Stars who suffer from panic attacks – and ways to deal with them

Increased anxiety is familiar to many: no wonder – we live in a fast-changing world with a huge flow of information and in constant competition (including with ourselves). Everyone is gripped by an inexplicable fear: even the stars suffer from panic attacks.

Once the TV presenter admitted that she was haunted by bouts of inexplicable fear. “Groundhog Day continues. Last night I had a panic attack, so much so that it is difficult to cope with it … “Ksenia admitted to subscribers.

According to her, the seizures occur at night and prevent sleep. Then Borodina noticed how she was wrong before and believed that in all circumstances one should control oneself. A warm shower, breathing exercises, talking to friends, isolating herself from the news stream, and of course, medication help manage Xenia’s panic attacks, but only as directed by her doctor.

Isa has always been honest with subscribers. A few years ago, the girl admitted that she suffers from panic attacks. She described her condition as follows: something ordinary happened, and at a certain moment Dolmatova realized that she could not breathe.

Of course, panic attacks have a reason. When Isa confronts them, she realizes she’s been following the rules and immediately adjusts her work schedule to devote more time to mental health.

Anfisa has suffered from panic attacks since she was 24 years old. The attacks, which Čechova compared to the feeling that you are dying, covered the TV presenter until the age of 40, until she immersed herself in the problem and overcame the disease.

“I know how to deal with it. But I noticed that now, after the coronavirus, a lot of people started to suffer from them, especially my girlfriends, who didn’t even know what a panic attack was. And they call me and say: “Anfisa, now we understand what you’ve been through all your life!” Chekhov said.

Joseph talked about his panic attacks on the Million Dollar Secret program. Attacks tormented him at the beginning of the relationship with Valeria: the producer was so worried about the singer when she went on tour alone that he could not sleep and eat.

And then one day Prigozhin was driving around Moscow and at a certain point he felt like he was suffocating. He jumped out of the car and ran down the street – straight to the Sklifosovsky Institute, where he asked for help. Getting rid of the trigger helped stop the seizures. Joseph began to accompany his beloved everywhere, and the attacks no longer bothered him.

After the divorce and because of her workload, Ida Galich suffered from insomnia. But when the blogger caught covid, she also found out what panic attacks are. How frightened she was!

Maryana soon became popular and was far from ready for all the realities of adult life. Once the blogger admitted that she had a “bouquet” of problems. Ro revealed that she had been suffering from severe depression for a long time. The girl is haunted by panic attacks, asthma attacks, but the worst are thoughts of suicide. Just acknowledging the problem helped Maryana find the strength to fight her illnesses.

A panic attack is an acute attack of anxiety that is accompanied by vegetative manifestations such as palpitations, dizziness, sweating, tremors in various parts of the body, and respiratory failure. Violation of the gastrointestinal tract is also possible, such as nausea, vomiting, belching, pain in the intestines. Panic attacks can occur both during wakefulness and during sleep.

According to the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition – Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition), in order to be diagnosed with a panic attack, at least 4 symptoms must be present:

These feelings are caused when the brain triggers a “fight or flight” command to which the body responds in a similar way. Oxygen is needed to run, therefore the heart rate changes, the breath becomes faster, the inhalation is greater than the exhalation, the head begins to spin, blood flows to the limbs, in case of injury in combat, the striated and striated (extrinsic) muscles tighten, here it is shiver, the body must cool down to avoid overheating, which means sweating and disturbance of thermal sensations. It is difficult to run with a full stomach – hence the symptoms aimed at emptying the digestive tract. Feeling the unreality of what is happening allows us to not get emotionally involved in what is happening and just run or fight.

The causes of panic attacks are varied. They may lie in the field of physiology, for example with the use of alcohol, drugs or caffeinated drinks. They can in the field of psychology, when a person perceives a situation as life-threatening. In the future, avoiding the places and situations in which the panic attack occurred, a panic disorder may develop.

Criteria for the disorder will include recurrent attacks of fear, not limited to special circumstances and specific situations, and therefore unpredictable.

If you suffer from panic attacks, here’s what you can do.

1) Do psychoeducation, study what methods work, what research is available, and note that not only are panic attacks not fatal, but there is evidence that panic attack sufferers have as trained hearts as athletes.

2) Pay attention to yourself, to your thoughts. You can keep a diary in which it is worth writing down the following points: the situation in which the attack occurred, thoughts about what I am afraid of, thoughts about frightening symptoms, how your brain interprets these symptoms. For example: palpitations and pressure in the chest are often mistaken for a heart attack, which in turn increases fear and causes another “preparation” of the body for a dangerous situation, i.e. again the body’s reaction to a new threat. situation, which means increased symptoms already described in the first part of the article.

3) Journal your alternative attitudes to the frightening symptoms and thoughts. For example: “The palpitations can be the result of the fact that I did not sleep enough, I drank alcohol the night before, and in the morning – a large cup of coffee. Then I reached the subway at a fast pace” or “It’s hard for me to breathe because it’s quite stuffy in the car, and this is a signal that you need to ventilate and not be afraid of lung damage from asymptomatic covid. “

4) Approach your fear with compassion and curiosity. Say something like this to yourself: “Yes, my friend, what you are feeling right now is extremely unpleasant, but not fatal! I really feel for you and I am not at all ashamed of what is happening, it can be curious: how long will this last, how can I control my breathing in this situation, is the tingling in my left hand different from the tingling in my right? Refrain from interpreting the symptoms and solving them – this is the only way to weaken them. Just observe yourself with no desire to evaluate or change anything.

It is very important not to avoid the places and situations in which the attack occurred. Only then can you show your frightened brain that its fear does not indicate the reality of the threat; that as a result no one faints, dies, etc., in front of everyone; that all the scary pictures the brain draws are just pictures.

If all the above did not help, please contact a specialist in working with panic attacks, now there are groups and individual therapists. It is very important to find out in advance what method the specialist works with, how much this method is researched in the field of working with panic disorder, and how effective it is.

As for literature, I can recommend Robert Leahy’s book Freedom from Anxiety. An entire chapter is devoted to this problem.

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