Stopping Anxiety: 4 Tips
Anxiety is a personal message that you are stuck, trapped, need to change or do something different.
Do you experience what you think (or have been told) is a panic attack? Are you a survivor of abuse, bullying, catastrophic, combat, domestic violence, harassment, and rape, as well as trauma, or indoctrination situations in your life?
If you have experienced the above situations, you are probably also suffering from some degree of Post-traumatic Stress from those situations. Then knowingly or unknowingly, you’re carrying buried memory or known as dissociative memory.
Many times a panic attack is not a panic attack because it is indeed the result of being triggered by a past abusive or traumatic experience. After studying the two physiological reactions, they both produce very similar symptoms, emotionally, mentally, and physically. It appears that the only difference between a panic attack reaction and being triggered by a flashback is perception. How a person is evaluated or medicated (or not) depends on how the person reports his or her symptoms. Unfortunately, a panic attack has become a catch-all diagnosis and very overused out of convenience.
Which is which?
At some point in time, even years later, after experiencing an abusive or traumatic situation, portions (flashbacks) or complete episodes of your dissociated memories will get triggered whether you like them to or not. They will surface out of dissociated storage, through the subconscious mind and begin to replay in your conscious mind without your awareness. All you will feel is the emotional, mental, and physical reactions. Such shared experiences are reported in helping professionals and diagnosed as a panic attack.
After close investigation of both panic attacks symptoms and symptoms of being triggered, there are not many differences. Notice when you are experiencing a sudden onset of emotional, mental, and physical reactions and that they seem to come out of nowhere or for no reason.
How do you know which is which? Unfortunately, many times, you only know after the fact. You know when to take your prescribed medication for panic attacks, and nothing happens. No relief is experienced.
What is a trigger?
Definition of Trigger
A trigger is a sensory stimulus from the outside yourself. Triggers can be an emotion, a physical pain, a visual cue, a sound, a smell, a location, or a touch, which causes a recollection from a traumatic experience from outside stimuli. This stimuli connects to a complete memory or portion of memory (flashback) and results in pain and recollection surfacing of that recollection. The surfacing memory or flashback may have been held in the subconscious at a dissociated memory storage area in the brain. A trigger can be connected to a good or positive experience as well as a dangerous, harmful, or life-threatening experience.
How many times have you been able to recall an event by merely smelling something familiar or a feeling? Studies have found that emotion or smell has been said to be "the biggest triggers of memory."
The eight types of triggers are:
Auditory trigger
Anniversary date trigger
Emotional trigger
Environmental trigger
Mental trigger
Organ trigger
Physical trigger
Relationship trigger
Visual trigger
Verbal trigger
How do you feel when you are triggered?
Your heart feels like it is going to beat out of your chest
Your heart rate becomes rapid
Sweating in every part of your body
Cold hands and feet but hot body core
Unusual smells for no reason
Tightening of your throat
Dry mouth and unable to say anything
Physically frozen and unable to do anything
Constriction of your visual field
The quick onset of fear or terror for no apparent reason
Emotional numbness
Can’t think clearly or concentrate
Rapid onset of intense confusion
Episodes of dissociating
Very anxious
Hyper-vigilant
Hyper-aware
Hypersensitive
The quick emergence of irritability
If you are honest with yourself and review all the reactions as mentioned above, you will see that you are indeed experiencing subconsciously triggered flashbacks rather than going through a panic attack.
Is there hope? The answer is YES!
Physical Symptoms of Anxiety to Watch Out For
Physical symptoms of Anxiety:
Shaking
Dry mouth
Sweating stuttering
Increased heart rate
Shaking of limbs
Stomach pain
Dizziness
Increased body temperature
Difficulty breathing - pressure or shallow breathing
4 Tips on Stopping Anxiety in its Tracks
1. Do not instantly dissociate. Focus on the moment. Stay in the present for a while. See if it is a flashback or a real panic attack. Learn to use a visual cue, deep breathing, or meditation to stay present.
2. Moderate your fear by not attempting to predict what may happen that has not yet occurred.
3. Do not immediately take anti-anxiety (anti-anxiety) medication … instead, develop a skill or a cue that keeps you at the moment. If the reactions mentioned above are a triggered flashback, then in 5 to 10 minutes, the responses should dissipate.
4. Then stop, reflect, and determine whether you are having a flashback or a panic attack. If the reactions do not dissipate, then utilize your anti-panic medication for relief.
5. Engage and practice Intuitive Breathing. When you feel a trigger happening or the first onset of anxiety from an experience, The do 4 sets of intuitive breathing, and the anxiety and stress will calm down, and you will be able to refocus.
Afterthoughts on Inner Power
Overall, recognition of your anxiety and self-determination will bring you greater mindfulness, inner power, and peace. Face your inner demons head-on, and your anxiety triggers will disappear. Understand your anxiety is a personal message, not a problem.
Coach Bill
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