Thinking that we will never get better. The longer the problem persists the more we worry that it will never end.
‘Self-analysing’ – Believing we have an ‘emotional’ problem.
We find ourselves wondering if maybe we are ‘mentally ill’ or emotionally imbalanced’. Is this just ‘who we are’. Maybe we were simply ‘born’ this way.
Thinking that the problem is beyond our control. The more we try to get rid of panic the worse it seems to get so we start thinking that it is simply beyond our control.
Thinking that panic is some ‘outer’ thing like a disease which is attacking us. Because panic is obviously NOT something we want in our life and it seems to strike when we want it the least it starts to feel like a horrible disease which is attacking our body. This takes us even further from the reality that we are mistakenly causing the panic through misinterpretation and catastrophisation.
Feeling anger towards your body. Since the cause of our fear seems to emanate from our body we start to feel angry towards it. Ironically this triggers the fight or flight response and the body releases more adrenaline to try and help us!
Comparing your life with how it was ‘before’. Panic can interfere with our life in so many ways we understandably often yearn to have our ‘old life’ back.
Comparing your life with other ‘normal’ people. After a while we start to feel very weak compared to other people because they are able to cope so easily with all the things that we find so terrifying.
Worrying what other people think. Believing that other people will think we are a failure. We think other people will see us as ‘weak’ for not being able to ‘snap out of it’.
Feeling ‘guilty’ for feeling unwell. We feel guilt in many directions. “maybe this has happened because I worry too much.. maybe I don’t relax enough.. maybe it’s my diet.. surely I should be able to just ‘get over it’.. I ‘shouldn’t’ be this way..” and so on.. (it can be very difficult for men to accept suffering from panic attacks)
Thinking you are alone with this problem. If we don’t know much about panic disorder it can seem like we are the only person on the planet who feels this way!