: Although she has kept all our other arrangements the fact that she didn’t come tonight means she is not committed to our relationship”.
It can be seen that some thoughts are examples of more than one mechanism in play; indeed, the example above of over-generalisation might also result from personalisation, magnification or selective abstraction.
Thought, Feelings & Action (Cognitive Behavioural Programme)
Designed by Alpha Integrative Counselling Services
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PROMISES
If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half way through. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows. Self-seeking will slip away. Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change. Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us. We will intuitively know how to handle situations, which used to baffle us. We will suddenly realize that we are living and have a purposeful life.
Are these extravagant promises? We think not. They are being fulfilled among us – sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if we work for them.
Motivation for Life
Program Designed by Alpha Integrative Counselling Services
Exert from AA book
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The Price of “Nice”
“Nice” behaviour eventually has a ‘Price’ for both the ‘nice’ person and persons involved With him/her. It is alienating, indirectly hostile, and self destructive because:
1 The ‘nice’ person tends to create an atmosphere such that others avoid giving honest, genuine feedback. This blocks emotional growth.
2 ‘Nice’ behaviour will ultimately be distrusted by others. That is, it generates a Sense of uncertainty and lack of safety in others, who can never be sure if they will be supported by the ‘nice’ person in a crisis situation that requires an aggressive Confrontation with others.
3 ‘Nice’ people stifle the growth of others. They avoid giving others genuine Feedback, and they deprive others of a real person to assert against. This tends to Others can never be certain if the relationship to turn their aggression against themselves. It also tends to generate guilt and depressed feelings in others who are Intimately Involved and dependent on them.
4 Because of chronic ‘niceness’, others can never be certain if the relationship with A ‘nice’ person could endure a conflict or sustain an angry confrontation, if it did Occur spontaneously. This places great limits on the potential extent of intimacy In the relationship by placing others constantly on their guard.
5 ‘Nice’ behaviour is not reliable. Periodically, the ‘nice’ person explodes in unexpected rage and those involved are shocked and unprepared to cope with it.
6 The ‘nice’ person, by holding aggression in, may pay a physiological price in the Form of psychosomatic problems and a psychological price in the form of
Alienation.
7 ‘Nice’ behaviour is emotionally unreal behaviour. It puts severe limitations on
all relationships, and the ultimate victim is the ‘nice’ person him/herself.
Motivation for Life
Program Designed by Alpha Integrative Counselling Service
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phone 01376552774