13. Why We Panic and What Can We Do To Beat It

But before we get into that, please stick around until the end as we have a great resource for you to use that I really think a lot of you would benefit from who suffer with panic and worry. Also, I know I say this every single time, but if you could please subscribe to the podcast right now. If you haven't already on whatever platform you are listening on, we would really, really appreciate it. And if you click the Follow button, you'll be able to keep up to date with any new episodes that we release.

So a lot of people experience the sensations of panic when we're anxious about something. So for me, panic and anxiety are both closely related to each other. But it's that sinking unbearable, uncontrollable feeling that we go, oh, no, what's going to happen now, that's what we're actually referring to here as panic, not a full blown panic attack. So we can panic about many different things. And in today's society, there is actually a lot of stuff to worry about absolute. And the thing is, sometimes we can panic over the simplest things, such as a missed deadline, feeling that you know, that dread in the pit of your stomach over something that you don't really want to do, but you can't have to do. And you know, it can even go as far as you having physical symptoms, such as feeling like you've got a tight chest or, you know, maybe you're grieving really rapidly, or maybe you've even got racing thoughts. So I thought the first thing that we could do is we could go into some instances where you've panicked. And I have an example here of a situation where I panicked. And when I look back now, I think, Oh God, that you know how it made me behave. But

we know there's going to be people listening, like going on there from Birmingham. So that was the first thing that made me panic first because I was thinking, why she asking where I'm from, like, why does this matter? You know? And then she goes to me and what's today's a man? So obviously me half asleep, start panicking. Start thinking what is today's my own crap? What's today's my shit? What's today's man? So I am literally trying to get the amount of homophone panicking, running up the stairs. Because Adam was working from home that day, and I'm shoving the phone in his face pointing I don't want to say out loud because I'm on the radio pointer him just pointing at this number and he's looking at me as if to go what and I'm like, please tell me what there's no because I'm not read the number. I don't know what it is. So I'm I'm lost in this panic. And I think Adam I thought someone had died because I was just staring at him like in shock. The woman on the radio was literally shouting screaming at me down the phone at this point she was going I really need today's amount now. I need it now. So I just come out with this number. But and it was completely wrong.

So why do we panic, or is very simple, we panic to keep us alive. It all goes back to fight and flight and our days back in the wild. You know, panic is what honed our senses and made us run away from that lion and escape just in time. And without panic, our species wouldn't have survived. So we've said this before, our survival sensitive brain is hardwired to panic at the smallest thing, because our brain is just always trying to keep us alive. And the problem in today's society is the things that we panic over. Very rarely life and death. So actually, very rarely do we need that fight or flight panic response. So today's science bit is quite interesting. It's a study that again, we'll link to in the show notes, it demonstrated that your childhood experiences around severe illness can impact as an adult, how likely you are to panic over physical symptoms. I think that's really important because it shows us that our childhood experiences really shaped who we are as adults. And I think it's it's fair to assume that if our childhood experiences around physical illness caused us to panic and be more worried by illnesses as adults, that that is probably true in other aspects of our life. So if you've grown up in an environment where there was a lot of worry, and fear, and anxiety, that is going to have effects on your adulthood, and cause you to be more susceptible to that as an adult.

You're not feeling great. And it's not just as simple as telling yourself, do you know what, just calm down. So we thought that in this episode, we can go through a few things in particular that we know can help you with dealing with panic when it's happening. Now, it's important that when you are panicking, the first step is that you recognise that you are panicking because you recognising that you are panic or will actually help you to calm down a lot faster. And there are three questions that you can ask yourself at this time as well. Number one is where are you right now? Number two is where are your feet? And number three is are you safe? answering all these questions is going to lead you down that path to helping you calm down a lot faster. In this situation, though, it is all about recognising that you are panicking and you are having a bit of a panic. And we all have things that happen in our lives, things pop up from time to time. That makes us panic. And that's actually natural. But what I would say is if it's more controllable, then that's really when we need to start dealing with the feelings of panic and recognising the first step, which is that we are actually panicking.

