Using Hypnotherapy to Take Control of Panic Attacks and Anxiety

I’d like you to picture this:

The smell of raindrops on the pavement, still fresh as you walk along a boardwalk with your friend, while holding a fresh cup of hot coffee. You’re chatting about things that were going on in your life, and then you start fidgeting with your coat. Your friend asks you what was wrong, as your face starts to look fearful.

“I can’t breathe,” you gasp. “I don’t know what’s happening. Look, I’m shaking.”

Your friend helps to move you to a bench so you can sit down. As you start to sweat from your forehead they say, “I think you’re having a panic attack.”

“More like a heart attack the way my chest feels,” you say. “Focus on your breath,” your friend tells you, as you start to slowly calm down.

Breathing techniques are great in many instances, but especially during panic attacks when we are feeling like the world is going to end.

Panic attacks and anxiety can be debilitating, but there is good news: you don’t have to let them control you anymore, like the scenario I described. Here’s how you can use hypnotherapy to take control.

Panic Attacks and Hypnotherapy

Panic attacks look different for everyone. They can be huge and feel life threatening, or they can be smaller and more like an ‘ick’ in your day.

They typically last between 5 and 20 minutes. Symptoms are at their worst within 10 minutes, with symptoms lasting up to 2 hours, as panic attacks come in waves.

Common symptoms of panic attacks include:

• Heart palpitations
• A sick feeling, not just nausea
• Sweating or feeling flush
• Chest pain or tightness
• Shortness of breath
• Feeling dizzy
• Feeling detached from reality
• Fear about the next attack, losing control, where and when the next attack will happen.

As a hypnotherapist, I am here to help you take control of your panic attacks with the use of hypnotherapy to delve into your subconscious and use the power of suggestion to encourage good, lasting change. The suggestions used will be tailored to your needs, to help find what causes your panic attacks and why. I will work with you to change the way your body responds to the triggers.

Suggestions can include:

• “You are in control of this, you are safe.”
• “Slow steady breathing will help you feel calm.”
• “You don’t need protecting right now.”

When you feel a panic attack coming on, your subconscious will remember these suggestions to help you cope.

Anxiety and Hypnotherapy

Our internal body is fascinating in how it protects us, with its “fight, flight, or freeze” reaction. Feeling the threat of danger, our brains will release hormones, which include adrenaline and cortisol, preparing us to run, fight, or freeze, and make us feel more aware of what’s going on around us. They send more blood to where it’s needed most when under attack by making our hearts beat faster.

It’s a great system when it works properly. Unfortunately, today and for many of us, this system becomes activated when no physical danger is present. For example, an emotional trigger when our boss asks us to add a task to our ever-growing list of tasks at work.

Internalizing feelings is what many of us become good at. We sit back at our work desks with our hearts pounding, with no clue how to make it stop. This is a sign that anxiety is becoming a mental health issue, when it is affecting our daily life.

I can help you with hypnotherapy for anxiety to find the root cause of it, and treat or alleviate physical and/or psychological symptoms and reduce stress. Within your subconscious we can promote a better change, using the power of suggestion, tailor them to help you learn what triggers your anxiety and why, and help you change the way you react toward them.

Using hypnotherapy to take control of your anxiety will help to rebuild your self-belief, boost confidence, reduce feelings of fear and worry, and learn and build on your ability to access a calmer state of mind, which you need to help cope with the overwhelming emotions you feel.

Benefits of hypnotherapy for anxiety include but are certainly not limited to:

• Reduced symptoms of anxiety
• Reduced situational fear, dental and medical procedures for example
• Reduced negative and fear based thoughts
• Increased sense of self-efficacy and self-mastery
• Improved self-regulation
• Improved breathing technique

Panic attacks may cause or worsen the feelings of anxiety, as you fear the next attack, not knowing when it will occur. Since relaxation is a key part of hypnotherapy, you can learn relaxation techniques in your hypnotherapy for anxiety to help reduce overall stress and worry, which lowers risk of another attack.

Would you like to understand triggers better? Check out How to Identify and Reduce Triggers in Anxiety, if you or someone you know would like to know more about anxiety.

And if you have any questions or concerns regarding panic attacks and anxiety, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

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