Table of Contents
Panic and Autonomic Nervous System
What is the relationship between tiredness and panic attacks? Do tired people get more panic attacks?
However, the above list is just the primary criteria for handling the stressors. Once the body starts the stress response system, the body has to overact. Your body must have the ability to take this overactivity. If you are already tired of handling stress for a very long period, even with a good stress response system, the body’s ability to respond to stress reduces. When the brain realizes that it knows how to respond to stress but doesn’t have the energy to respond to stress, the brain panics(that is, overreacts to the situation).
What is the relationship between the sympathetic overdrive of the autonomic nervous system and stress and panic?
When the HPA axis releases cortisol, our body shifts to the sympathetic mode of the autonomic nervous system; as the stress subsidizes, the rest and parasympathetic recovery system get activated. Therefore, when our body gets proper rest and recovers well after a stressful situation, our brain knows that it has successfully solved the stressor.
However, if we do not get proper sleep and rest, our brain cannot know that it successfully solved the stressor, and it remains confused and sometimes panics in similar situations.
Hi Rupam da,
This is a great article packed with valuable information.
If someone is suffering from memory functioning not properly and that in turn causes panic, is that something curable? E.g., in a sudden actionable situation his/her memory doesn’t trigger in time to resolve the situation, and instead panic occurs. So, no action is taken and a disastrous situation is imminent, in turn, that causes more panic.
Dear Subhajit, thanks for your comment and for posting the query.
1. Panic is a reaction of the brain. Brain panics when it considers a situation threatful.
2. In my case, I am severely dyslexic. I can’t make sense of spellings, and because of severe brain information overload, often tend to forget small things when I try to remember them. It happens all the time.
3. When I forget and fail to recollect information, it becomes frustrating sometimes, and such frustration may irritate me.
4. Such forgetfulness is limited to forgetting memory and may result in carelessness and diversion of focus from our actions. For instance, over the past few weeks, several times, I have forgotten to turn off the gas after making tea, resulting in burning the utensil.
5. Such incidents resulted in kind of fear and over-alertness whenever I went near the stove.
So, I can completely understand and comprehend your question. Here is how I have dealt with the situation.
i) When such forgetfulness occurs, note down the incidents.
ii) This convinces the brain that you are not worried or frustrated about the situation but taking them as an opportunity to learn why they are happening.
iii) When you are not occupied, open the notes of all the situations and think deeply from the last evening of the day of the event till the evening of the day of the event about every incident.
iv) You will invariably notice that the forgetfulness is a result of poor sleep, relationship conflict, someone triggering you already in the last two days, or suppressed anger.
v) Now, when you correlate multiple such incidents, you will see similar patterns.
vi) Write down this pattern as “Cause of Forgetfulness.”
vii) Next time a similar event happens, just open your notes of the causation section and check if the events and patterns are the same as what you have discovered.
viii) After pattern matching, you will see that you are no more panicking. Now your brain will device strategies to overcome or avoid those patterns.
Final Thought:-
Panic is a phenomenon of the afraid subconscious brain. Whenever panic situations are appearing in life, bring them into your conscious brain and analyze them. Helps you overcome panic attacks.