Client’s Story of Overcoming Twenty Years of Panic Attacks

“I will never be able to cope with having a baby”

Devastating Effect of Panic Attacks

Panic attacks can be highly traumatic experience for adults. When a young child experiences panic it can have a devastating effect on their life especially if the panic attacks continue. This is the story of a client who experienced her first panic attack at school at about the age of 12. The panic attacks had gone on for twenty years before she sought help.  This story was written with the help of the client.

The client actually said in her last session that she would like to collaborate and tell her story, because when she had been at her lowest ebb, to find a story such as this would have inspired her and made her realise that change was possible and that she wasn’t the only one out there feeling the way she was, and that, “Life doesn’t have to be that way”. 

Her Story

The Initial Panic Attack

This story begins about twenty years ago when the client was a teenager. Whilst in school one day she suddenly began to feel ill for no apparent reason. As she said, “the feeling came out of the blue….it overwhelmed me…. I felt hot sweaty, clammy, panicky and it wasn’t subsiding”.  After enduring the feelings for a while, she left the classroom. It was a panic attack, although at the time she didn’t know what it was.

Developing a fear of panicking

After the initial event she didn’t want to go back into that class for fear that the same thing would happen again. In the coming weeks she experienced more and more panic attacks in a variety of different locations. The fear of having panic attacks grew with her. One day whilst traveling into a nearby city by train she spent the whole time worrying about the return journey. Subsequently she found that she was “not keen to travel on public transport”.

For approximately twenty years the client endured the problem, struggling to deal with it herself, as she felt, “she should have been able to handle it”. She hid it from her friends as she felt it was very embarrassing, “harbouring the secret that I was not in control”. As she said later, hiding the problem “zapped her energy”.

Finally, the problem came to the point where it was impacting her life so badly that she felt she couldn’t keep it to herself any longer and needed to try something.

Therapy and the first session

As with any new client an initial consultation consisted of taking basic information such as contact details and history of the problem and providing a strategy for therapy.
Since the client’s main focus in the initial session was the panic attacks, we targeted these directly, by using TAT™ and EFT™.

When a person experiences a highly traumatic event, the body/ mind tries to identify what posed the threat and logs what it assumes are the causes into the mind so that, if at a future date the person is exposed to those particular events  the body will automatically respond by activating the survival response. This accounts for the increase in heart rate etc. These are perfectly natural responses to a perceived threat situation. Responses that if appropriate would enable the person to run away or fight their way out of the danger.

This information is stored in the deeper levels of the mind, commonly called the unconscious or subconscious.
EFT™ and TAT™ work by taking the emotional charge out of the events. Although the person still experienced the original traumatic event since it is part of their history and that cannot be changed, what these techniques do is change the client’s interpretation of the event. Consequently, they may gain a new perspective etc. Effectively the mind reclassifies the event as an old event (no longer an on-going threat situation) and as one client so kindly put it, puts it in the “old files” part of the brain.

The Second Session

At the beginning of the session, the client was very up front and concerned that she, “didn’t feel any better”.

I asked if she had experienced any panic attacks since the first session, she said that she hadn’t. It became apparent at this stage that there was something else bothering the client. During the first session we had only targeted the panic. After questioning, the rest of the issues became obvious. Constant panic attacks had impacted the clients’ self-esteem. Also, the client was experiencing depression due to having had panic attacks for twenty years, which is a common response to long term issues. The client was oblivious to feeling depressed because depression often slowly takes affect without people noticing they are increasingly feeling more negative with accompanying feelings of hopelessness etc. Generally, it isn’t until depression is removed that the person realises that they were very down in their mood.

On further questioning the client brought up the issue that she would very much love to have a child but felt there was no way that she would be able to look after one because of the panic attacks.

During this session we worked on her fears and blocks about becoming pregnant as well as the depression in general. The client noticed several positive changes occurring within her mood during the session.

The Third Session

This session was scheduled a few weeks later. Early in the session the client announced she was pregnant. She was pleasantly surprised and happy by how fast this had occurred once she had done the work on removing mental blocks.

The client made the decision that she would like to continue working on her issues through the pregnancy as at this stage she was still fearful that her panic attacks would come back. Also, she wanted to use alternative approaches to pain management during childbirth.

Subsequent Sessions

Further sessions dealt with shifting the client’s issues around her inability to deal with the issue herself, enabling her to make the realisation that she didn’t have some essential tools or knowledge necessary to deal with the problem. It is not possible to overpower the survival instinct (fight or flight response) by willpower itself. Put another way, would you expect a child or person to be able to do algebra if they had never been taught. We also did work on helping her realise that she had shown a lot of mental strength by enduring it as long as she had done and forcing herself to get on with her life. Also, we targeted her fear of embarrassment.

For the pregnancy

EFT™ was used for the nausea control during the initial weeks of the pregnancy.

Using Hypnosis

Hypnosis is an enormously powerful technique for balancing the whole mind / body system. The client was taught self-hypnosis for childbirth as well as a positive outcome. It is equivalent to approximately 6-8 times as much quality sleep, which for someone who is pregnant can be extremely useful.

Preparation for a Caesarean

“….People can’t believe how quickly I got over it….I needed minimal medication afterwards and that is why I was allowed out after three nights (as opposed to the normal five days)….”

When it became evident late in the pregnancy that the client may well need a caesarean due to the position of the baby, we switched from hypnosis for pain management to TAT. The technique was used to prepare the client for the operation in advance to minimise any possible negative effects from medication and trauma due to the invasive procedure.

“….I was very calm throughout the pregnancy and I feel it has affected the child….she is wonderful and placid…..”

Dealing with An Emergency

Several weeks before the due date, the client had an unexpected bleed. She was rushed into hospital. Although on the surface this was a potentially incredibly stressful event for any prospective mother, the client felt it had turned out to be a positive event. Throughout the experience she had felt relatively calm. She intuitively knew that both the baby and she would be OK. The bleed was benign and had no effect on the pregnancy or the baby.

“If someone had of said this time last year that I would be in this position now (with a new borne baby), I wouldn’t have believed them. I wouldn’t have believed I could be this happy!”

Post Baby Feedback

The client is now doing extremely well dealing with the demands of having a new-born baby. The child herself is extremely placid, which the client herself feels is due to the therapy she had whilst pregnant.
The client now is considering more children. She very rarely ever thinks about the issues with panic. She has a lot of energy and is incredibly happy with her life.

“….. I am really looking to the future and would like another child……..”

September 2004 

Specific Technique used in this case

• Tapas Acupressure Technique™
• Emotional Freedom Technique™
• Hypnotherapy
• NLP: Milton Model Language Patterns

Approximate time

Treatment took place over a ten-month period during which the focused changed periodically dependent on the needs of the client.

• Eliminate Panic Attacks
• Deal with Reactive Depression
• Support and Confidence Boosting for Upcoming Birth
• Pain Management for Childbirth
• Preparation for Caesarean

Photo by Kat Jayne from Pexels