Hello everyone, I am Zhang Xin, an associate professor in the School of Psychology and Cognitive Science of Peking University, and a person who likes to explain and change life with psychology.
Today, I would like to share with you a seemingly difficult disease-panic attack.
At that time, my lover and I (hereinafter referred to as “deer”) entered the society. After experiencing the dangerous workplace, the death of relatives and the red light of health, deer was obviously depressed, anxious day and night and emaciated during that time.
One day, I suddenly received a phone call saying that the deer out of town fainted and was taken to the hospital. I rushed over overnight and the doctor said it was no big deal. But she said:
I have a heart disease. I have palpitations and chest tightness, my heart beating very fast, cramps in my hands and feet, and my whole body is weak and numb. It looks like countless ants are crawling. I can’t breathe the air, so I gasp for breath. I feel that I am going to die.
I read her examination report: electrocardiogram, brain scan, blood test, X-ray film… All the tests showed that everything was normal. We went to two other local hospitals and everything was still normal.
At this time, even my in-laws felt that she was moaning without illness, but her condition did not improve, and she always had attacks several times a day.
I think the doctor’s level is high and low, but the instrument will not fail at the same time. The examination results are normal, which means there is no organic disease.
All physical examination results are normal-no organic lesions;
Can’t breathe air-suffocation;
Feeling that I am going to die-feeling of dying;
The whole body is weak and the spine is cold-fear;
I look like ants crawling on my body-tingling and tingling.
The heartbeat is extremely fast-tachycardia…
This series of key words suddenly jumped into my mind, and my memory returned to the chapter of [panic attack] in my junior class many years ago.
Is what a panic attack?
Panic attack is a sudden psychological state of extreme fear.
Usually accompanied by chest tightness, palpitation, tachycardia, vertigo, asphyxia, hyperventilation, numbness, stabbing pain, fainting and other physiological symptoms, as well as inexplicable psychological symptoms such as near-death feeling, fear feeling, doomsday feeling, impending disaster feeling, and patients do not know the cause of their fear is what.
Panic attacks may not have any inducement, may also be related to stress events in life (such as physical overwork, emotional trauma, etc.), and may also be related to specific situations (such as panic attacks caused by agoraphobia, crowd phobia, etc.).
How to Overcome Panic Attack?
Considering the work pressure and the death of relatives experienced by the deer during that time, I can probably confirm that she was suffering from anxiety disorder accompanied by panic attacks.
But the good news is that her symptoms have not lasted more than a month and she can recover.
The next task is to encourage her to leave the terrible working environment, chat and walk with her, urge her to go to bed early and get up early, take active exercise, take her to climb mountains, ride bicycles, watch plays, go to hutongs, and eat delicious food…
The most important thing is to let her firmly believe that panic attacks will not kill her, accept the symptoms calmly, wait for the symptoms to disappear (the symptoms usually only last for 10-15 minutes), and I will constantly appease her.
In about two weeks, her attacks decreased until she completely disappeared. Later, she turned back into the alive deer and found the job she wanted.
When the panic attacks
Developed into panic disorder
A few years later, the deer suddenly said to me:
I heard today that a friend, who had repeated panic attacks and could not find anything wrong with him, was still felt by his family to be pretending to be ill. Now he can no longer work and the whole person is decadent at home. I just realize now that you saved me at that time!
Although the symptoms of panic attacks are ferocious, they will not affect people too much most of the time. However, if the attacks occur repeatedly, the patient will appear to behave abnormally, fear social intercourse, and affect normal social function and work life.
If this state lasts for more than one month, it can be called [panic disorder].
People like deer, who had good social function and short course of disease before, can usually recover without drug therapy after adjustment. However, if the course of the disease is longer and heavier, even combined with depression, drug abuse and personality disorders, the treatment will be more difficult.
Therefore, if there are patients with suspected panic disorder, they must seek help from a psychological consultant or a hospital psychiatrist in time and receive psychological treatment and drug treatment according to the doctor’s advice.
If you want to know more interesting psychological knowledge, such as: Why are parents so gullible? Why can I delay with ease? Why do I support the explicit prohibition of teacher-student love? Paying attention to my WeChat public number Dr. Xin Neo-Confucianism may overturn your previous understanding of psychology.