Panic Disorder is a mental health disorder where people struggle with a fear of panic attacks or having symptoms of panic attacks (such as racing heart or sweating). They worry that these symptoms will only get worse or are a sign of something catastrophic – for example, a heart attack or seizure.
As a result, folks with panic disorder tend to avoid any situations that may lead to these symptoms. They may shrink their world down until the point where they do not leave their own house for fear of panic symptoms. Or they will have a number of strategies to reduce anxiety, such as using medication, breathing exercises, cold water, or bringing a friend alone in case they have a panic attack.
Treatment of Panic Disorder
In essence, panic disorder can be described as a change in our relationship with anxiety symptoms. These symptoms, such as shaking/trembling, feeling hot, and heart palpitations, which were once experienced as uncomfortable but not dangerous, has taken a more threatening place in a person’s life. They start to interpret these anxiety symptoms as something that could harm them. As a result, this leads to even more anxiety, which increases the symptoms, and then a vicious cycle of panic disorder is created.
Therefore, the goal of treating panic disorder is to reduce our fear of anxiety symptoms. The hope is for the person to recognize that while anxiety symptoms are very uncomfortable, they are ultimately not life threatening.
To do so, we actively create the symptoms that we are afraid of and sit with them. This is called interoceptive exposure therapy. For example, we might run in place if our fear is about sweating or racing heart, or spin around if we fear nausea or dizziness spells. Exposures are extremely powerful treatment because we learn that these symptoms are not dangerous and that we can cope with them without running away.
Of course, sitting with these symptoms is easier said than done. Next, we’ll discuss how to use SMART goals to make the process of completing exposures more bearable.
SMART Goals for Panic Disorder
SMART Goals stand for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time Bound. Simply put, SMART goals refer to goals in which we know exactly what we are doing and when we are done, where we can rate our anxiety before and after the practice, and that the goal is relevant to our problem.
Here are a few examples of SMART goals you can apply to your panic symptoms:
- Jog in place for one minute three times a day
- Sit in a warm room while wearing a jacket for 10 minutes
- Spin around 15 times once a day for a week
- Hyperventilate for 30 seconds
- Breath through a straw for 30 seconds
- Do 15 push-ups twice a day
As you can see, the point is really to make goals where you are able to practice tolerating your fear of symptoms on a daily basis, in a way that feels manageable and achievable. Feel free to change or make your own goals that would be beneficial to your specific worries.
To increase the effects of this practice, you can rate your anxiety before and after the practice, as well as observe how the anxiety levels changes in the time following the practice. Write down what you anticipated to happen and what actually happened to really consolidate your learning.
And slowly build up from there – you got this!
Best wishes,
P
Simply mental health 