Detailed instruction of psychologist Anna Shipitsina

Text: Ellina Glebova

According to medical organizations, from 2020 to 2021, the number of requests to the doctor about panic attacks in Russia increased 2-3 times . And the anxiety and uncertainty of the last year, most likely, only increased this statistics. We understand how to cope with panic attacks, along with Anna Shipycin , a psychologist and a psychoanalytic psychotherapist.

What is a panic attack

A panic attack is an attack of a strong uncontrolled fear. In fact, this is a sudden reaction of the body, which it should be given normally when colliding with a strong stressor. However, a panic attack can manifest itself in a calm atmosphere, unexpectedly for a person.

As a rule, people remember their first panic attack well and even years later they can reproduce it in detail. In different people, panic attacks are different, but usually a combination of several of these symptoms is characteristic.

1. Strong fear

It quickly grows and is not connected with a real threat (but connected with something that the body perceived as a threat).

2. Raised heartbeat

We still react to stress in the same way as our ancestors to meet with a tiger or bear. It will be necessary to fight or run away with the tiger, which means that blood on the body needs to be pumped faster.

3. A feeling of numbness or tingling in the limbs

The reason for this is the same-the vessels in the limbs are filled with blood to run away from the tiger, and because of this, the sensations change in them.

4. Improving blood pressure

A person may begin to be afraid of heart attack or stroke. In fact, this never happens in connection with panic attacks. On the contrary, doctors claim that anxious people have a more trained heart.

5. Sure and feeling of a lump in the throat

I would like to open a window as soon as possible or get out of the room in connection with the stuffiness. The feeling of stuffiness is due to the fact that in anxiety a person begins to breathe very quickly and the lungs, on the contrary, are oversaturated with oxygen.

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