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MY SUNDAY JOURNAL
By Dalton Roberts
For IPSFeatures
4-28-02
HANDLING PANIC ATTACKS
Noticed an increase in number of people having panic attacks? Maybe
people have always had them but are just now calling them "panic
attacks." But I think not. I am convinced they are increasing. One
of my most intelligent and aware friends recently told me he had gone
through a hell of panic attacks for years. He's so competent and
successful it shocked me.
Once I had them while I was taking Halcion for sleep. I quit the Halcion
and they ceased. No telling how many people's medications are inducing
them.
The other time I had them, a psychiatrist and my own study helped me
find the trigger. One thought in particular helped me cancel them and
here's the way I described it in my 1989 journal:
"Panic attacks come from old floating fears that have gained phobic
power due to repression. We keep pushing them down and any fear not
faced gains phobic power. The source is often an old memory or a set of
comparable memories, like multiple cases of abuse by the same person in
situations where we felt trapped and unable to cry out for help. The
healing power for me was bringing those old memories into conscious
awareness without judgment. The ‘without judgment' part is the key. As
long as we are judging our self or others, we are still in the
experience, still in the blender. We must step outside the blender and
look at what is there. We may need professional help to do this but I
have learned that the more I practice bringing pain into conscious
awareness without judgment, the better I am at it. Until we get out of
the blender we will continue to be chopped up. We can learn how to step
out of it through the simple mental exercise of seeing it, feeling it,
then becoming the observer and stepping outside to look in at it."
Almost all of our progress in handling emotional problems comes from
developing rituals and routines that work for us. Doctors call their
course of treatment a "protocol." These self-rituals we
develop that work for us are our protocols. Try this protocol on your
panic attacks.
PUT THE "GRIN" IN CHAGRIN
When I had a band and we lived together on weekends, we wrote a bunch of
crazy, mournful songs and taped them. Songs like "Oh My Spinktrum,
Oh My Bowel," and "The Sorrowful Way." We called
ourselves "The Chagrineers." I still crack up when I hear
those old tapes we made in this wacky period of my life.
The experience taught me something valuable. Something that may have
saved my sanity at times (some would dispute that its been saved!).
"Chagrin," means "a feeling of embarrassment and
annoyance because one has failed or been disappointed." Notice that
the word itself contains the word "grin."
Who hasn't failed? Who hasn't been disappointed? Can you think of a
better way to handle the feelings of failure and disappointment than a
grin?
Right before my mother died I took her to a roadside produce stand she
really loved. After I paid for my things, I walked out to the car to
wait for her. In a few minutes she walked out, and started walking in
the opposite direction of the car. After about ten steps she froze,
peeped back over her shoulder to see if I had seen her mistake, and the
most beautiful, sheepish smile crossed her face.
Every time I experience chagrin, I remember that sweet grin. It has kept
me from taking failure, disappointment, mistakes and myself too
seriously.
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