Rise The Victor Podcast
Rise The Victor is not just another podcast; it's a fresh, no-nonsense journey into the realms of success coaching, personal empowerment, and mental wellness. Stripping away the unnecessary fluff, we delve deep into the transformative world of therapy and coaching, offering unique perspectives and actionable insights. Our episodes are a blend of thought-provoking discussions, practical entrepreneurial wisdom, and inspiring stories. We bring you exclusive interviews with clients who have achieved remarkable transformations, insightful dialogues with industry colleagues, and captivating encounters with celebrities. All of this is crafted to ignite your journey towards personal freedom and success. Join us at Rise The Victor, where we redefine the narrative of triumph and well-being.
Rise The Victor Podcast
Sudden Fear: What are Panic Attacks
When my heart raced and palms sweat during my first panic attack at 20, I felt a terror I couldn't understand. Fast forward to today, and Linzi and I are peeling back the layers on these bewildering episodes that surprisingly affect a majority of our clients. Together, we navigate the often misunderstood signals our brains send us during these intense moments, revealing how the amygdala's false alarms can trap us in an exhausting cycle of avoidance. Our discussions provide insights into the unpredictable nature of panic attacks, the role of life stressors, and share our own personal brushes with anxiety that underscore how quickly one's sense of safety can be upended.
The journey from a solitary panic attack to the claustrophobic grip of agoraphobia is a path none choose but many find themselves on. Our conversation takes you through this progression with a blend of vulnerability and expert analysis. We discuss not just the overt symptoms, but also those quiet distress signals that can disrupt every facet of daily life, from sleep to social interactions. Through anecdotes, including a near-drowning encounter, we illustrate the primal instincts that override logic in the throes of anxiety. Lindzi's expertise shines as we talk about reprogramming our fight or flight response and societal pressures that often go unaddressed, adding layers to the anxiety we experience.
Culminating our exploration, we turn to the practical tactics that can offer solace during a panic attack and how simple dietary tweaks can yield profound changes. We uncover the surprisingly potent influence of sugar and caffeine consumption on anxiety levels and offer actionable advice for immediate and long-term relief from panic attacks. Breathing techniques and Havening emerge as tools for empowerment, while we also consider the importance of nurturing resilience, especially in children facing their own battles with anxiety. Our episode is a testament to the power of understanding and managing panic attacks, with the hope of guiding others to rediscover tranquillity in their lives.
If you've found our discussions enlightening and want to learn more or explore working directly with Chris, visit chrismeaden.com. For opportunities with Linzi, visit linzimeaden.com.
Welcome to another episode of Rise the Victor talking all things to do with mental health, mental wellness and everything else in between. My name is Linzi.
Chris:And I'm Chris.
Linzi:The episode today is Sudden Fear. What is a panic attack? Okay, wow, big topic Huge topic what percentage of your clients suffer panic attacks before they come and see you?
Chris:Probably say about 60%. Yeah, it's really high.
Linzi:It is high, isn't it? You are the knowledgeable one when it comes to panic attacks. All there is to know and tell us more. Talk through. I do my best.
Chris:Yeah, so panic attacks. They come around, often as a result of a buildup of stress. You may have certain stresses happening in life. It can be divorce, it can be relationship breakdown, it can be some trauma which has happened in your lifetime health scare. Effectively, it's your body giving you a wake-up call to change things in your life. So panic attacks come about and often they completely come out of the blue. Things in your life. So panic attacks come about and often they can completely come out of the blue. It depends on circumstances. But you can be watching tv, suddenly you get a panic attack. You can be laying in bed, you can be on the train or on underground it could be anywhere.
Chris:But ultimately, when we do have a panic attack, especially the first one, we create an intense fear because suddenly our body is doing something we have no control over. And the fallacy is just really is that we didn't have control of our body previously, but suddenly our heart is pounding. We have this elevated level of adrenaline in the body which is being pumped out around. That's why you have raised heart rate and you can show you have jelly legs, sweaty palms, tightness of chest and a sense of pending doom. Something bad is going to happen. And for a lot of people we can be fearing that we're we're having a heart attack or we're going to die.
