This is a great topic. I have to say what experiences I had, because I know longer experience them. The first big issue I had was that I had a full blown panic attack in the shower (from 0 - 100, it was a pure 100%). I grabbed a towel and ran out like, like a serial killer was chasing me, onto my front porch. Embarrassing. The feeling was I could not breathe, I was claustrophobic, my heart was beating out of my chest. I could feel the blood coursing through my veins and making pulsating squishy sounds in my ear. It was a super sonic adrenaline rush of the worst kind. The other experience was having the exact same thing happen when I was at a stop light. I had to unbuckle my seat belt, roll down the windows, stick my head out of the window like a dog, blow the air conditioning on me at full blast, drink water. And, I honestly felt like I was going to have to run out into traffic to escape the trapped feeling and abandon my car. God was the only force keeping me in my vehicle. Okay, first problem, I associated the shower and car with full blown panic. Second problem, you can't avoid showers for very long, if you want to be an accepted member of society and your family. Re: Cars, sorry, but I need to get food to eat, avoidance not practical if I would like to continue to stay alive. I was pretty impressive with my numerous ways of avoidance. In order to get into the shower, I had to buy a clear shower liner so I could see out. I put a portable DVD player and put a movie in, to distract me from the shower. The list is endless. Re: the car, sometimes people aren't around to run errands for you and if you want to eat, you better go out and get food. After starting this program, I learned it wasn't the shower I was afraid of, it wasn't being in the car, that I was afraid of. I was afraid of the actual panic attack and setting it off. It was quite like the boogy man. I never knew when or where he was going to pop out and scare the beegeebers out of me. Session one. Identify my triggers which are caused by events and physical symptoms. I am now aware. Next step, how do you counteract this. By coping skills such as positive self talk, replacing negative wrong thinking with positive absolute truths which your brain can't possible deny the logic. I am safe, I am not trapped, I can get out of the shower, car or whatever situation, whenever I want. This is a false alarm, it cannot hurt me. I am fine. If I had an excellerated heart rate, that came out of no where, I would immediately focus on it. Then my brain said, "Your heart rate is off the charts, something must be wrong." Okay brain, you're smart and I believe you, now lets get the rest of the gang involved too. Here comes sweaty clammy hands, irratic breathing, etc. Now, I tell my brain. Look, my body is giving a false alarm, I am in no danger what so ever, so ignore these physical symptoms and calm down. Now, my brain says, hey, that's logical, I guess I can shut down the launch sequence to the flight response. Thanks for letting me know. Honestly, repeating this over and over and over, infinity was the 100% cure. Now I can shower without a clear shower curtain, and the home movie theater. I can drive anywhere and know that I have the ability to stop these attacks, so why worry about anything, because I can handle it, if one rears it's ugly head. I just kick it to the curb. That is my thought process. Hope this helps.
