What really causes panic attacks in your life? Many people with better credentials have offered their opinions, but here's what I discovered to be what caused my panic attacks. Because when you know the causes, it then becomes much easier to end your panic attacks.
Where does it start? Over the years, I've found three main energies that unite to then create a final energy and it's this fourth cause which holds the panic in place. This fourth factor I think is the main cause of panic attacks.
1. Being Shamed As A Child
For a lot of people, childhood was an unpleasant or downright painful experience because of the shame dumped onto them by their parents or other grownups. They learn early in life that the world is a frightening place.
When you're young and small and helpless, when those huge figures referred to as 'grown-ups' pile their own shame on your back, it's going to create fear. Maybe even a lot of fear.
But does shame always cause you to feel No. The shame can take many different directions and create many different manifestations. Certainly fear always comes with being shamed, but it doesn't have to manifest as panic attacks.
And to turn the question around, does panic always begin from shame? Probably. I couldn't see someone experiencing panic attacks when they had no problem with shame earlier in life.
I started with a lot of shame. Which meant I lacked security in my life. When you live with shame, you can't feel true security. Shame robs you of your security. Which will tend to create fear. Which lays the foundation for future panic attacks.
2. Repressing The Fear
I learned early in life that it's not socially acceptable to admit you feel fear. We're taught to hide our fears. Be a brave little girl or boy. "Don't be scared", I was conditioned to believe.
But I am afraid! I'm so small and the world is so big. Situations that grown-ups can slough off are overwhelming to me. I'm too young to know what's going on. I hardly know how things work. There's so much unknown. And so the fear increases.
Childhood can be naturally scary, but I don't want to feel the fear! Therefore, I cram as much of my fear as possible away from me and into my shadow. The problem is, at some point I'm going to have to deal with that fear.
Either I go into the shadow directly and handle it there, or else it will come at me in the world.
I can only keep the fear repressed for so long. At some point, that fear will rise up. I'll create situations that terrify me. Or maybe the fear will seem to come out of nowhere.
And the whole time, the shadow is just doing its job. It holds onto all the stuff I don't want to deal with. It keeps my power and emotion safe for me, and then returns it when I'm ready to be responsible for it. Of course, it often explodes in my face when it happens.
Anyway, this stands as the number two factor that leads to panic attacks; as the fear that we stuff down into the shadow now comes to the surface.
3. Telling Yourself Fear Stories
Fear stories stand as an attempt to conceptualize the fear. Instead of just feeling the fear and letting it go, instead we become stuck by rationalizing the fears.
The fear stories; all the reasons why I truly should be afraid. "Don't you get it? It's not just my imagination. I have to be scared - because I really might have that terrible illness."
But the thing is, you could really have a good reason to be concerned. So I am not saying you should forget the story completely. Rather, I'm saying to carefully look at it. But don't follow it blindly.
Hey, if you see a wolf banging on the door, then you better deal with it! But is there really a wolf at the door? That's what you have to ask yourself. That's where evaluation and discernment and feeling and thinking become necessary. Most of the time there is no wolf. Or more clearly stated, I am the wolf I fear.
Either way, you need to put the story aside so you can feel the fear. Because even when there really is a threat, creating a fear story is not going to make the threat disappear.
And here's one of the largest fear stories:
"There's got to be something wrong or I would have no reason to be experiencing all this fear."
The fear story can trap you. You're stuck in fear. It just goes on and on and on like a broken record. It wears you down. Plus it's way too easy to rationalize the fear. You end up managing fear instead of feeling it. Or more likely, you try to manage it.
You try to think your way out of feeling. Which never ends well. Panic is basically a fear story that's gotten way out of hand.
So far we've got shame, repressed emotion, and fear stories that all join together to cause panic attacks. But that's not all. There's a glue that holds it all together.
4. The 'Freaked-Out Me'
That glue is - quite literally - a part of your consciousness. The 'scared me' or the 'panicked me' or whatever other label you want to slap on it. A part of your consciousness 'broke off' and formed this entity who's scared out of his (or her) mind.
The 'Freaked-Out Me' - The Ultimate Cause of Panic Attacks
And it's this part of you that keeps putting out those fear stories. And keeps trying to stuff down the fear, so it has to explode in your face. It's also the part of you which refuses to deal with that scary childhood.
But if you'll meet this part of you face-to-face, you can come to peace with it and take your power back from it. To get started, simply go to this page on the causes of panic attacks. It tells you exactly how to meet and then heal this part of you that's creating so much pain and suffering in your life.