Chris:So the intensity of the fear is very much on the meaning we place to it. Because of course, if we've been going through life and everything's okay and we've been maybe under some stressful situations, but when we get a panic attack it can really knock us for six because suddenly we realize that this thing is happening to us and we don't, don't seemingly have any control over it. And of course then what happens is that, depending on the context of where you were when you had that panic attack, that fear, that association gets linked to it. So if it's on a tube or on a train or a certain situation, a meeting lots of people have them doing presentations Then that fear is associated to that activity, that locality, that fear is associated to that activity, that locality. And then we will often do avoidance so that we don't return into that space, or we try and avoid the activity, whatever we may be doing. So it can dramatically change how we live our lives.
Linzi:So what would you say are the most common triggers?
Chris:In terms of the buildup for panic attacks. Panic attacks is often there can be bereavement, bereavement, loss. It can be stressful job environment, working environment, relationship issues it can be a whole array of reasons. You don't get panic attacks coming out the blue for no reason you can trace back to. There's been significant events and, and the thing is, it's a build-up over time. So it's not like what happened last week. It can be what happened over the last six months, a year it will be even longer than that. It's really a case of how we've handled the stress of those situations and whether or not those situations have actually gone, because we can obviously move on with our lives after we've had a loss, but we have the grieving process and, for example, if we've been in a relationship and that's passed, we have the fallout from that relationship.
Chris:So there's lots of reasons for us to have panic attacks, but ultimately it's our stress levels getting to the point where our amygdala. So the amygdala is the part of the brain which drives the fight or flight response. It's responsible for protecting us, keeping us safe, keeping us alive, and that's about the size of the arm and its back of the head. Its primary purpose is to keep you safe, keep you alive, and it's looking to keep you safe from abandonment, being killed, somatic pain, height suffocation, being trapped, open spaces, predators, creepy, call you, darkness and night. And then you have the book of learnt experiences which you've accumulated over the course of lifetime, and often panic attacks are where we feel trapped and we need to have an escape.
Chris:And it's effective. You're saying, hey, pay attention, we're in danger here, we need to get out of here. So that can be. You're doing a presentation in front of a client or so or internal staff, and then you have this trigger of a panic attack and the one thing you want to do is get the hell out of there. But you can't. You're not trapped in the sense that you can't physically get out. It's if I leave, what will people think of me? Will I get passed over for my promotion or whatever in my, in my career? It's always about the meaning we place on something and that's where we start to develop those fears, like, for instance, the public speaking fear. So yeah, in a nutshell, it's wherever the stress is built up from accumulation of stresses in your life. So it's really a case of everyone's circumstances are unique.
Linzi:What age were you when you had your panic attacks yeah, I was 20 when I first experienced a panic attack and I traveled up to see my friend at Leicester University and there was a party happening and I remember I was really proud of myself because I'd driven all the way up from Kent to Leicestershire and I was really proud Went to the party and as soon as I got there I suddenly had this overwhelming feeling of I thought I was going to die, I was going to pass out, I was going to be ill, I felt I couldn't breathe and I had to escape and lock myself in the loo because I didn't know what was happening. Back then I didn't really know anything about panic attacks. I had no idea what was happening to me, but all I know is it was terrifying, absolutely terrifying, really scary, and I just wanted to be back home feeling safe. But I couldn't because I was in this unknown place, surrounded by people who I didn't know, and I suddenly felt very isolated and alone, even though there are lots of people around, and alone even though there are lots of people around from that point, I then started to experience more and more panic attacks, and I then started to avoid places
Linzi:yeah, and then my whole world started closing in. I was starting to become agoraphobic, and that's when I realized that I needed to do something, because I couldn't live life like that. It wasn't living life. So I then had some hypnosis, actually, which was very powerful, and you mentioned about the need to escape the chest pains, the shaking, the feeling sick. Some people get very hot, some people get very cold. There are other symptoms as well, aren't there something that might not be so common? Can you share what, what those other, less common symptoms are?
Chris:well, I mean, certainly they have the physical sensations and that sometimes it can even be needing to empty your bowels, for example. If there's a situation when people start having panic attacks, then if you're going to a restaurant or going to a cinema, then you position yourself so that you can have an escape without interruption.
Linzi:That's what I used to do, whether it was the cinema, theater, restaurants. My first initial thought was right, where am I going? Where's the nearest exit door? Yeah and I would always sit on the aisle seat or the chair at the table that was closest to the exit.
