Many people believe that there is no way to prevent panic attacks. They have suffered for years and believe they have tried everything. Psychiatric therapies and drugs have not worked for them. To prevent panic attacks, a new approach is required.

What causes panic attacks? There are different theories about this. Those who favor the medication option like to talk of a chemical imbalance in the brain. But since there is no test for this, it remains just a theory.

Other experts like to blame it on repressed emotions but we probably all have some of those. We don’t all suffer from debilitating panic attacks though.

Some blame exhaustion, mental, physical or emotional, that leads to a state of generalized anxiety. This leaves us more sensitive to potential triggers. A strange bodily sensation or a dark thought has us spiraling towards panic.

When it is labeled, ‘Anxiety Disorder’ by the medical profession, it just adds to the belief that there is something for you to worry about.

When you finally go into a full blown panic attack, your ‘fight or flight’ response is triggered. An automatic system kicks in, to prepare your body to defend itself or to run away. It gets the adrenaline pumping and produces many of the strange sensations associated with a panic attack. But this is perfectly natural and nothing to worry about.

It is just your body doing what it knows how to do. You may not be in conscious control but you don’t have to be. You usually breathe without having to think about it, don’t you. You are going through a normal response, but it doesn’t feel normal. In your sensitized state, you feel the need to try to fight the feeling, to battle against it. And by doing that, you are just adding to the sense of danger.

In trying to end your panic attacks by fighting them, you are trying to control what can’t be controlled and giving energy to it. But there is no need to control it. As terrible as it feels, it can’t hurt you, any more than your blood pumping in your veins can hurt you. In normal circumstances, once the perceived danger is past, a second automatic system kicks in to restore everything to normal. It is just a question of waiting for that to happen.

In order to prevent panic attacks, you have to have a different mental approach to them when they begin and start to build up. Then you need techniques to address the underlying anxiety. And finally, you need to make the recovery permanent. Be prepared for set backs and realize that it is just part of the healing process. It is possible for anyone to prevent their panic attacks from returning by following a few simple methods.

Part one of this plan is very surprising. It requires you to embrace your panic attacks and explore them with interest. It is surprising how quickly your fear of them drops away. There is work to do but it is not difficult. Anyone can end their panic attacks.