The next one I'm going to say again, is to practice mindfulness and in particular about focusing on a particular object. Now, if you want to learn more about mindfulness, you can go back and listen to episode eight, which is called the pursuit of happiness. And in that episode, we do a mindfulness challenge. And it's just a really good way of starting and understanding mindfulness. So please go back and listen to that one. But the point of this particular point is that mindfulness can be used as a tool for good really when you are panicking. And really, what we want to do is we want to pick a particular object and focus on that at the time, we are panicking. So can be any object, it can be anything that's closest to you when you panic. And so whether that's outside or inside, and that's what you want to pick. And that's what you want to focus on. The goal here is to use all of your senses when you are focusing on that object. So think of the colour of the objects, you know, the sight, think of the movement of that object. So if you're outside, and it's a leaf on a tree branch, just you know, watch it swaying in the wind and things like that. And also, maybe what does it smell like? What does it taste like if you can taste it? And you know, can you touch it? What does it feel like during all of this helps you distract your brain from spiralling even more. And it also helps you come back to the present moment, which is the focus really of mindfulness, by grounding yourself. It helps you focus on the now so you're in the present. And you know what it might seem really, really small, but honestly, I can say definitely helps you calm down and focus.

Another thing that we've got is to talk to a trusted person to panic just loves to catastrophize and spiral. But by talking it out, you're not only calm yourself down, but you'll find it easier to come to resolutions, and a fresh perspective on the situation might help me to see things differently. So this is something that Sparky and I do for each other quite a lot of the time. I hope when one of us is spiralling or panicking about something is We'll talk it through and it does really help because most of the time, one of us will be panicking, and the other person will say, you know, what are we worrying about this for this is not a big deal. And that's so

true, because let's be honest, a lot of the time, it ends up being a big deal doesn't either you know the things that we do in life, we make hope that they're more of a big deal than sometimes they actually are. And that's not to downplay anyone's worries or fears. But you know, most of the time we do panic and worry about things a little bit too much. And, like you just said, they're here we catastrophize things more than we should be. And that actually leads to panic, and even more. And it just, it's just a vicious cycle really. And panic can happen at anytime, anyplace anywhere. And sometimes we don't even really know it's happening. And sometimes we can preempt it. And it's at those times where we can sort of preempt it that we can sort of stop ourselves even more. So it's, I think it's really important to recognise when you are panicking. But another thing that you can do is you can practice breathing exercises. And we're gonna do a whole episode on this. So it's a little bit more understandable to you guys. But generally, the concept here is to concentrate on your breath. So in that moment, when you are panicking, or you feel like you are going to go into a panic, take a few deep breaths. And what's helped me in the past is counting backwards from the number 10 Whilst breathing, and usually by the time you get to zero, you do feel a little bit more relaxed.

And like Sparky said, In next week's episode, we're going to do an entire episode on different breathing exercises that you can do. So we'll go into that in a lot, a lot more depth next week. The final thing that we've got for you is to look at your diet. So if you're experiencing regular feelings of panic, or even panic attacks, look at putting stimulants such as caffeine or sugary processed food from your diet, and see whether or not that makes an improvement. Because if your brain is always on a state of high alert, it's going to be easier to tip over into that panic.

And the last thing that I want to mention here, and I know what I know it was do this at the end of we talked about this ago. And the last thing on the last thing, but I think that we should put humour into this as well. Because as we're not talking about a full blown panic attack here, we're talking about how we can sometimes escalate ourselves. I do really think that humour can be a really good way of dealing with panic situations. And I think, you know, if you think about it like this, when we go out and we have a drink, can you know, we laugh about the things that we do when we're drunk, don't we? You know, I know. I know, I do. Or I know, you know, we've laughed about things that we've done before when we're drunk. But we almost expect to laugh at that when we're under the influence of alcohol. But when we actually panic, don't expect to laugh at ourselves. And I really do think that humour is a really good way to realise that you're not the only one that's going through something. And actually, it's really relatable to a lot of people. So I think you know, if you can laugh about it and crack a smile about the things that you did do in those moments. A panic, you can really make yourself feel better and actually make other people feel better about it as well. And you know, I've lost so much time and things due to mental health in my life that I think just gonna refuse to let that thing that I'm going through lose my spirit too. So I think it's a really good thing to do is just practice being humorous as well laughing about those sort of panic things that you go through after the fact not,