How to cope with panic attacks – A compassionate and insightful video by The School of Life

Fear, anxiety, panic attacks.

These used to be my enemies because I would get stage frights or feel nervous when introducing myself during ice-breakers.

I am learning to make them my friends.

I am accepting them as part of being human.

It’s easier said than done, of course.

After all, what has taken years of subconscious programming cannot be easily erased overnight.

But trying to suppress them or pretend they don’t exist doesn’t help either.

This is because the repressed emotions may resurface or be triggered at the most inopportune or unexpected time.

The philosopher Alain de Botton said in the attached video:

“Part of what getting through panic attacks involves is rehabilitating the whole concept of fear.

Don’t add shame or embarrassment to your worry.

These episodes are neither a punishment nor weird.

They are an essential part of being a sensitive, thoughtful human in a chaotic, complex and disordered world.”

I am also learning to retrain my mind and reframe situations in order to feel empowered to deal with them better.

With practice, I can expect to overcome social anxiety in my personal and professional life, just as it takes time for the neurons in the brain to rewire.

I am currently going through short Manifesting All Possibilities (MAP) sessions with a MAP practitioner who is recommended by a friend.

Interestingly, Alain de Botton added in his video:

“Also, consider that the panic might have to do with a memory of long ago having been appallingly controlled, hurt and not allowed to get away.

(For example) it’s an airplane door that has just been closed, but in the unconscious mind, it’s perhaps also a return to other situations of powerlessness that were unmasterable and that continue to haunt.

To which the answer is to go back to the past, understand it fully and drain it of its power to upset the present.”

Upon hearing this, what came to my mind is the Go Jek incident that happened in Singapore earlier this year.

In retrospect, the passenger might have been experiencing a panic attack when she thought she was being driven to some unknown place, despite the driver telling her repeatedly that he was driving to the police station to settle their dispute.

As a result of her intense anxiety, she might have become irrational to the point that she thought that the door was deliberately locked and that she was being kidnapped.

Her paranoia might be due to some traumatic experience she had in the past, in which she felt trapped and powerless to deal with the situation.

This episode perhaps is a lesson for all of us to be willing to face our fears and work through our anxieties and trauma, in the hope of surmounting them and not allowing them to upset the present or sabotage our future.