Having a panic attack is one of the most frightening things you can experience. In the most innocuous places and for apparently no good reason, you may suddenly be overcome with intense fear and think you're going to die. You experience a desperate need to escape accompanied by heart palpitations, fast breathing, feelings of nausea, sensations of choking or smothering, dizziness, numbness and a host of other unpleasant physical symptoms. Often sufferers think they are having a heart attack and will often do anything to avoid going back to the places where they experienced this level of fear. But it only means that your brain is behaving like an overly sensitive smoke alarm firing off when there is no real emergency.

In essence a panic attack is just the inappropriate switching on of the 'fight or flight' response to deal with a threat to your survival that doesn't actually exist. This is caused by sloppy pattern matching by the organ in the brain called the amygdala.  All the symptoms occur when the body remains inactive and doesn't use up the adrenaline coursing through it a result of the activation of fight or flight.

These panic reactions are often maintained for longer than would occur naturally because of the fear generated by the unpleasant nature of these 'fight or flight' symptoms themselves!  In other words, your imagination feeds the experience.

Panic attacks occur because the an organ in the brain, called the amygdala, that scans the environment for threats to your survival, can't tell the difference between a real threat and a perceived one. It has to treat them both the same. This is also why when you are in a situation that is even vaguely like somewhere where you experienced danger before, real or imagined, your amygdala will pattern match to similarities and trigger off the fight or flight response again, even though it's quite unnecessary.

A good metaphor for what's happening is that a panic attack is like the fast spin in a washing machine.  Just as your washing machine is designed to spin and vibrate and withstand all that sudden activity at certain times in the washing cycle, so your heart and body are designed to thump and shake when you get highly emotionally aroused. Normally you would run like the clappers as a result but, if there is nothing to run from, and you don't repeatedly pressing the 'spin' button (i.e. think frightening thoughts), your arousal will settle down again quickly of its own accord.

Human Givens Therapists use a number of techniques to stop panic attacks but some people are so traumatised by having one, or a series of them, that they have to be detraumatised. The technique known as ÔrewindÕ is used for this, a swift and effective way of neutralising high emotional arousal from memories so they can be properly processed. It works with almost everyone.

The easiest form of self-help if you experience realise a panic attack is underway is to immediately take vigorous aerobic exercise (running up and down stairs a few times, dancing furiously or running round the block) or do 7-11 breathing.

>> Read an indepth article about why various treatments for panic attacks and PTSD work

>> If you would like a qualified HG practitioner to treat a phobia or trauma symptoms, find your nearest one on our online register.

Back to top

> A detailed, scientific explanation of how people become traumatised and how this can be removed, is included in Joe Griffin's and Ivan Tyrrell's book: Human Givens: A new approach to emotional health and clear thinking

> For information about different forms of anxiety disorders and the treatments they require, listen to the CD:

Effective anxiety management, without drugs

> ONLINE REGISTER
of qualified human givens therapists who are trained in treating phobias or trauma symptoms

> For training in how to use the rewind technique, see the MindFields College workshop:

The Fast Trauma and Phobia Cure