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By Andrea Lanier, Group Facilitator next page
Seven-twenty in the morning of May 6th, 1998, sitting at the breakfast table with my husband, I suddenly feel terrified and confused, desperate to escape. Everything is spinning and moving, I feel nauseous, and my head and my extremities feel numb and tingly. My chest so tight, it seems I can't breathe. Escape! I have got to escape! I crawl off from my chair to the floor - I can't stand up - I crawl to the door - escape! . . . My husband calmed me down. I did not know what was happening to me. But I became very frightened to be alone. A visit to an immediate medical care facility gave me no answers.
Two-fifteen in the morning of May 7th, 1998, I awake in pure terror of no apparent cause - no memory of a nightmare. I am sweating and terrified; I am confused. When I try to go back to sleep the terror returns, dizziness, nausea, and numb extremities. I am so exhausted. I leave the bed to look for some distraction and return a couple of hours later to get some sleep.
No physical ailment could be found to explain what was happening to me more and more frequently. I had a panic disorder. But, having a diagnosis is only the first step to recovery, and I set out to find ways to reduce or overcome the panic attacks that caused me to suffer. I took a holistic approach to helping myself, first, for a few weeks with medication, then without medication. I gained help and understanding through psychotherapy, reading pertinent literature, taking college classes, attending a support group, and practicing what I learned.
The very first thing I learned was BARCS, a "first-aid" self-help exercise used to help recover from exhausting panic attacks, and later to help reduce the severity, and yet later to help keeping them from coming on. The "B" in BARCS stands for calm breathing instead of the erratic breathing or holding of breath that is common to panic attacks. The "A" stands for acceptance of what is happening instead of trying to fight it off since fighting makes the symptoms worse. "R" stands for relaxing instead of tensing up, which is usually associated with fear. "C" stands for countering unhealthy thoughts with more realistic ones because the unhealthy thoughts bring on the feelings of panic and make them worse. And last, "S" stands for staying in the feared situation instead of trying to escape so as to learn that these panic attacks are indeed very unpleasant, but not dangerous.
It was important to practice this exercise frequently in absence of the panic attacks in order to be able to use it when needed. It was also helpful to later enhance the basic exercise with more in-depth practice of each step. Initially, I found it helpful to use a mantra for countering because I was too confused to think clearly during a panic attack. The mantra, I memorized was: "I am calm and articulate, and I conduct myself with calm confidence." Through therapy and reading David Burns' Feeling Good, I later learned to change my habit of unhealthy thoughts.
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