Specialist Psychologist Alptekin Aydin offers a combination of TMS Treatment Transcranial magnetic stimulation & talking Therapy at his London/Southgate Clinic for a life without any fears and panic attack!

What is a panic attack? How is the patient during a panic attack?

Panic attack is an illness that occurs in the form of seizures, involving feelings of anxiety, fear, and distress (such as fear of death). The patient is in complete fear during a sudden seizure. they think that they will die, that there may be a problem in their heart or that they will have a heart attack. The attack takes its most severe form within 10 minutes. They may think they will faint or very bad things will happen. After half an hour, the attack begins to pass. The person feels very tired and exhausted. They do not want to do anything and at the same time they do not want to be alone. They Feel safer with someone.

Causes of Panic Attack

Panic attack is a psychological disorder and of course can be caused by both biological and psychological reasons. It is possible to treat this disease effectively.

People who have panic attacks start to wait, fearing when a new wave of panic attacks will come and hit them after a while. This is called "anticipation anxiety". Most of the people become unable to do their job because of this anxiety. They do not want to go to certain places, they are afraid of encountering certain situations.

Anxiety of anticipation may cause some patients to develop a fear of going out to open spaces and squares that we call agoraphobia. We encounter very serious cases that are examples of this. We have patients who have not left their homes for six months or a year. Because the patient is worried that the attack will occur as soon as they leave the house.

"What if sudden palpitations in the crowd, breathlessness, anxiety leave me in a very difficult situation? What if there is no one there to ask for help? What do I do alone? What if I die? What if I die? What if I have a stroke? What if I go crazy? What if I have a heart attack?" Fears like panic attacks do not always destroy people who are bothered by them. Therefore, the patient's range of motion is gradually restricted.

We said panic attacks peak and pass in ten minutes, but it may not always be the case. So some attacks can last a few hours. Therefore, when a panic attack comes, the patient should be aware of the dos and don'ts.

Things to Do During Panic Attack

The person should try to continue whatever he / she was doing at that moment, without feeling an extreme sense of disaster or excessive anxiety. That is, they must not surrender to the fear they are experiencing, so that they are not taken over by fear. Because panic attack is fears of fear. The person thinks that the intense anxiety they are experiencing will occupy themselves completely.

At the time of a panic attack, the patient feels a complete disaster perception. It feels as if the worst thing in the world is going to happen to him. If we can change this disaster perception, we can prevent panic attacks.

Someone who has a panic attack begins to interpret the sensations they receive from their body at that time. If there is a tingling sensation in their body or a slight acceleration in their heartbeat, they immediately focus their attention on that part of their body, and as a result of focusing, they feel as if they are feeling a really terrible, very serious discomfort. However, if they focus their mind on any bodily sensation, such as aching head or itchy back, we notice that pain or itching increases with focus.

When the attack seems to come, the person should think like this: "I wonder if the feeling of tingling in my body can be evaluated in other ways? If someone else felt a tingling like this, would they be worried like me? Will this symptom always stay here or will it completely disappear after an hour? Some people think I am exaggerating ? " So if a person looks at themselves a little critical and can see the mistakes in their thoughts, they can eliminate the fear of panic attacks.

The thing that should not be done during an attack is; is avoidance behavior. If any situation gives you a feeling of panic attack, that is, when you get on the ferry, your heart starts to beat fast and you think that you will go into a panic attack, you should never avoid getting on the ferry.

What are the symptoms of a panic attack?

There are 13 symptoms of panic attack. If there are at least 4 of them, it is more likely to have panic attacks.

  •         Palpitations, heart beating hard and throbbing,

  •         Sweating (flushing, chills),

  •         Shake,

  •         Difficulty in breathing, fear of choking, choking,

  •         Dizziness, don't think you will faint,

  •         Nausea, belching, abdominal pain,

  •         Being out of breath, thinking that the air you breathe is not enough, taking a deep breath,

  •         Chest tightness, pain,

  •         Inability to feel oneself, self-alienation, difficulty in perception (depersonalization),

  •         Thinking that the environment is not real (derealization),

  •         To be afraid of dying

  •         Thinking that you will go crazy, fear of hurting someone else,

  •         Numbness and tingling in the body.

How is panic attack treatment?

First of all, examinations and tests are performed and it is investigated whether there is any cardiovascular or respiratory disease. However, the presence of these diseases does not indicate that there is no panic attack. Panic attacks can also happen with these. The aim of the treatment is to eliminate the panic attack, to control the anxiety and fear feelings of the patient, to make them social and to prevent the psychological problems that occur as a result of this disease. For this, therapy should be applied to the patient in addition to drug therapy. If it is necessary to relax the patient, it may be necessary to exercise.

Nowadays most of the panic attack and anxiety treatment starts with antidepressant treatment. Most of our GP’s offer this as soon as they hear about the symptoms. But in most cases antidepressant would not help and solve the issue, they may reduce the symptoms but actual problems never go away. With the TMS treatment, we will have a chance to activate the neurons we need. This will stop the fears, reduce the panic attack symptoms and with the help of talking therapy we will quickly learn what to do. For the last years Specialist Psychologist Alptekin Aydin treated over 1000 Panic attack disorder patients successfully. After the Covid19 pandemic, he contacted most of his patients to check their symptoms whether the pandemic has triggered or not. Good news is, none of his patients who has treated with TMS & talking therapy had any fears or discomfort when the pandemic started.

Currently

By examining the emotional, conscious and behavioral dimensions of the panic attack experienced in a short time with CBT Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, that is, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, we will examine the cause-effect relationship, positive and negative aspects of the situation comparatively. Our aim; It is to reach the result by making a short journey that we will pass through the stages of awareness, understanding and learning together.

In the later stages; These experiences learned with the CBT method will make great contributions to your personal development by easily applying and solving the problems you will encounter in different events of your life.

Aydin has over twenty years of experience working in this field and is an alumnus of King’s College London, a member of British Psychological Society (MBPsS), Advanced Practitioner Member of The Federation of Drug & Alcohol Professions (FDAP- APM) Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) practitioner & Bioresonance Therapy Practitioner.  TMS treatment was approved by NICE in 2015 for treating depression; yet as a new treatment, it is not widely available in the UK, with just a few NHS trusts and a handful of private clinics offering the service. Mr. Aydin is currently working on Panic attack and anxiety mobile app to help wider people all over the world to benefit from his experience through the latest technology.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 18, 2021 10:14 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).