In the previous video, we talked about the panic attack cycle.

First comes a sensation or feeling.

Second, you judge that feeling to be unacceptable, bad, or dangerous.

Then this triggers an escalating fight-flight freeze response,

and your brain learns that panic and anxiety are dangerous.

So let's take a deeper look at step two, the thoughts that

transform a physical sensation into something we interpret as dangerous. Here are common ways of

thinking that trigger panic attacks. It would be disastrous if I had a panic attack. It would be

awful if my anxiety takes over. What if I'm having a heart

attack? What if I pass out? If I can just force myself to calm down, this will all go away.

Why does this always happen to me? The big issue is believing that panic attacks are dangerous.

Now panic attacks are inconvenient. They're uncomfortable.

They can be embarrassing or they can interfere with what you want to be doing, but they aren't

physically dangerous. All these uncomfortable symptoms are just the body tossing you into fight-flight

freeze mode, which actually makes it less likely that you'll pass out,

stop breathing, or any of those other fears. If someone's having a panic attack and they go to the

ER, an EKG will show a regular but rapid heartbeat. When people worry about passing out,

you should know that you pass out with low blood pressure. A panic attack takes your blood pressure up.

Heart attacks feel worse when you walk around, but when you move around with a panic attack,

you actually feel better, right? So panic attacks are not actually dangerous. And our society

doesn't help. It's constantly talking about how bad stress is for you and how bad

anxiety is for you. Now at its root, stress is not dangerous for you. Chronic stress is dangerous,

...