From the author: If you have visited a therapist, endocrinologist, cardiologist, gastroenterologist, pulmonologist and other specialists, but there is still no diagnosis, if the tests are normal, then most likely you have a psychological problem, the name of which is Panic attack attack. Attention! Panic attack! Author: clinical psychologist - Oksana Nikolaevna Litvinova The article is posted on the website: http://psylab.flybb.ru/ A panic attack can be compared to an explosion. Are you surprised? Remember what happens to you at the time of the attack. Panic, horror, the heart jumps out of the chest, there is a burning sensation in the chest, hands and feet become cold, often the body becomes “not yours”, a spiral seems to be unwinding in the head, fog before the eyes, a “stunned” state. Most people experience these or similar sensations when a panic attack occurs. Here is a typical example of the development of such a situation. Client N., 32 years old, complained of increased anxiety, suspiciousness and panic attacks. Panic attacks happened quite often: once, sometimes several times a week. “When this happened to me for the first time, I don’t remember how I got home and called an ambulance,” she said at the meeting. “Then I thought I was having a heart attack and dying.” Until the ambulance arrived, I rushed around the house from window to door, afraid that I had forgotten to say the building number, or the intercom would not work, and I would die due to my own stupidity. When a white car with a red cross drove into the courtyard of the house, I calmed down a little and greeted the deliverers “with open arms.” The doctors gave me an injection and explained that it was a panic attack. I was “somewhat shocked” and even annoyed by their reaction. No one took me to the intensive care unit, they didn’t even offer me hospitalization. Their only recommendation was to see a neurologist or psychotherapist. I turned to a neurologist, while my rich imagination pictured a body broken by paralysis or a brain tumor in the near future. I remember how I was shaking in line in front of the office, however, even here everything turned out to be much more prosaic than the pictures in my imagination. The neurologist said that I have VSD and prescribed antidepressants. I'm afraid to take medicine, I don't want to get addicted. I scoured the Internet. I was surprised to discover that I was not the only one suffering from this, it seemed like you couldn’t die from panic, but... When panic attacks became more frequent, when I was “dying” several times a week, I decided for myself: “Enough! I want to live normally!” and turned to a psychologist for help. During the work, I recommended N. to keep notes at the moment when panic sets in. The recordings helped to identify the dynamics of the development of the client’s body’s reactions to stress. A panic attack is always preceded by thoughts of sudden death from a heart attack or stroke. For example, N. attended advanced training courses, she liked the study itself, but after completing the courses she was promised a transfer to another department, and she was worried about how she would adapt to the new team. The closer she graduated, the more anxious she became. On the eve of the exam, she had a severe panic attack, she did not go to the exam, and as a result, her transfer was postponed for some time. What happened to her at the time of the panic attack? In a state of stress (and the thoughts that the transfer was approaching were constantly “spinning” in her head), N.’s heartbeat increased, she thought that she was having a heart attack. In therapy, she said that her grandmother died of a heart attack when N. was 12 and the topic of her grandmother’s sudden and untimely death was often discussed in the family. - It was impossible to call grandma and grandma. An elegant older woman who never complained about anything. At the bus stop she felt bad, she barely made it home, lay down and by evening she was gone. This sad family history also contributed to the client's panic. The thought of a possible heart attack led to a number of changes in the functioning of the body, including rapid shallow breathing, profuse sweating, an even faster heart rate,