Chris:And that was my programming, that was my strategy to get me through the event I'd have people who contact me and who get the plans of buildings to understand the escape routes, trying to do avoidance of where you might get triggered. So you're creating this level of of anxiety and there's different. People talk about fight or flight and it's like the most common thing which is spoke about. But we actually have awareness, salience, vigilance, freeze, fight, panic, thalamotosis, and when we're in a hypervigilance state, that's where we feel on edge and we have elevated levels of adrenaline and cortisol flowing through our bodies. We also become more inwardly focused about the sensations we feel in our body and our sensory acuity becomes more heightened. So more sense of light, touch, smell, taste and effectively we can show up being fidgety, irritable and just feeling on edge as there's some pending doom, something bad's going to happen. And in that state as well, your appetite drops off a cliff and any libido drops off a cliff because having sex or eating big meals is off limits, because your amygdala is going I need to conserve energy for some pending threat or danger, so you're not going to have those things. So ultimately, with that elevated level of anxiety, you can feel really washed out, really difficult to sleep because you're too wired or you you want to sleep as much as you can. You can't get enough sleep, so it works both ways, but it massively impacts your, your, your emotional state and it takes over your life, and it's really about understanding that it came about. We'll all, to a certain extent, experience a panic attack some, some point in your life myself as well because we're overdoing it, we're pushing our bodies too much, we're trying to do things, exerting ourselves too much, putting more pressure on ourselves, and with society in its current form, there is so much pressure to do more, be more and get more done, so we have less downtime, proper structured downtime. So, consequently, more and more people done, so we have less downtime, proper structured downtime. So, consequently, more and more people are suffering from anxiety because they're not meeting up to the social hypnosis about who we're supposed to be as people. Our identity are what we achieve. So, consequently, that stress then creates the stress level higher and then we start having panic attacks.
Chris:And when we have a panic attack, your prefrontal lobe, which is your normal thinking, gets switched off. When you have a panic attack, well, you can't access your prefrontal lobe properly. The information, because it's been switched off, your amygdala is taking over, because if you've got a tiger running towards, you go oh, is that a friendly tiger? That's a nice tiger. Then, well, it's got a tiger running towards you. You go oh, is that a friendly tiger, that's a nice tiger. Then, whoop, it's got you. It's eaten you. Okay, but your amygdala says right, I'm not going to give you the chance to think about those things. I'm taking over because I'm here to keep you safe. That's why, for example, you never help someone who is drowning, because if you go across to someone who's drowning, they will drown you without your thinking of your well-being, because they're in pure survival mode.
Linzi:That's why you throw something to them, so they can grab hold of it, otherwise you're likely to be pushed underwater. I actually experienced that when I was younger, when I was in the swimming pool. You've just brought a memory to mind. Thank you for that. I think I must have been about five or six in the swimming pool and this little girl, probably a little bit older than me, actually was struggling, and she held on to me and was pushing me under the water to help herself so her survival instinct to keep herself alive, just pushing me under, drowning me, and yeah, that, probably that does explain why I'm not a big fan of swimming oh well, I have to work on that.
Chris:That's not something she said. It's never come up as it in the time of knowing each other. So so, yeah, these are conditioning events which happen and then you form a belief and your belief is saying again, I don't like swimming, I don't feel comfortable with it. Yeah, so so understand. It's like an event where you, your amygdala, said you could have suffocated, you could have drowned, and one of the things with water is you're surrounded with pressure of water as well. So sometimes people who have incidents in in water have been issues in flying because of the pressure on the body that's another topic.
Linzi:That's a yeah, flying actually fear of flying is a really good topic because you a yeah, flying, actually fear of flying is a really good topic because you helped me overcome my fear of flying when we first met. I was 32 and I'd never been on an airplane because I was so scared. And you dealt with that in two minutes yeah genius. So we're going to do another episode on that, because that's absolutely life-changing, okay. So have we spoken about the, the length of attacks, how long do they last?
Chris:Well, this is interesting, I've treated so many hypervigilant state than the panic attack stats. So you have the heightened level, so it can be a few minutes or it can be half an hour and it can be hours. So it varies. But one thing I've seen is that there can be complete extremes in terms of panic attacks. Some people are quite animated, arms flailing down, that you can see them low. They want to escape, they want to get out and they're very much got masses of adrenaline flowing through their body and they're shaking and all kinds of things which are happening. And then you have people who calmly say I'm having a panic attack really yeah, that was me.
