Conditions Treated

Anxiety and Panic Attacks

Some people have experienced these as a response to a stressful situation, for others, they seem to have come 'out of the blue'. Whichever is true for you, the symptoms are very unpleasant and can include sensations of dizziness, faintness, shaking and sweating and feelings of unreality. Some people only ever have one attack whilst others experience them over and over in situations that for them are stressful, and they become hypervigilant.

For most people who experience panic attacks like this, the overwhelming fear is of having another one and the consequent feelings of lack of control over your body. It is important to know, that the sensations you experience are a natural response by your nervous system to a perceived danger. It is activating your 'fight' or flight response.

Know then, that your nervous system is in good working order. However, fearful thoughts of having another episode of panic is putting your nervous system into a heightened state of alert so that it is responding when you go into a situation which is stressful for you, but not life-threatening. This might for example be when you go into the kind of situation where you had your first attack.