inhibits the release of stress hormones to prioritize the child’s needs for nourishment. Suppose a new mother is nursing her child when she gets a call that relatives are on the way over to see the new baby. The house is a mess. Will the relatives understand it is impossible to keep up with housework when there is a new baby? Or will they criticize her? If the mother becomes anxious about their visit, she might stop nursing and clean the house. The baby would not get proper nourishment. Nature takes care of that problem. Though things that need to be done come to mind, oxytocin prevents the release of stress hormones so that she feels no anxiety to stop nursing and prepare for the arrival of the relatives.
Since I stumbled on this discovery, I’ve been able to help several thousand formerly anxious fliers control panic by linking flying to one or more of the ways nature causes us to produce oxytocin. This is an amazing result, because no environment is more problematic for panic sufferers than being high above the earth, with no control of the situation and no means of escaping it. It’s easy for them to persuade themselves that their fear is rational. After all, planes do crash. Turbulence can make a plane shake so hard that it may feel as though it’s about to fall out of the sky.
This special panic-inducing environment became the lab in which my clients and I developed advanced methods to control panic. The oxytocin link was only the first discovery. I knew that redirecting thoughts about flying to memories of getting engaged or saying wedding vows could be effective in controlling anxiety, but why? It is because in these special moments, the brain and the body are signaled to override the effects of stress hormones. This gave us two ways to control fear, panic, and claustrophobia. The first prevents the release of stress hormones; the second overrides their effects. We will be exploring both methods in this book.
A bonus of this discovery was that as my clients succeeded at controlling their fear of flying, they also succeeded at controlling panic attacks on the ground — triggered by environments like bridges, tunnels, elevators, and MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) machines.
In parts 1 through 3 of this book, I first explain the physiological and psychological mechanisms that lead to panic. Then, in part 4, I lead you step by step through a ten-day program to establish automatic control of panic. In ten days, you can learn to put behind you the frustration, the worry, and the distress of panic and claustrophobia, in the air and on the ground.
Before You Start
Before embarking on the ten-day program, you must confirm that what you are dealing with really is panic and not an underlying medical condition.
Though symptoms of panic vary from person to person, the following symptoms are common:
• Palpitations, pounding heart, or accelerated heart rate
• Sweating
• Trembling or shaking
• Sensations of shortness of breath or suffocation
• Feelings of choking
• Chest pain or discomfort
• Nausea or abdominal distress
• Feeling dizzy, unsteady, light-headed, or faint
• Chills or hot flushes
• Numbness or tingling sensations (paresthesia)
• Feelings of unreality (derealization)
• Feelings of being detached from oneself (depersonalization)
• Fear of losing control or going crazy
• Fear of dying
Some of these symptoms, however, are also associated with other disorders. You need to discuss your symptoms with a physician to rule these out. And even if you have already talked them over with your doctor, it’s a good idea to review your symptoms and any changes at your yearly physical examination.
CHAPTER 2
The Panic-Proof Part of Your Brain
Jan, an emergency room nurse, emailed the following:
In training, I was taught about dozens and dozens of situations. For everything that could happen, there was a plan. My instructor said, “If this happens, you do that, and if you see this going on, you have to fix it this way.” The number of things I had to know how to react to was overwhelming. Even after we practiced responding to each situation again and again, I really doubted I could do the job. But I was surprised. Even the first day in the ER, what I had practiced kicked in.
You would think that a person who can operate as an ER nurse could handle anything. And, in general, I’m fine. But put me in a place where I can’t get out, and I panic. I’ve done therapy to get rid of it, but nothing worked until I did this [the SOAR Fear of Flying Program].
It is said that first responders and emergency medical professionals do not “rise to the occasion” in life-and-death situations: rather, they “descend to the level of their training.” Why? In life-threatening situations, the release of stress hormones can impede their high-level thinking. To function under extreme stress, they depend on a part of the brain that is immune to stress hormones: the unconscious procedural memory in the subcortex. In training, they repeatedly perform the various procedures they will need to carry out when under stress, installing every step of these procedures in this part of the brain so that they can perform them without having to depend on high-level thinking.
Though the concept of unconscious procedural memory may be new to you, if you are an experienced driver, you have been using it for years. You can drive and think of other things at the same time.
How did your unconscious procedural memory learn to drive a car? When you were a new driver, you focused your conscious mind (in the cerebral cortex) on the task. While you were doing this, your unconscious procedural memory (in the subcortex) was memorizing what you were doing. It learned to steer the car and keep the speed steady. Unconscious procedural memory can’t make decisions, though. For example, it can’t decide what freeway exit to take. If your mind is elsewhere as you near your exit, you may go right past it on “mental autopilot.”
When you are alarmed or highly aroused, stress hormones are released, and your conscious mind, in the cortex, is overwhelmed. That is when panic can arise. But unconscious procedural memory, in the subcortex, is not bothered by stress hormones. Not only can it perform well-rehearsed mechanical tasks, but, if it is trained to do so, it can automatically activate your calming system, the parasympathetic nervous system.
In this ten-day program, you’ll train your unconscious procedural memory to serve as your personal panic-controlling first responder. In the high-stress situations that now cause you to panic, it will step in and protect you.
Situational Control of Panic and Claustrophobia