Chris:I'm having a panic attack.
Linzi:Yeah, that exactly was me.
Chris:There's no visual cues, on the outside that's right, it's all on the inside.
Chris:Yeah, yeah, so what you feel inside, okay, sometimes people have physical symptoms where you get shaking, you can see physically, but you're distressed, and there's some people who can just have a panic attack inside without showing anything. So, yeah, it's really a case of we're all different, we're all wired slightly different, but all the same they're still scary. And it's really about bringing down those panic attacks, because every time you have a panic it washes you out, you feel shattered after and, of course, you're quite shell-shocked often, and it's really about being able to collapse it because if you're anticipating the next one and there can be a series of panic attacks.
Chris:One thing which I've found over the years is that a contributing factor to panic attacks is your diet and, in particular, sugar and carbonated drinks. So people drinking Pepsi Max, diet Coke, obviously, red Bull and Monster drinks, but ultimately people who have panic attacks drinks, but ultimately people who have panic attacks. When we look at the diet which they're eating, it's too much sugar, too much sugary food, pop drinks, soft drinks, and they're all contributing to it and just stopping. No coffee yeah, it's interesting coffee, I mean. Obviously you get palpitations with coffee if you have too much, but in the years I've gone through this. I would say a bigger contribution to panic attacks is diet, not so much the coffee, because most people will stop coffee. It's one of the most common normal things, isn't it?
Linzi:people talk about that's for me personally.
Chris:I've stopped drinking coffee because they do give me panic attacks yeah, and that's one of like well known is don't drink coffee, okay, so most people cut that out. But what they don't cut out, the drinks, pop drinks. So just by taking that out your diet and changing your diet, getting rid of sugar, because what happens is when you eat a sugary foods or processed foods or these pop drinks, you spike your blood sugar levels and then your insulin kicks in and you have a crash and then your body creates more cortisol in the body, which creates a breeding ground for anxiety and panic attacks. And you're in this roller coaster and you go and eat something else and you go up and you go down again up and then down, and every time you go down into that space, your body's creating more cortisol, more acidic, and you're creating more anxiety and more panic attacks. So just changing that alone has a significant impact on the frequency and the intensity of panic attacks so what would you say to somebody if they're in the moment of a panic attack?
Linzi:what immediate actions can they take to alleviate the intensity and to bring them back down to a nice, neutral, calm state quickly?
Chris:well. We've certainly got resources on the website using breathing techniques. Havening techniques can all work to downgrade the response. I mean, one of the most important things is get yourself out. If you can get yourself out of a space where you are having a panic attack, change your posture. These are all aspects about changing your emotional state. So, evening, on the touch and the arms, palms and face, you're saying calm, that safe, this is going to pass. You'll naturally increase the oxytocin, serotonin levels and decrease your cortisol and adrenaline levels. Likewise, you can do tapping tapping under the eye, tapping on the chin.
Chris:These are well-known areas of collapsing and there's actually sequences on the website as well as to what you can do to collapse panic attacks using tapping the breathing techniques. There's lots of different methods. It's really about putting yourself down from a panic attack, but more than anything, you want to have the preventive measures. So you don't get to that point, because when you have a panic attack, it's zero to 100. And it's an unconscious, triggered response. The difference between an anxiety attack and a panic attack is an anxiety attack is brought on by your thinking, whereas a panic attack is an unconscious, triggered response.
Linzi:Okay, so well, it's the amygdala, isn't it? That's the driving this. So, but you mentioned about obviously move yourself out of the situation. There's lots and lots of times where panic attacks happen and you can't. For example, I remember having them on a train and there was just no, there's nowhere I could escape, so I'd have to stay sat in.
Chris:Yeah, you have jinsan tzitsu, where you can squeeze your thumb on your non-dominant hand. That's another aspect which will change your state. I think the best thing is to go to our website, rice ricevictorcom, and there's resources there for dealing with panic attacks.
Linzi:Um essentially, what we don't want to do is to allow the panic attack to take hold and make us feel worse in that situation, wanting to escape. So it's about actually realizing that there's nothing. You're not going crazy or you're not. There's nothing physically, Panic attacks are natural.
