Why Panic Starts—And How to Control It

The amygdala continuously monitors what is going on. When it senses anything associated with danger - real or imaginary - it releases stress hormones. The stress hormones do two things.

1. They activate the sympathetic nervous system (SNS). The SNS increases our heart rate and breathing rate, and in other ways prepares us for action.
2. They cause a feeling of alarm that forces us to focus on what the amygdala is reacting to.

Continued Alarm Leads To Panic

Once alarm has focused our attention on what the amygdala regards as a threat, alarm's job is done. Now we need to determine what this is all about.

• Is there danger?
• Is this a false alarm?

To be sure, we need to use our high-level thinking. But by flooding our mind and controlling our focus, alarm has made it impossible for our high-level thinking to work. To remedy this situation, we need our parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) to activate, override the effects of stress hormones on our mind, shut alarm down, and allow our high-level thinking to operate. Otherwise, we may panic.

The Processes That Activate The PNS Require Development

At birth we have the psychological processes needed to activate our SNS, but not our PNS. In other words, we could get alarmed on our own, but not calm down on our own. So early in life, we had to depend on others to activate our PNS with their loving face, soothing voice, and gentle touch.

• If caregivers respond consistently enough, a young child learns to expect, that when alarmed, it will be responded to. It will be calmed by seeing a caregiver's face, hearing their voice, and being held. This expectation, if reinforced, develops into a program that activates the PNS when alarm takes place. A well-developed program ends the alarm so quickly that the person may be unaware of it.
• If caregivers do not respond consistently enough, the child does not expect to be calmed. Thus, no program develops to activate its PNS.

When There Is No Program To Activate The PNS

If a person has no program to activate their PNS, they may compensate by:

1. Clinging to someone whose presence activates their PNS.
2. Trying to control everything to keep upsetting things from happening.
3. Avoiding - or leaving - situations they cannot control.
4. Always having an immediate way to escape.
5. Pretending they control what happens. The illusion of control reduces anxiety.

Panic Initiated By A Thought

In an elevator, the thought of getting stuck - an imaginary threat - releases stress hormones. The person feels alarmed. If the PNS does not activate, alarm continues until the stress hormones burn off, which takes about 90 seconds. During that time, high-level thinking incapacitation allows imaginary threats to be experienced as real. Continued alarm can make it seem that there must be something wrong. If the elevator door does not open before distress becomes intolerable, panic takes place.

Panic Initiated By A Physical Sensation

In an airliner, a person who cannot activate their PNS may tolerate the situation if the flight is smooth and they can pretend they are somewhere else, such as on a beach. But if there is turbulence, the amygdala reacts to downward movements that feel like falling. Stress hormones are released that force the person to focus on what the amygdala is reacting to: the movements that feel like falling. Imagination of being on a beach is replaced with imagination of falling out of the sky. With high-level thinking impaired by alarm, imagination of the plane falling out of the sky is experienced as actually happening. As more downward movements release more stress hormones, stress hormone levels build up. If hyper-arousal becomes intolerable, since there is no way to escape, panic. develops.

How Panic Is Controlled

Panic is controlled by establishing the psychological processes needed to automatically activate the parasympathetic nervous system when alarm takes place. By instantly dismissing alarm, these processes allow high-level thinking to deal with the imaginary threats that might lead to panic. Click here if you would like to read more about establishing these protective processes.