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The Mind-Body Connection

This educational information should be used in consultation with your doctor to confirm a diagnosis and to review available treatments for panic disorder.

THE MIND-BODY CHECKLIST FOR PANIC ONLY

1. Do you live in fear of panic symptoms?
Do you wake up in the morning wondering “will my heart pound today?”
YES
NO

2. Worry about panic symptoms can trigger symptoms
Sometimes can you worry so much about getting heart pounding that you trigger it?
YES
NO

3. Trapped situations where you can’t get out trigger symptoms
Do you worry about getting sick when you are far away from home?
YES
NO

4. Distraction, getting busy, getting your mind on something else leads to a lowering of symptoms
When you get busy, do you find the heart pounding lessens?
YES
NO

5. When you feel symptoms, does worry about the symptoms make them stronger?
When you get afraid that your heart pounding will damage your heart, does you heart pound faster?
YES
NO

DR. BLUMBERG’S COMMENTARY ON THE MIND-BODY CHECKLIST
One of the cardinal features of panic disorder is the phobia of normal bodily sensations. Panic sufferers have a “heart pounding phobia, a dizziness phobia, a there/not there disorientation phobia.” Panic disorder is very different from a simple phobia where the individual fears a specific type of situation like heights, dogs, or air travel. In simple phobias, the catastrophic thinking is about a disaster triggered by facing the situation. For example, it is very common for the person with a dog phobia to think, “What if the dog attacks me?”  The fear of being attacked by a dog does not make the dog more massive, more aggressive, or have sharper teeth.

In panic disorder, when you react with fearful thinking about what is happening in your body, like “my heart is pounding so fast I think I am having a heart attack,” this fearful (catastrophic) thinking actually causes the heart pounding to intensify. With panic disorder, the fearful focus is completely centered inwardly on how you feel in your body. Your fearful attention on your body actually can cause the heart to pound faster. This special feature of panic disorder – “The Fear of Fear” (Claire Weekes Hope and Help for Your Nerves) – leads many patients to start using distracting (listening to the radio, calling a friend or family member) as temporary relief from panic attacks even before they learn the TakeControl Training Method.

The problem is that distraction is an incorrect method of taking control of panic. You are feeding your phobia by trying to run from your body.  Just as running from a dog is not the treatment for a dog phobia, running from your body is not the treatment for panic disorder. However, the point of the Mind-Body Checklist is to demonstrate the relationship between fearful thinking and your bodily sensations.  Once you see this relationship you come one step closer to confirming a diagnosis of panic disorder.