Chris:And often there's an association to a raised heart rate, there's an association to like having a heart attack or something bad with your heart. And of course, if you've had family history or had some exposures to someone who's had a stroke or had a heart condition or whatever, then there's more meaning, attachment placed to the, the aspect of heart, because sometimes it's the heart rate which is the focus of tension, sometimes it's the breathlessness, it may be the shallow breathing, sometimes it's pain in the chest. So we all look at the, the symptoms, in different ways, but ultimately it's the conditioning we have which determines what is our point of focus. Because there's two aspects to there's the, the physical sensations which we create, and the emotions we experience derived from the action of having a panic attack. Am I embarrassing myself? Am I humiliating myself in front of people who I care about? I don't want to have a panic attack on the train in front of other people, I don't want people to know what's happening, or in a presentation or a meeting. So it can be the fear of the primary fears. I don't want to make myself look weak or not able to do my job, more so than the actual feelings, the things which we experience, so it can be one of both of them. But there's one area of focus which is more than the other, because some people go I don't give a monkeys about anyone around me, I'm having a panic attack. But there's other people who have so much focus there's like I don't want people to think of me in a bad way or a lesser way. It's a loss of reputation. So it's different from every person really, but ultimately it's about being able to recondition your amygdala so it's not being triggered.
Chris:Many people when they have panic attacks frequently can bring on a panic attack by their thinking so something bad has happened in the past and they have an associate and may have panic attacks associated to those events. But then they may be catastrophizing future outcomes which haven't happened, which can bring on a panic attack even though it's never actually happened. So and it's really about rewiring the brain and rewiring, removing those, those insecurities, so that you can't trigger that response. Because I can remember, probably a few months back, I had a services engineer who was seeing four or five clients every day visiting their homes, and he'd have like 20 panic attacks a week and he got to the point where he could say here it comes again and and he could bring on a panic attack.
Chris:So what wires to get what fires together, wires together in the brain so he could? He could say, here it comes again and and he could bring on a panic attack. So what wires to get what fires together, wires together in the brain so he could? He could summon a panic attack just by saying here it comes again and he'd have a panic attack. So the brain is fires together what you're saying, at the same time to what you're experiencing and consequently you can inadvertently keep triggering yourself into panic attacks. But again, a lot of this is is really a discovery process which you go through to understand what is, what are the triggers, why am I? What is it? What elements are the particular?
Linzi:well, it's the cause, isn't it? Behind all of this, there's always a cause, an original encoding traumatic event, and we'll talk about in another episode what actually trauma is. Because we work, when we're working with our clients, we come from a place of. What's the trauma behind everything? Because these things, there's always something initially that's happened, and it could be last week, last year, 20, 30 years ago.
Chris:Yeah, you can have trauma which is laying dormant in the brain and then a triggering event brings it to the surface and then, from that point, you're having a power attack and having anxiety. So, yes, absolutely, you're having power attacks as a result of some traumatizing, high-stressful events which have happened in your life, and then your body said I've had enough of this.
Linzi:Highly stressful. If I think back to, for example, a five-year-old child at school being told to stand up and recite a poem and perhaps being laughed at or something by other children, or saying something wrong, or perhaps wetting themselves in front of the class, that will get encoded.
Chris:That could get encoded in the amygdala and that could stay with them. Yeah, public speaking fear that's one of the biggest fears. It's like you get humiliated and embarrassed in front of class.
Linzi:But again this is what I'm supposed to say. These are what we refer to as traumas Massive, huge, life-changing and it doesn't so, yeah, anyone listening to this. If you suffer panic attacks, go to our website because we have got the resources on there which will help you. There's some techniques to instantly put you in a calm, much more relaxed, resourceful state. So please do look at the website and follow those resources and tools, because they will help you yeah, and obviously we're.
Chris:We're putting stuff online, so self-paced, but also there's one-to-one book, a consultation call with either and then we can guide you through the process. But it is one of those things. Is that, like when people have panic attacks, often people think they're going mad as well and they're going crazy. So, again, it's it's all about understanding that when you have an event which is negative like that, we form a belief, and a belief is like a rule to define. We have good beliefs and we have bad beliefs and if we have a limiting belief, that there's something wrong with us.
