How to Cure Panic Attacks

Since writing this post I have shared a part 2 with several things that helped me to overcome panic attacks. Read this post first and then go read part 2 here.

If you’ve ever had a panic attack you instantly want to know how to cure panic attacks.  If you haven’t ever had a panic attack let me explain one so that you will understand just how terrifying they are.  They can come out of nowhere suddenly.  Whether something fearful happens or not they can creep up on you with startling quickness. As soon as it starts your heart begins palpitating and racing. It can feel as though your chest will explode with the electricity of your heart beat.  Your mind wants to tell you that surely this is a heart attack.  Your breathing becomes shallow and at the same time that your heart is beating erratically you just can’t seem to get a breath.  Now you feel like you are suffocating.  Other symptoms may tag along on this wild ride including tightness in your chest, vision blurring, weakness in your body {think week in the knees}.  It feels like your body is just giving up and you are dying.  Panic is an appropriate label for the attack that it is.

I began having these panic attacks 3 years ago after a particularly stressful time in my life as a mother of 6.  I was overworking myself and not well rested.  I was stressed in many areas of life and pushing myself too hard.  These panic attacks came from out of the blue and rocked my world hard.

I started on a journey toward attempting to figure out what they were and how to end them.  My doctor didn’t seem to understand and didn’t help much.  No one seemed to want to talk about them and it really seemed like I was the only one who ever had them. It took me months to actually figure out that they were panic attacks and not some other illness.

Figuring out that they were not harmful in any way took me much longer to figure out.  They sure feel harmful.  I was relieved to find out through reading several posts from doctors online that panic attacks are simply an adrenaline surge that your body gives off.  A person who has panic attacks has a sensitized nervous system that gives off this adrenaline surge in non-emergency situations.

Our bodies are designed beautifully when you think about it.  We need a fight or flight response to handle extreme situations and an adrenaline rush does wonders for us when we actually need it.  When we don’t need it and our body falsely triggers one, it causes all of the same symptoms but because we are not fighting or fleeing, we suffer through it while it runs it’s course.

If you have panic attacks I’m assuming that you have had a doctor confirm that your heart is healthy and you don’t have other medical problems causing you heart palpitations or shortness of breath?  If this is the case for you then let me assure you that your body is fine.  A panic attack is not harming you.  I desperately needed to know that and it was hope for me while I was searching for answers.

After two years of sporadic panic attacks I switched doctors and changed my diet drastically.  I began taking Omega 3 regularly and Magnesium Citrate.  Both of these things helped me at first but over time it seemed I would have panic attacks whether I was taking great care of myself or not.

That is when I began to think the answer may be something other that my health.  All along I had been praying for wisdom, asking for prayers from friends and family, reading and studying about fear and asking God to show me roots in my life that needed to be addressed and dealt with for me to overcome fear and panic attacks.

I wouldn’t have characterized myself as a fearful person. I knew fearful people and I wasn’t one of them.  But all it took was stressful situations to set me into fear and more frequent attacks. Fear is sneaky too.  It hides in the most secret places and, even if you don’t think you are fearful, any fear in your life is an open door.

After a particularly hard time I came across an audio book by Claire Weekes called Pass Through Panic.  I listened to it and she confirmed that panic attacks are not harmful.  Ms. Weekes was a general practitioner so I was confident that she had experience with patients who had panic attacks and anxiety disorders.  After more research I discovered that Ms. Weekes had suffered from panic attacks herself.

The amazing thing to me and the incredibly counterintuitive advice she gives to one suffering a panic attack, is to lean into it. All I ever want to do when I experience an attack is to fight it.  My whole body tenses and I fight with everything I have, praying that it will end quickly.  Sometimes they do and other times they linger.

This advice floored me.  Feel the panic?! Accept it? Lean into it?

