Understanding Panic Disorder
It’s More Than Just Anxiety
When people hear something like “panic” disorder, they often assume it’s just another term for anxiety or an anxiety attack. And while they are related, they’re not the same thing. Panic disorder isn’t just about feeling nervous or stressed; it’s about the fear of your own body’s physical reactions to anxiety and anxiety attacks.
At Soultality, we work with people who are navigating the complexities of panic disorder, and a big part of our job is helping them understand what’s happening in their bodies so it can feel more manageable and less scary.
Today, we want to walk you through what panic disorder actually is and how we help people find relief through treatments here at Soultality Psychotherapy in Cambridge, MA.
What Panic Disorder Actually Is
Panic disorder is a mental health condition that stems from having recurring and sudden panic attacks. Of the people who have panic attacks, 2.7% of US adults develop panic disorder.
When somebody has a panic attack, they have physical symptoms that aren’t easily controlled. While it’s rare, some people become afraid of the physiological symptoms they have during panic attacks, which can turn into panic disorder.
People with panic disorder are afraid of physiological sensations like:
Rapid heartbeat
Shortness of breath
Dizziness
Chest tightness
Sweating
Shaking or trembling
These sensations are actually quite fascinating. Our bodies react like this as a way to protect us. Most people are familiar with this as the fight-or-flight system.
But when they’re triggered out of context (like during a stressful work meeting) they can feel incredibly unsettling and scary. And once you’ve had a panic attack, the fear of having another one can be just as debilitating.
How Panic Disorder Develops Over Time
Panic disorders normally start with one single panic attack. From there, the person begins to anticipate and fear the next panic attack. The fear becomes so strong that they start to:
Avoid situations where a panic attack might happen
Monitor their body for any warning signs
Interpret benign sensations (like a racing heart or tingling fingers) as dangerous
Over time, this creates a self-perpetuating cycle where people become very afraid of the sensations associated with panic attacks.
Let’s share a common example:
Let’s say that you feel your heart fluttering. And while this normally isn’t a concerning feeling, if you’re somebody who suffers from panic disorder, your immediate thought could be something like, “Am I having a heart attack?” Then you start panicking about potentially having a heart attack, which actually increases your heart rate even more, and now you are having a panic attack.
Because that experience is so intense, many people in this situation start to fear the symptoms themselves, which leads to panic disorder.
What’s the Difference Between Panic Disorder and Generalized Anxiety?
While panic disorder and anxiety often overlap, they’re certainly not interchangeable.
Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a persistent and ongoing worry about multiple areas of life (work, relationships, etc) that affects the way a person functions. People with GAD have a hard time not focusing on situations they’re worried about, and it can affect how they function and handle situations. People with GAD can also have physical symptoms like restlessness, tiredness, mood swings, and trouble sleeping.
The main difference between GAD and panic disorder is in what drives the anxiety. With GAD, the anxiety comes from worrying about something that is an external situation, like work or relationships. With panic disorder, the person is afraid of their own physiological sensations that could be associated with sensations they experience during panic attacks.
How We Treat Panic Disorder at Soultality Psychotherapy
There are several treatments available for panic disorder. At Soultality, we include multiple evidence-based treatments so our patients can experience sustainable relief.
Psychoeducation
When people initially develop panic disorder, they don’t understand what’s happening within their own body, and that’s part of what develops the fear of the physiological experiences. By taking the time to educate patients on what panic is, why the body responds the way it does, and how these reactions are normal and protective, it helps people understand and recognize what may be happening in the moment.
We also use handouts like this one to show people how the fight or flight response works within the body.
Interoceptive Exposure Therapy
This technique involves deliberately triggering the physical sensations the patient is afraid of in a controlled environment. When we do this during a therapy session, we’re able to help our patients work through their fears of physical sensations.
Examples include:
Breathing through a straw to mimic shortness of breath
Spinning in a chair to create the feeling of dizziness
Running in place to increase heart rate
The goal here is to help the brain learn that these sensations are not dangerous. And over time, these sensations become less triggering and more manageable.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
We help patients challenge thoughts and replace them with more accurate ones. The design behind CBT is all about helping our patients build trust with their body and trust that they can handle their ability to be uncomfortable.
Common thoughts people have when they feel physiological sensations are, “I’m going to faint” or “I’m going to have a heart attack.”
By helping people understand where these thoughts come from and recognize how reframing these thoughts can help the symptoms subside, people become more trusting and confident that they can pause, think through the situation, and allow themselves to calm down the physical sensations.
How These Therapies Work Together
All of these therapies work together to help people work through their panic disorder and teach their brains how to have a new response. When people are educated and then exposed to a feared situation and nothing bad happens, the brain starts to realize that, “Oh, maybe this isn’t an emergency after all?”
Through helping patients with panic disorder, we’ve noticed a clear increase in success when we combine education, exposure, and cognitive behavioral therapy. This allows people to clearly understand what their body is doing, know how to work through their thoughts, and learn how to feel sensations without resorting to panic.
To be clear, we’re not trying to teach people how to avoid fear altogether. We’re helping people learn how to build a tolerance and education to the physiological sensations they’ve experienced with their panic disorder. Over time, we’re able to show people that the sensations that used to feel scary become just sensations. Not threats.
Contact Soultality in Boston, MA, for Panic Disorder Treatment
Panic disorder is a rare disorder that stems from a fear of the physiological sensations that appear during panic attacks. It has a way of convincing people that something terrible and uncontrollable is going to happen when they feel those sensations, but with the right support, people can learn how to work through those emotions and sensations with trust and knowledge.
At Soultality, we specialize in helping people work through panic disorder, anxiety, and other mental health disorders like OCD. If you’re someone who feels they may be struggling with panic disorder, please schedule a complimentary therapy consultation.