Chris:A lot of times people think that they're the only person experiencing those thoughts, and the reality is is that you know the amount of conversations I've had with people and they've felt that they were unique in what was happening in their body because it wasn't written about on any websites or in a traditional guide. So they thought, okay, I must be going crazy, this is, I'm going to get locked up, and that in itself is creating further anxiety and fear. So it's always about the level of meaning attachment we place to having had the panic attack and what does it mean? And then they said we can fuel the fire, as it were, and keep it going until we break the pattern. And that's really about intervening and using the techniques which are rapid.
Chris:Most people's panic attacks when I've treated are stopped after the first session. So and that's often feels quite unbelievable for many people because they've gone through the mill with lots of therapies. But it's really understanding. If you directly target the amygdala, you are changing the amygdala responses at a chemical level, whereas most therapies are working at a cognitive level to try and get someone, which is a weaker level, where you really get down to the root of the issue and change it yeah, that is absolutely key when we're dealing with something like this.
Linzi:That is stems from the amdala, that part of the brain which is where our emotional hub, it stores all the emotions. It's a part of us that. That's where you need to target. So the therapies that deal sort of at a conscious level, where it's talking is not going to get under the bonnet. You've got to use therapies such as the Havening techniques and other similar psychosensory therapies that we're going to get under the bonnet and make those neurochemical changes in the brain. Because that's what we need. We need to release and let go and change the neurochemistry within the brain to make the difference. And that's why it's so fast. And that's why it's so fast. And unfortunately, society still has this belief that you have to have at least 12, 24 sessions of therapy before you can start to see the changes. Yeah, I mean long winded approach and counseling and yeah, it just became churning things up over and over again and not really having those life-changing well, counseling, talk, therapies.
Chris:It's like a roller coaster. You, you go to a session, get emotional, get upset and then go over everything and then you start to recover between the session and you anticipate the next session. You go to session, get all emotional, upset again and you're up, down, up, down, up, down, up down, whereas and a lot of times it's just how do we, how do we master anything? We? We do repetition. If you think about anything, we become good at it's repetition.
Chris:So when we're counseling, for example, there's there's a good aspect to actually getting something off your chest, talking about something and being more open. However, if you keep going over it and over it and over it and over it and over it and over it and over it, you're reinforcing the pathways in the brain. So, by consequences, you'll get to that emotional state faster and quicker and you're reinforcing it. So you're in a worse state. So you want to be able to use techniques where you can access something and then collapse it very quickly, where you don't have to repeatedly bring to mind whatever this thing that you're wanting to address. So, yeah, you're just putting yourself through lots of suffering, going through, and again, the issue is always about the evidence which is able to be presented.
Chris:We're in an environment where pharmaceutical companies can spend half a billion dollars on a study for a drug and say here's our proof, our drugs wonderful. And they know that they'll get 25, 30-year contracts with governments around the world to supply that drug Now, any time anything new kid on the block comes along, they don't have the resources of a pharmaceutical company. Only people can afford empirical evidence are the pharmaceutical companies, because they've made it so stringent, so strict, so controlled that and and how it can be validated that no one can afford to do it, so only the pharmacies. So consequently, these new things and there's plenty of really good therapies out there don't get looking because it's been hampered by the viewpoint and because of control from pharmaceutical companies. That's my rant for today.
Linzi:Good point, well made. So anything else you want to mention about panic attacks, chris, that we haven't already mentioned?
Chris:Yeah, I mean, don't give up, there's plenty of there. You can be free from panic attacks Now ultimately. Ultimately, it's really about breaking down the past stuff. Just dealing with a panic attack itself is not just the situation. You need to go upstream to the reasons why you got to that point and clear that trauma. Until you, until you do that you'll, you can have recurring panic attacks coming back. And just understand is that if you have treatment for panic attacks and you have resolution to that time, the therapist is not in control of what activities or actions happen in your life. So if you have a hectic life because of the way you live your life or because of life events have happened, then again panic attacks can happen in the future.
Chris:I mean, if you think about the pandemic, the amount of people we now know that people who unfortunately passed or more susceptible, more risk, were overweight and had bad health. So why is it we're not all healthy individuals now? Why is it we're not all fit and slimmer? Because threat's gone, we go. It's not important now, so it's all about once you get your panic attacks under control.