But this is where the cure comes.  Over all of the months that I had panic attacks, I was trying desperately to gain control, to be in control.  I hate the crazy out-of-control feeling of a panic attack.  Hate it!  I would read the Bible, memorize verses from scripture and quote them while going through the attacks.  Most of the time fear stayed and peace seemed distant.

I would read Isaiah 26:3 where it says

You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.

And I would try desperately to keep my mind on God.  It didn’t seem to work.

I would quote Philippians 4:6

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

But anxiousness kept coming.

So when Claire Weeks said to lean into an attack I wondered “Does this line up with God’s Word?”  Could this work?

I went back to the scriptures and discovered a few things.  They’re all about what God will do and not what I do.  He keeps me in perfect peace. He guards my heart and mind with peace. When I control and fight I am not leaning into Him and His work.

John 16:33 AMP says

 I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace and confidence. In the world you have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration; but be of good cheer [take courage; be confident, certain, undaunted]! For I have overcome the world. [I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you.]

He has deprived the world of power to harm me. It’s not my own doing.

Again Isaiah 41:10 AMP says

Fear not [there is nothing to fear], for I am with you; do not look around you in terror and be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen and harden you to difficulties, yes, I will help you; yes, I will hold you up and retain you with My [victorious] right hand of rightness and justice.

He does the work!

As I began to realize that I was looking at this fear thing in a works based way and not a grace thing I was overwhelmed with God’s goodness.

I had been having panic attacks very frequently at this point and I could try this “leaning into them” quickly.  The first time it felt wrong and sickening and I didn’t know if I could do it.  But I surrendered to the waves of adrenaline.  Surrendered to my God bringing me perfect peace and not striving for it myself.

And it subsided quickly. Instead of feeling scared and overwhelmed that I had had yet another panic attack I felt tremendous peace that I could endure them.

Ms. Weekes reason for leaning into the attacks is so that what she calls “second fear” cannot prolong the attack.  She shares that the panic comes and is the first wave of fear but because of the symptoms, we begin to dread what is happening and the bewilderment of not knowing if we are okay takes us into a new wave that prolongs the adrenaline release.

I had the opportunity to practice this embracing of panic attacks several times in a short period of time due to sickness and stress that I was under.  I am amazed at how well it works to quickly dissolve the attack.

But what about a cure?  We don’t just want to get through the attacks we want a cure, right?  Ms. Weekes shared that it takes time to retrain your body not to respond with adrenaline surges but that this “leaning in” will eventually retrain your nervous system and you can be cured.

I think it may be more complicated than that.  I think there are deeper roots of fear that cause our systems to work improperly in the first place.

I have found on my journey that God was wanting to do a deep work in my heart.  Fear grips a heart from early on in our lives and if we don’t ever expose the lies of fear they don’t just stay but they build.  Fear often manifests itself as control.  It’s either something that controls you or you use it to control others and circumstances.

To be out of control, to a fearful person, can feel like the most awful thing on earth. But the truth is we are not in control, cannot be in control and the more we try to control the deeper we are entangled in being controlled. Fear is battling God for control of you.  In order to let God have all of you and be in control you have to free fall, let go of control and surrender to Him.

When you surrender to not being in control and trust that there is a good, powerful and near God who is in complete control then you will have peace. Then He keeps you in His perfect peace.  Then your body begins to align with that peace and panic attacks have no place in your life. 

God wants to make you fearless. It’s a good and perfect gift that He wants each one of us to walk in. No fear. It’s often a journey and you cannot get there unless you let go and trust Him completely.

I’ve been learning to let go.  To free fall.  To surrender all control.  To live in a place of complete peace.  My panic attacks have subsided.  They no longer have a place. For the first time in years, I feel great.

If you are battling panic attacks I hope that you feel some hope after reading my story.  I pray that you overcome fear and are healed. What are some areas of fear and control that you can let go of today?

If you want some more practical ways to help you in your search to cure panic attacks I wrote a part 2 to this post. In part 2 I am sharing some things that helped my body to heal and eventually stop having panic attacks altogether.  Click here to read that post.