Hello and welcome to this talk on what is a panic attack.
Having a panic attack is incredibly frightening.
You do feel like you're dying.
And until you've had one,
You actually don't understand what it means.
I know I didn't until I had them.
But then once you've had one,
You can actually feel really,
Really uncomfortable because you don't understand what's happened.
You feel embarrassed,
You feel shy,
And you feel ashamed because it can happen with no apparent reason.
I'm Chantal,
Psychotherapist and Reiki Master.
And I wanted to talk to you today about panic attacks and to normalise them because they can happen to anyone,
Anytime,
For any reason.
And I also want to,
As I said,
Weave some of my experiences through this because I think sometimes it's good to hear from someone else who looks like or sounds like they've got it together,
Yet can still have panic attacks.
Now,
Panic attack is something that occurs where there's no logical reason,
Where your body feels like it's in danger,
Something is going to happen.
Now,
Panic attacks can be a one off occurrence,
And they can also be repeated occurrences.
And they can come for all sorts of reasons.
Now,
You might have a panic attack,
Which is a one off,
Before you're sitting an exam,
Before you're going to speak publicly,
Before even getting married.
So even though that's exciting,
You can suddenly feel panic.
Am I doing the right thing?
Is this the right person?
So that can also create a panic attack.
You may even have one before giving birth because suddenly now,
Despite being excited,
You're going to have this whole new life.
How is it going to be?
And you can go into panic.
And of course,
You know,
If there's someone you've loved has died,
Are you going to be able to cope with that?
You're going for a big job.
You might have a panic attack,
Moving home,
There's so many reasons a one off that can happen for you.
And it can be personal.
So always remember just because it's happened to you may not happen to someone else.
And likewise,
We must remember not to compare ourselves to others.
Reoccurring panic attacks can happen from car accidents,
Assaults,
Trauma,
Childhood experiences,
Your upbringing,
Your values.
There's so many reasons why it also you may have been in the Defense Force,
Or you might be in state emergency services.
So there's so many reasons why you can have panic attacks.
So never underestimate why.
And please never feel ashamed and embarrassed.
I know when I first had my panic attacks,
I'd never had them before.
So I had no idea what to expect.
And I had no idea what had happened.
And also,
I've always been the strong one and the independent one to suddenly hear feel like I was dying and couldn't cope was hugely,
Hugely difficult for me.
So mine initially came after my father died.
And I had a few of them then but then they stopped.
But when mine really came on and were repeated was after a car accident.
So what is a panic attack is this real sense of you are going to die.
Your body freezes,
Your heartbeat goes up,
Your blood pressure goes up,
You might start to sweat,
You feel disorientated,
You go dizzy,
You might even feel nauseous.
And there's just this whole sense of you're feeling smothered,
You can't breathe,
You're hyperventilating.
And on top of that,
There's this whole sense of doom and gloom and fear.
And this can happen for five minutes or up to 10 or 20 minutes.
But when you're in it,
You actually don't know how long it's been going on for.
But it can just seem like an eternity.
And what makes it even more frightening because they can happen anywhere,
Anytime.
It can actually create a sense of anxiety about going out,
It can create an anxiety big bang around people,
How you're going to support yourself,
Who is going to support yourself.
So I'm actually going to do another podcast on this because I think it's important to know for you to understand how you can support yourself and ask for support.
And if you're around someone having a panic attack,
You understand what you can do.
So of course,
When you start having these and don't understand them,
You actually start withdrawing more and more from society,
Which can of course exacerbate the whole situation.
So I know for me,
What happened was I got so triggered and I had bad nightmares.
I actually didn't want to go out.
I didn't want to step into a car because I was very frightened that I'd have a car exit again.
What if I had a panic attack in the car?
What if I had a panic attack getting out there?
So I just prefer to stay home.
And that was a big thing for me because I'd been someone who traveled the world.
I've been brought up overseas.
I could drive anywhere,
Anytime.
And now I simply couldn't get out of bed.
That's how bad they were.
So I didn't want to step out that door.
I'd have an attack or I'd have the fear of having an attack.
So this is when you need to start putting things into place to support yourself.
So some things that you can do is obviously talk to someone,
Your GP,
A psychotherapist or a psychologist,
Get EMDR.
There's so many different ways to do that.
And there's also things like you go to meditation,
Tapping,
Journaling.
So what you need to do is find what supports you because that's the most important thing is doing what is right for you,
Not what from someone else's says.
So I can give you ideas here,
But ultimately you need to do that so you own it and actually do it.
And also know you're not alone.
You're not alone in this experience.
Thank you for listening.
Share anything you'd love to share.
How do you cope?
Have you had a panic attack?
Let's start normalising this conversation and start talking about it.
I'd love to hear.
And again,
Thank you for listening.
Namaste.
