Runaway Thoughts and Panic Attacks

Jill suffered a devastating anxiety attack.  She had been depressed for months over her upcoming fiftieth birthday.  Instead of being a celebration of a half-century of life, Jill dreaded the date.  She forbade her family from making “a fuss.”  She refused to go out with friends as the date approached.  She was emotionally distant and began to complain of a variety of physical ailments.  Instead of engaging in social events and her normal routine of volunteering, Jill spent months going from doctor to doctor, unable to find out why she was feeling so bad.  The weekend after she wound up in the emergency room at our local hospital, Jill called to see a counselor. 

Together they worked on the reasons for her depression and subsequent anxiety attack.  During their time together, the counselor noticed that Jill talked a great deal, almost nonstop.  Once she got started on a topic, Jill would keep right on going.  One thought led to another, and another, and another.  Often, the thought three or four steps down the pattern helped contribute to Jill’s depression and anxiety attack.

Jill was concerned about turning fifty.  She thought about all of the conditions and health problems she’d heard about in those over fifty, from cancer, osteoporosis, and menopause to Alzheimer’s.  As she dreaded her approaching birthday, she convinced herself that being fifty automatically meant a loss of health and vitality.  On the night of her panic attack, the spiral of her thoughts led her to believe that common indigestion was actually a heart attack.  The more she worried, the more adrenaline surged through her system and the faster her heart raced. 

The faster her heart beat, the more she was aware of it.  It seems abnormally fast and beating erratically.  Jill remembered hearing a radio commercial about the signs of a heart attack, and sure enough, she suddenly found herself experiencing each one: rapid, erratic heart rate; shortness of breath; lightheadedness; tingling in her extremities.  These symptoms, of course, are also present during anxiety or panic attacks.

The humiliation of creating such a crisis in her family caused her to worry she was losing control over her mental processes.  This fear of losing mental control prompted her to come in for counseling, something she had never considered in the past.  Her counselor coached Jill to “slow down” and practice thought containment. 

Many times, emotional depression and its companion, anxiety, can be brought under control when the depressed person learns to contain his or her thoughts without letting them escalate into predetermined catastrophes.  Jill had convinced herself that her fiftieth birthday would bring nothing but problems, so it did. 

It is part of the human condition that negative thoughts seem to flow easier than logical and more positive ones.  An overactive brain can take a small incident and inflate it into a major crisis.  If this pattern is repeated often enough, the person becomes swept away in this mental torrent, unable to find the footholds needed to return to solid ground of common sense and reality.  When the flow of thoughts slows down, the person is able to better realize the truth and maintain a grip on the probabilities. 

If a person is naturally pessimistic, inclined toward runaway thoughts, depression is often the result.  The person who feels powerless to control his thoughts assumes that the worst that can happen soon will.  This focus on disaster does not allow the person to keep optimism, hope, or joy in his sights for very long, if at all.  Negative self-talk and the grim atmosphere of a foul mood fuel this fatalistic mental spiral. 

If you or a loved one is struggling with panic attacks as a result of depression or fear, The Center • A Place of HOPE is here to help.  Call 1-888-771-5166 / 425-771-5166 or fill out our contact form and someone will be in touch with you soon.