Panic Disorder Treatment in Austin, Texas
A panic attack is an abrupt surge of overwhelming fear. It peaks fast, it involves the whole body, and it can arrive without warning, including out of a relaxed state or out of sleep.
People who have had one often describe thinking they were having a heart attack, or losing their mind, or about to die. That is not an exaggeration of the experience. It is an accurate description of what the body is doing.
We are an Austin, Texas practice, and every session is by video, so you do not need to live near the office to work with us.
What an attack feels like
- Racing or pounding heart
- Chest pain or tightness
- Choking sensations, or difficulty breathing
- Nausea or stomach pain
- Hot or cold flushes
- Numbness or tingling in the limbs
- Weakness or dizziness
- Feeling detached from your surroundings
- A sense of losing control
What treatment looks like here
When it becomes panic disorder
One attack is frightening. Panic disorder is what develops when the fear of the next one starts running your decisions.
Most people who reach that point have begun avoiding places where escape would be awkward or where an attack has happened before: driving over a bridge, sitting in the middle of a row, standing in a long line, going far from home. The world gets smaller in a way that is hard to see from inside. Over six million Americans have panic attacks each year, and most do not know that panic responds unusually well to treatment.
What treatment involves
Panic is one of the most treatable anxiety conditions, and treatment is more specific than general talk therapy.
First we work out what your body is doing and what you have concluded about it. Almost everyone with panic has a private prediction: that the racing heart means a cardiac event, that the dizziness means collapse. Those predictions are what turn a surge of adrenaline into terror.
Then we deliberately bring on the physical sensations, safely and in the room. This is the part that surprises people. Breathing through a straw, spinning in a chair, running on the spot. The point is to produce the sensation you fear in a setting where nothing bad follows, so your body can learn what your reasoning already suspects.
Then we go back to what you have been avoiding, in an order you help set. Panic disorder is maintained by avoidance, so treatment is not finished when the attacks ease. It is finished when you no longer fear having panic.
Breathing and grounding techniques help you manage an attack in progress, and they are a tool rather than the treatment.
How long it takes is often shorter than people expect for panic specifically. Many clients obtain independence in coping after 5 to 10 sessions.
Getting started
If you are not sure whether what you have had is panic, that is a reasonable question to bring to a first conversation rather than something to settle before making contact.
You can read about our clinicians on our team page, or contact us.