Many panic attacks are caused by a memory trigger, from an earlier Nervous System Disturbance, e.g. panic attack, traumatic incident, that placed a marker in the brains alarm center, to watch for similar symptoms & setting off the system, when these feelings arise. i.e. Normal Physiological, Physical & Psychological feelings & thoughts could incite the Nervous System into action, especially when the feelings are overthought, as most often, a feeling is nothing more than a feeling & needs to be accepted as such, a feeling, not a symptom, e.g. feeling that you are going to die, cannot cause you harm, as it is just a feeling & feelings like to lie & need to be recognized for what they are, normal feelings, lies & over emphasized thoughts.
We must realize that our brain never forgets anything, we may not consciously remember somethings, as they may be buried deep in our unconscious, or just below the surface in our subconscious, but they are there, to be used if our brain deems necessary, which doesn’t always work for our benefit.
So during an earlier event, which could be as small as a dizzy feeling, to a severe traumatic incident, that triggered the panicked feeling where the brain logged in the feelings/ symptoms, the brain was writing everything down, including all the physical, psychological & physiological feelings & thoughts e.g. oh my God im going to die, im losing my mind, im having a heart attack, how can I get out of here etc. & physiological feelings e.g. rapid heart beat, shaky, sweating, dizzy, vision distortion etc.& after the brain logs all the information from this event together & put a trigger in the memory, for the brain to use to warn & protect when any of these symptoms happens again.
This was all innocent enough & never meant to harm us, but now when the nervous system recognizes a symptom/ feeling, e.g. rapid heart beat, shaky, sweating, dizzy, vision distortion etc. & doesn’t take time to validate it as a viable threat, or a false alarm, or a fluke? but just recognizes, what should register as a normal feeling, as a symptom, from a dangerous memory & says, uh oh somethings happening. So it sends signals to the nervous systems, which release the armies of hormones & floods the bloodstream with adrenaline & cortisol, which puts the nervous system in full speed, with all the thoughts & feelings of fear activating the fight/ flight response, with the increased heart rate, tense muscles etc. to prepare the body for battle, but with nothing to fight, or to run from, to burn up the adrenaline, so many go into freeze mode, which keeps the adrenaline running rampant through the nervous system & body; falsely increasing the thoughts of dread & doom, as the mind does not know what’s happening, except that the body & nervous system believes there is a threat, when there most likely isn’t, so it goes into irrational fear of ? So now you must learn to turn off, or to deal with these feelings/ symptoms & to convince yourself that they are just harmless thoughts & feelings.
Once your brain signals the adrenal glands to stop pumping Adrenaline, the Parasympathetic Nervous System (Rest & Digest) should stop the fight flight response, by pumping acetylcholine, oxytocin & GABA into the blood, to calm the system down.
It only takes a few minutes for the Adrenaline to exit the bloodstream & the liver & kidneys to alter it, so it stops stimulating the heart & nervous system, which may take a little longer to reset, as shaking, muscle tension, or exhaustion can linger awhile.
Trauma, chronic stress & substance use can interfere with the ability to calm the nervous system down, as symptoms leave the mind on high alert, scanning for & assuming threats, so the fight/ flight mode can’t calm, as the hypothalamus keeps signaling for stress hormones, trapping the body in a cycle of false alarms & you’re stuck with persistent anxiety, panic, sleep & digestive issues. Life stressors can trigger the same chemical reaction as physical threats. When these stressors won’t ease up, your nervous system stays stuck in overdrive & your sympathetic nervous system stays active & then your parasympathetic nervous system can’t calm you down, to bring the body back into balance.
The parasympathetic nervous system, whose main pathway is the vagus nerve, can be strengthened, through daily practices, that counteract chronic sympathetic activation e.g. calming techniques; breathing tecnique, muscle relaxation, grounding etc. helps your body exit fight/ flight mode faster.
