panic

Ever have a panic attack? Doesn't seem like fun. Many of my clients have them. It's a big seller for me. I've done some training with one of the big researchers in the field so I have some treatment protocols mapped out. One of the universities that trains young and promising psychologists sends me their failures. It gives me a chance to add a few wrinkles and modify the treatment to meet specific needs. One of the good things about treating panic attacks is that the treatment works and people get better. That makes it more fun.

Jimmy came to me after he had seen another therapist. I like that; it gets my competitive juices going. I can strut my stuff; a couple of backhands, a few reverse jams, and he'll be all better.

He had taken a new job in September and was meeting his sales numbers. He also had just gotten married and was looking for a house. His mother had become sick. But he had always been very competent and always been an achiever so he could handle it all.
But then he got sick and nauseated. He was afraid he was going to miss work so he went to the doctor. The doctor gave him Compazine for the nausea, which wasn't a good choice.

Two days later he had an allergic reaction to the Compazine and all his muscles began to tighten up. By the time he got to the phone he could hardly move his jaw to talk to the emergency people. But the paramedics knew right away what it was and two days later he was fine.

It wasn't until two weeks after that when he thought he was getting sick again that he had his first panic attack. As is usually the case, he didn't know what it was and he thought he was going to explode or die. It's not fun to have your heart pumping and your mind racing and be breathing so quickly and be sweating and feeling so weird.

By the time he reached me he as still having them once in a while, but he was thinking about them with fear and trepidation almost all the time. That was in December. By early March we had reached the point that the only thing that bothered him was the idea that they would come back. He was not having any attacks, or much anxiety at all, and he was doing all of the usual things he liked to do.

I spread out the frequency of our meetings because I wanted him to start to think of himself as well. He did fine for a while, but then he called and said he woke up in the middle of one night in a panic. I talked him back to being OK, but he was very upset: his fear was realized and they returned.

He canceled his next appointment with me and told me he was going to try EMDR. I don't know if you know about EMDR, which is Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. To me, it's kind of sketchy, but you can look it up on Wikipedia and decide for yourself.

Anyway, a week later his wife calls me, and even though I can't really talk to her, she tells me that the EMDR lady isn't doing EMDR but has two new diagnoses for Jim and wants him on two more medications. Not good.

I will now have to undo someone else's work. You see, if your body feels that it has been traumatized, as he was when he couldn't move with the Compazine, it doesn't let you relax for a long time. Your defenses are trying to protect you from the danger you experienced, even if it isn't really there any more. but you remain vigilant. Even your thoughts are watching for danger. That was all that Jim had left. But he wanted to be ALL Better. He wanted to not even think about it.

But, you can't check to see if you are thinking about it or not, because then of course, you are thinking about it. Jim is going to have to slow down and learn to believe he is going to be better. He has to learn to not be afraid of his thoughts. You can't rush Mother Nature.

However, you can have a pizza and a beer and watch the Final Four and let it go at that.