Treatment for Panic Attacks in Georgia
I’m Cheryl Delaney, and I’m an online therapist who treats panic attacks. Thanks to video therapy, I’m able to work with clients throughout the state of Georgia.
Terrified You’ll Be Hit with Another Panic Attack?
Panic attacks are overwhelming and debilitating. If you’ve had more than one, you know it starts to become scary to imagine when the next one might strike. You start to feel on edge in any mildly stressful situation, thinking this might be the time.
In the meantime, when they do hit, you feel alone and under a microscope at the same time, struggling to explain yourself to the people around you and to get the support or reassurance you need.
What Does Perfectionism Have to do with Panic Attacks?
The first type of perfectionism most people think of is a quest for outward success and flawless performance. There’s nothing quite like an outward sign of intense negative emotion to throw a wrench in that plan.
In a panic attack, we start out by feeling anxious about something. Then we notice that anxiety (a pounding heart, narrowed vision, fast-paced breaths), and we are thrown off by its intensity. We become more anxious, then more freaked out, and so on, until we’re in the midst of a full-blown panic attack. All of this usually happens in the span of minutes or even seconds, and we have no idea what hit us.
We’re just left helpless and terrified in the grip of a mind that seems like it has a mind of its own.
Experience life and find joy in it without the dread of a panic attack.
How Therapy for Panic Attacks Can Help
You want to be present in your life. You want to feel competent and capable, knowing you can handle the ups and downs and even some unpredictability without losing your presence of mind.
You want to go after your goals and live out your values without fear of setting off a panic attack.
How would your life look if you felt confident and safe in your own body?
With caring attention and powerful tools, I can show you how to transform your life and completely overhaul your panic response.
Imagine your life without the looming threat of a panic attack. If you woke up tomorrow in that life, what would be different?
TEAM-CBT is a fantastic approach for panic attacks. Its four models are ideal for helping to identify the root cause of your specific fear, create deep self-understanding, and adjust the beliefs that lead to panic. We'll identify the thoughts you have that contribute to panic, understand your unconscious motivations, and confront the thing you fear the most. A surprising amount of anxiety and panic are also driven by an emotion we believe we’re not supposed to feel (like anger, jealousy, resentment, for example), so we’ll also consider the possibility of a hidden emotion.
TEAM-CBT Treatment for Panic Attacks
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“I’m losing my mind.” “I’m going to die.” “I’m going to be stuck in panic mode forever.” “I can’t handle what’s about to happen.”
Panic attacks are horrible to experience. Whatever the problem was that set one in motion, it’s soon eclipsed by anxiety about anxiety. An attack is so overwhelming that the idea of being able to think straight in the middle of one is absurd.
Still, even if they’re unconscious and rapid-fire, there are thoughts and beliefs at the root of every panic.
It takes a bit of time and some practice, but once we know what your fears were and the beliefs that generated them, we can radically change your experience of panic for life. I’m not talking here about finding silver linings or deluding yourself with lies. The process is one of uncovering an even more accurate reality than the one that’s tormenting you. There’s a lot involved in using TEAM-CBT to treat panicked thoughts.
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Exposure for panic attacks is both simple and incredibly challenging. Facing your fears (that your rapid breath means you’re in danger, that your spinning thoughts mean you’re losing your mind) is, by definition, scary. It can also be effective quite quickly.
You will most likely need to face the fear of a panic attack by intentionally provoking one. If that sounds horrifying, you’re not alone. I’ve never met a sufferer who eagerly awaited intentionally driving up their heart rate or breathing through a narrow straw.
Exposure is a powerful tool. It can drastically reduce your fear but it requires a tremendous amount of courage to use it. And as powerful as it is, exposure isn’t a panacea. We won’t use it on Day 1 and we’ll introduce a variety of other methods as we find what’s most effective for you.
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Panic makes sense. If your unconscious mind was right in its threat assessment, it would make sense to sound all the alarms. Survival and autonomy are incredibly important. It’s sensible to feel intense fear at the prospect of losing them.
There’s often a social element to panic attacks too. We feel ashamed of having such visible negative emotions, and that contributes to the panic cycle. The more we fight our emotional response, the more intense it usually becomes.
Both of those motivations - physical self-protection and social preservation - are important and powerful. Just understanding them can help us shift the relationship we have with panic. Instead of being simply menacing or irrational or cruel, we can see that our bodies, and our unconscious minds, are just working overtime to try to protect us.
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Sometimes panic attacks are an outlet for expressing a negative emotion we believe we’re not supposed to feel. We’ve been taught we shouldn’t feel angry or jealous or hurt so we push those emotions aside.
That might work for the short term, especially if we’re eventually able to express ourselves and get some resolution. In the long term, though, we can’t let our guard down. If we did, that emotion might catch us off guard. So we avoid conversations or situations that spark it.
After a while, the unconscious thoughts and emotions we’ve been avoiding (but which are inevitably still there) get our attention. If this pattern has been part of your panic attacks, we’ll work on learning and practicing skills to express negative emotions. Learning to express them in a way that builds connection rather than distance or conflict will often resolve this type of panic attack.
Treating Your Panic Attacks Together
TEAM-CBT is a skill-building approach. Our primary goal will be to address the problem that’s causing you pain right now. In the process, you’ll also learn skills you can use when you’re overwhelmed or upset in the future.
Let’s Talk.
Click below to schedule a free, 20-minute consultation.