Chris:It's like making lifestyle changes either reducing your workload, changing relationships, moving, whatever it may be, but it's not a case of you can't keep. There's something which has made it the reason for you to have panic attacks and you need to clear that and go. Okay. What can I do preventively in my life? Because if you go to the gym and you get a six-pack that took you a while to get that six-pack for the starters and then you've got to maintain it you go. Okay, I'm done now I'll leave it. But the problem is with mental health is that people don't spend enough time for actually putting in a routine that you go to the gym, you might do exercise classes, you might cycle, you might run, you might swim or whatever, but what actually is actually done for mental health?
Linzi:very little, and it's like we, when we're young, we get, have teeth, our teeth grow, we brush our teeth and we brush our teeth twice a day, every day, for the rest of our lives and then in between, we will visit our dentist. And it's the same with our mental well-being, our emotions. We need to actually build in daily routines and do things to ensure that we're keeping that resilience, that good health for our emotions and our brain. And the brain is an organ. You need to keep it functioning. And you're right, as I said, I had panic attacks years and years ago.
Linzi:Then obviously didn't have them, they stopped. And then, when my brother passed in 2020 to suicide, I remember about three months, four months later, popping to M&S and, in the car, suddenly just had, out of the blue, a panic attack, and all I was doing is in the car, just about to go into M&S, and thinking, well, that's a bit random, but at the time, a really traumatic, life-changing event, and that's it. It's not a case of oh no, my therapy didn't work. My panic attacks are still here. I've just been through something really traumatic, so of course, I'm going to be. My brain is vulnerable and more susceptible and therefore, yeah, I needed to take even more care of my well-being and myself, and I'm luckily, I'm fortunate enough to know how to deal with panic attacks, so it's one of those things that we really need to make people more aware of.
Chris:Going back to one of the episodes about childhood and mobile phones, we're talking young kids having panic attacks in classrooms or at school and it's scary enough as an adult, but as a child- child.
Chris:That is terrifying a child child often are very much more difficult to work with because they they they're afraid of their thoughts and they're afraid of what people may think. So it's a harder process to help a child to overcome what's happened to them. Fortunately, the techniques we use mean that we don't need to know the intricate details. But ultimately it's all environmental, it's habitual actions and environmental, and just understand that we're one big chemistry set and it's the chemistry and the chemical makeup what we get in our bodies determines if we're going to be susceptible or vulnerable to, for anxiety and power attacks.
Chris:If you think about your body's as a, as a chemistry set, you've got five key areas of influence to your body. You have the external environment you live in. Now obviously we're in the uk, so we're in a safe environment in most contexts. But we obviously depending on country you're in and whatever unrest or whatever. So we have first our external environment and again, depending on what country you're in and whatever unrest or whatever. So we have first our external environment and again, depending on our relationships and our family settings, whatever. Then we have what we ingest in our body into foods, then what we ingest in our body through fluids, then we have the internal environment we create in our head for our thinking. And then last we have are the drugs we take, recreational or prescribed.
Chris:Those are the five key areas which are influencing your chemical makeup in your body and it's recognizing like diet comes into it. What you drink comes into it. The environment if you're in a unsafe environment and you have abusive members of family, your amygdala is going to be triggered and have trauma associated to safety and well-being. So consequently, you can get triggered because you had a tough upbringing. So there's lots of conditioning events and it's just being mindful and being aware that it's not just approaching one area when we're looking to recover from having panic attacks. It's looking at all the aspects of it and where can you improve absolutely.
Linzi:Yeah, that's really good way of describing it. Okay, else, on panic attacks no, well, certainly.
Chris:If you like to learn more and have a consultation with myself or lindsay, then we can go to lindsaymeadencom, chrismeadencom, the meadencliniccom or rightbittercom how many websites do we have? And again we're online for the panic attacks series as well, so yeah do go to the website.
Linzi:If you need some resources, you need some help, reach out to us. We're here to help and really hope that today's topic you've learned some things that you didn't know of, didn't know about and yeah, it's I'm sure I missed a few things as well.
Chris:It's become so normal to deal with pan attacks on a day-to-day basis for myself, but ultimately, if you have questions, then then get in touch and we'll be happy.
Linzi:Yeah please do just just drop us a line anytime with any questions and any topics. Future topics for future episodes. We are always interested to hear what you want to hear about and what you want to learn. So thank you, chris. It's been a really interesting topic and I look forward to the next episode absolutely okay, so bye for now.
