What causes panic attacks in your life? Everyone’s got an opinion, but here’s what I discovered to be the source of panic in my life. Because when you know the causes, it’s just that much easier to end your panic attacks.
Where does it start? I’ve recognized three different energies that come together to then create a fourth energy and it’s this fourth cause which keeps the panic in place. This fourth factor I consider to be the main cause of panic attacks.
1. Experiencing Shame As A Child
For a lot of people, childhood was an unpleasant experience because of the shame dumped onto them by their parents or other grownups. They learn at a young age that the world is a dangerous and scary place.
When you’re young and small and helpless, and those massive figures referred to as ‘adults’ dump their own shame on your back, it’s going to cause you to feel fear. Maybe even a lot of fear.
So does that mean shame will always lead to panic? No. Shame may take many different directions and involve many different manifestations. Certainly there will always be fear with shame, but that doesn’t mean there has to be panic attacks.
To look at it another way, does panic always begin from shame? Probably. I couldn’t imagine someone dealing with panic attacks when they had no problem with shame earlier in life.
I know I started out with a foundation of shame. Therefore, I lacked security in my life. When you are immersed with shame, you can’t ever feel secure. Shame robs you of your security. Which will tend to create fear. This forms the foundation for future panic attacks.
2. Stuffing Down The Fear
I came to understand at a young age that it’s not socially acceptable to admit you feel fear. You’re supposed to hide your fear. Be a brave little boy or girl. I was conditioned to stuff down my fears. “Don’t be afraid”.
But I am afraid! I’m so small and the world is so big. Situations that grown-ups can slough off seem overwhelming to me. I’m much too young to realize what’s going on. I don’t know how things work. There’s too much unknown. And therefore the fear increases.
Childhood is frightening, but I want to avoid feeling the fear! Therefore, I cram as much of my fear as possible down into my shadow. Unfortunately, at some point I’m going to have to come to terms with that fear.
I can either go to my shadow directly and release it there, or else it will come at me in the world.
I can only keep the fear repressed for so long. At some point, it will manifest. I’ll create situations that terrify me. Or maybe the fear will just come out of nowhere.
And through it all, the shadow just does the job it was meant to do. It keeps all the stuff I don’t want to deal with. It keeps all the power and emotion safe for me, and then gives it all back to me later in life. Unfortunately, it seems like a land mine when it happens.
Anyway, this stands as the number two factor that leads to panic attacks; when all the fear that’s been stuffed down into the shadow now becomes conscious.
3. Creating Fear Stories
Fear stories exist as an attempt to conceptualize the fear. Rather than just feeling our fears and releasing them, instead we get stuck by rationalizing the fears.
The fear stories are all the logical and rational reasons why I really should be scared. “Don’t you understand? It’s not just in my imagination. I have to be scared – because I really could have that dreaded disease.”
But the thing is, you may really have a legitimate reason to be worried. Please understand I am not saying to just ignore the story totally. Instead I’m saying to carefully look at it. Just don’t follow it blindly.
Listen, if you see a wolf at the door, then you better deal with it! But is the wolf really there? That’s what you need to ask yourself. That’s where evaluation and discernment and feeling and thinking become necessary. Most of the time the wolf is not really there. Or more clearly stated, I am the wolf I fear.
Regardless, you need to set the story down and just feel the fear. Because even when there really is a threat, creating a fear story is not going to make the threat disappear.
And this may be one of the biggest fear stories:
“There’s got to be something wrong or else I wouldn’t be experiencing all this fear.”
The fear story is like being trapped. You become stuck in fear. It doesn’t end. It can end up wearing you down. Plus it’s so, so easy to rationalize the fear. You start managing fear instead of feeling fear. Or trying to manage it, more likely.
You try to think your way out of feeling. Which can’t end well. Panic is basically a fear story that’s gotten way out of hand.
Up till now we’ve covered shame, repressed emotion, and fear stories that come together to cause panic attacks. But there’s more. There’s a glue that holds it all together.
4. The ‘Panicked’ Me
That glue is – quite literally – a part of your consciousness. The ’scared me’ or the ‘panicked me’ or whatever other label you want to stick on it. A part of your consciousness ‘breaks off’ and forms this entity who’s scared out of his (or her) mind.
The ‘Freaked-Out Me’ – The Ultimate Cause of Panic Attacks
And it’s this part of you that keeps cranking out those fear stories. While simultaneously trying to stuff down the fear, so it has to blow up in your face. And it’s the aspect of you which refuses to deal with that scary childhood.
But when you meet this part of you face-to-face, you can come to peace with it and take your power back from it. To get started, simply go to this page on the causes of panic attacks. It shows you exactly how to meet and then heal this part of you that’s creating so much pain and suffering in your life.
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