A panic attack is one of the most terrifying things you can ever experience. Pounding heart, shortness of breath, sweating, dizziness, hot or cold flushes, pressure on your chest, and feeling unreal, are some of the bodily sensations that hit you out of the blue. To make things worse are your catastrophic thoughts: "I'm having a heart attack!", "I'm losing my mind!", or "I can't breathe!".

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy tells us that you feel the way you think. However, during a panic attack your mind mistakenly interpret harmless bodily sensations as life threatening. Your panicky thoughts trigger a fight-or-flight response in your body causing your heart to pound even harder. This confirms to your already alarmed mind, that something is very wrong. This vicious cycle spins out of control in a matter of seconds, and only when you engage in your safety behaviors, do you start to calm down.

The terror is sufficient to send you to the local ER, only to be told that there is nothing wrong and that you should see a therapist. The good news is that panic disorder is easily and successfully treated using empirically supported Cognitive-Behavioral therapy. Read more...

"Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less."  (Marie Curie, 1867 - 1934)

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