Revaluing Problems

 

With a little change in attitude, fears loose all their magnitude.
Symptoms of panic can be subdued and eliminated with knowledge about
how your body responds to an adrenaline surge and with practice
refocusing on something pleasant or floating past anxiety during episodes.
However, recovery will not be complete until you have changed your
attitude toward panic by revaluing it. In the following example, insecurity
became an intoxicating experience:

One young man began imagining a beautiful peaceful place when he first
started to feel his heart pound. He was surprised that this actually made
him feel euphoric. Of course, as soon as he began looking forward to
symptoms of anxiety so he could get “high,” he no longer had panic attacks.
His recovery continued as long as he remembered that he could turn a
frightening adrenaline rush into a pleasant experience.

With practice, anyone can minimize panic reactions and adopt a whole new
viewpoint about them. The first step to changing your attitude is to identify
the self-defeating thoughts you currently have about panic. Then, you can
compute opposite, positive beliefs that will help you recover by revaluing
your symptoms. Notice that the difference between destructive and helpful
beliefs can be very subtle:

Change Thoughts That Hurt into      . . .      Beliefs That Reduce Panic

The first statement in each pair stresses “success” and suggests that you
have to try to prevent or avoid panic. The second statement shows that you
have revalued anxious symptoms as opportunities to practice making peace
with panic. When you have truly changed your outlook, you will not have a
problem if panic returns after a period of being symptom-free. Therefore, it
is very important to practice affirming Beliefs That Reduce Panic (above)
until they are true for you.
    
SETBACKS

Although many people stop adding the second fear of panic after
understanding what is happening to them, others have more difficulty
retraining their reactions or find their symptoms return after a period of
doing well. This can happen for several reasons:

• Success can be frightening. After a good period, people often think:
  “I hope I never have to go through that again!” “I wonder if this will
  last.” “Am I cured?” “What if I start having problems again?” Any of
  these thoughts can invite panic!

• Success allows fewer opportunities to practice dealing with panic.
  People can fall into old patterns of thinking scary thoughts or trying
  to control symptoms.

• Coming back from a vacation or being in the hospital can cause
  people to feel stressed by the demands of their daily routine. Brief
  retraining may be necessary to again become desensitized to certain
  situations. Even people without panic disorders often feel anxious on
  Mondays or when coming home from vacations.

• Underlying emotional problems of depression, social phobia,
  obsessing, and perfectionism that have not been addressed can
  cause panic to return.

• Symptoms from undetected minor medical problems such as inner
  ear dysfunction, allergies, PMS, low blood sugar, thyroid dysfunction,
  anemia, high blood pressure, or mitral valve prolapse can trigger
  anxiety after periods of doing well.

• Multiple factors contributing to problems with anxiety (sensitive
  temperament, chronic illnesses, traumatic experiences, family or work
  conflicts, perfectionistic or avoidant traits, depression, phobias, or
  obsessions) will create many challenges to not add the second fear
  of panic to stress.

• Relying solely on medication for recovery can cause symptoms to
  return when drugs are discontinued. Although some use of
  medication may be helpful, it is important to gradually replace
  medication with behavioral techniques, such as refocusing on
  pleasant activities and floating past anxiety to desensitize panic
  reactions.

The return of panic is almost a necessary part of full recovery. You need to
show yourself that you can deal with symptoms if they do return to lose the
fear of problems recurring. Because you may reexperience panic from time
to time, it is essential to adopt a final attitude that revalues any “setbacks”
in your life.


Reference

See Jeffrey M. Schwartz’s “4-R’s of recovery” for OCD found in Brain Lock
(HarperCollins, 1996).