How to Use Your Mind, Not Drugs to Stop Panic Attacks

You can stop a panic attack dead in its tracks with your MIND, without relying on drugs every again.

I’ve had only two full-blown panic attacks because by the time I started to get a third panic attack, my plan of curing panic attacks without drugs had already been set in place.

To understand how I cured panic attacks, without drugs, you’ll need to be taken through my first two panic attacks.

Contrary to popular belief, panic attacks are NOT always triggered by stress or anxiety. My first panic attack began in a dream while I was asleep.

In the dream I was with my brother, and nothing eventful was occurring.

Nevertheless, in the dream, my heart began beating faster and heavier. I then awakened to a pounding heart.

Actually, the panic attack didn’t start in the dream literally. My heart began spontaneously pounding, and this was then incorporated into my dream, like how sometimes the urge to urinate gets “scripted” into a dream.

Anyways, I awaken, and I immediately sat up, heart pounding and feeling very strange. I felt like I was about to have a heart attack.

I couldn’t shake the conviction that cardiac arrest was moments away, even though the preceding day, I had went on a grueling hike up a steep trail.

Anxiety and fear set in, my respiration increased, and my heart wouldn’t calm down.

I dialed 9-1-1 and requested an ambulance. I was in perfect health and fitness, an athlete, a weight lifter, a jogger and hiker. Yet I felt a need to dial 9-1-1 out of concern I was having a heart attack.

I did not have the foresight to bring money with me while I waited outside my apartment for the ambulance.

My heart was just pounding. I was wheeled into the ambulance, and couldn’t believe how my heart refused to stop racing.

In the ER I was hooked to a heart rate monitor.

It took about two hours for my heart rate to slow down enough to where I could be discharged. Of course, the doctor said my heart was fine.

I noticed the numerical code for the diagnosis on the paperwork; I recognized it as being a code for anxiety, as I was familiar with these codes.

I couldn’t believe I’d had a panic attack and thought it would never occur again.

But not long after, another panic attack struck. Because I didn’t think I’d have another panic attack, I had devised no plan of prevention; I was caught off-guard by the second panic attack, which took place while at the workplace.

Again, no stress triggered this second episode. I had been assigned a very light workload and there were frequent periods of no work.

No Drugs!

During one of these periods I was standing but leaning over a countertop, reading a newspaper article – one that I had written, actually.

Suddenly, this feeling came over me. I immediately recognized it. It was happening again.

I straightened like a stiff board and felt like I might be dying. My heart began thumping.

My breathing seemed funny. I faced the head foreman and actually entertained the idea of asking him to dial 9-1-1.

No, I will not do that. I’ll just stick this out. I left my post without saying a word and began walking about the maze-like department, which was filled with people, several of whom I couldn’t stand.

How humiliating it would be to ask the foreman, a runt of a man whom I didn’t care for, to dial 9-1-1.

I maintained good posture, held my head high and continued walking all over the place, in the midst of a panic attack, while nobody had a clue.

I figured if I were really dying, someone would immediately dial 9-1-1, there were enough people around.

I made a few stops at the drinking fountain, and after several minutes, felt that the panic attack was subsiding.

I realized, if something were genuinely wrong with my heart, I wouldn’t be able to sustain such grueling steep hikes.

Further, if something were wrong with my heart, I’d experience cardiac arrest or angina while I was hiking, and I had to admit, my strenuous hikes always went without a hitch.

After about five minutes, I returned to my post, feeling normal again. I had out-psyched the panic attack.

For sure, I had to convince myself nothing was wrong with my heart; proof was in my hikes and heavy weightlifting.

A sick heart wouldn’t last on one of my hikes. Further, a bad heart wouldn’t get well spontaneously, either. THIS TIME, I decided, no more panic attacks. This was not going to happen again.

No Drugs Again!

Not long after, I was at the end of a hike and walking down a gravel road, my car in sight. Suddenly…that feeling came upon me. But I kept charging down the hill, pumping my arms, thinking,

Screw this. I don’t need this. I’m fit and strong. It’s all in my mind. Just ignore it. It wants my attention. It ain’t gonna get it.

Before I arrived at my car, the panic attack demon had given up on me.

The fourth – and last panic attack – occurred at night while I was awake but in bed. I bolted out of bed and began doing pushups. I intended on jogging outside, but the pushups scared off the panic attack demon.

Shutterstock/Slatan

This last panic attack attempt occurred about many, many years ago. I haven’t had a panic attack attempt since. The panic attack demon knows I’m too much work.

Don’t jump on the drug bandwagon too quickly; develop your mind over matter skills to cure panic attacks.