Panic Attacks at Christmas

If you struggle with panic attacks at Christmas then it can turn what should be a time of joy into one of despair and anguish. Anxiety and panic attacks can increase at Christmas, yet it is possible to regain control and feel calmer.

Christmas can be the time when your panic attacks suddenly appear, or they return after a period of calm. Perhaps seemingly out of the blue, you feel that rush of adrenaline, your heart pounds, you start shaking and the panic attack hits you. Your mind races, you’re filled with fear and you don’t know what to do with yourself.

Once you start experiencing panic attacks at Christmas, you start to worry and stress about when the next one will strike. You worry before events or about being embarrassed in front of others. You can easily fall into a spiral of feeling anxious about the possibility of having another overwhelming panic attack.

Anxiety can feel more intense in December. You feel a tightness in your chest, your sleep is more broken and your thoughts can race ahead to worst case scenarios. The festive season can place a huge strain on your nervous system. Panic attacks are like your mind and body saying it has all become too much. Even worse, you feel bad because you should be enjoying yourself at Christmas and you may worry about ruining things for others.

Panic attacks often follow a period of increased stress and a build up of anxiety. Just when things seem to settle, you experience a panic attack and it knocks you. Panic attacks are not dangerous, you are designed to be able to respond this way in the face of actual danger. However, they are disorientating, upsetting and frightening when they hit you. You know there is no reason for them, yet the anxiety and dread rumble on and it feels as if another panic attacks could happen at any time.

Regardless of whether you have had one or several panic attacks at Christmas, and regardless of whether you have ever or have never had them before, it is possible to feel calmer and regain control.

Why Panic Attacks Often Increase at Christmas

Sometimes it can feel like your panic attacks started out of the blue. You may struggle with anxiety anyway but this can feel like a whole new scary level. Panic attacks at Christmas, or at any time, unsettle you and leave you dreading another occurrence.

Yet panic attacks don’t come out of nowhere. Sometimes there is an obvious trigger because of something major that has happened. Yet more often, a build up of stress and anxiety pushes your nervous system into overload. There is so much stress and anxiety that your brain incorrectly assumes there must be a threat. It can be a whole number of cumulative smaller things that finally trip you into panic attacks. On their own each would have been manageable, but bit by bit and thing by thing they increase your stress and anxiety levels.

Confusingly for many people, panic attacks often happen after the stressful things are over, sometimes many weeks later. Just when it seems everything is returning to calm, you have a panic attack.

This is particularly true at Christmas where there are weeks in the lead up of busyness, stress, rushing around, challenges and demands. Just when it seems to be all done, you enter a period of calmness and peace only to have a panic attack. December is full of anxiety and stress triggers that quietly build up pressure:

• Over-stimulation and Exhaustion: Busy schedules, late nights, noisy environments, long shopping trips, social events and broken routines all overload you. You struggle to get enough rest and you get festive burnout and fatigue (more on this: Festive Overwhelm).
• Alcohol, Sugar and Disrupted Sleep: Alcohol lowers mood, affects sleep and places a strain on your body. Sugar causes spikes and dips. Caffeine replicates the stress response and can exacerbate anxiety. Disrupted sleep leads to tiredness and night time anxiety and overthinking. All of these things can increase anxiety sensitivity, making panic attacks more likely and more intense (and see: December Sleep Anxiety).
• Emotional Triggers and Family Dynamics: Seeing certain people, returning to old roles and places and being reminded of past experiences can trigger emotional responses that bring on a panic attack
• Pressure to Enjoy Yourself: There is often a pressure to feel happy at Christmas and this, along with all the other seasonal pressures, can create stress and anxiety. When you don’t feel fine, you can worry there is something wrong with you and that fuels panic even more (if social anxiety creates anxiety for you, have a read here: Holiday Social Anxiety).

Christmas Panic Attacks

A panic attack is your body’s fight or flight response kicking in. Your heart races, breathing changes, you may feel dizzy, detached, shaky or convinced something terrible is about to happen. It feels disorientating and overwhelming.

You are designed to respond in this way when faced with an actual external danger. You want oxygen and adrenaline quickly directed to your muscles so that you can take survival action. Your survival system fires off when it isn’t needed. You are medically safe but it may not feel like it in the storm of panic. The sensations of panic scare you and that adds to the anxiety. Fear comes from how real and unpleasant the sensations feel rather than from actual life or death danger.

After your first panic attack, you dread it happening again. You can have fear of the symptoms and a fear of it happening again. Even more worryingly, your brain works on patterns so in other similar situations, you can also start to have panic attacks. They can start to spread and increase.

Some people start to hyper monitor their body for signs of impending panic. Feeling too hot, enclosed, in busy places and crowds and a host of other situations can make you feel uncomfortable and that you need to escape. You may also try to desperately control the sensations, creating inner stress and pressure. The more you try to fight panic, the stronger it usually becomes.

Christmas panic attacks often create a vicious cycle. One panic attack happens unexpectedly. It throws you and you start to fear the next one. Your body becomes hyper-alert, sleep worsens, avoidance increases, confidence drops and panic becomes more frequent.

What would usually be an enjoyable season becomes something frightening and that feels out of control.

Hypnotherapy for Panic Attacks in Ely, Newmarket, Online

Hypnotherapy for panic attacks can help you to break the pattern. You change your responses so that panic becomes less frequent and less common. and, if you do start to notice anxiety and panic then we equip you to be able to cut it off and bring it down quickly and effectively.

Logic and reassurance often no assistance during panic. Your brain switches off your ability to think and reason because it perceives danger and you need to act. That’s why we need to prime your mind, using psychological processes, to tag situations as safe again.

Hypnotherapy helps you to calm automatic fear responses, relax physical sensations, interrupt thought spirals and to ease emotional triggers. You learn how to feel calm, confident and in control again.

My clients start to experience fewer panic attacks and then they fizzle out altogether. They relax about bodily sensations so that they can calm feelings or they find that they don’t arise anymore. They start to enjoy life again, feel happy and get on with the things they want to do. And, importantly, they learn how their mind and body work and how to influence it constructively for calmness and confidence. You don’t mask symptoms, you switch off the panic response at its source.

One of the saddest things I hear from panic attack clients is when they tell me how they thought they just had to live with the panic attacks, fear and anxiety. You don’t.

Whether your panic started recently or has been around for years, it can be switched off with the right approach. You can start feeling calmer and better in yourself. You can move forward with confidence. You don’t have to suffer with panic attacks at Christmas and let them cast a shadow over the New Year.

If you’d like to chat about how hypnotherapy can help you break free from panic then please do get in touch. Sessions are available in person or online and we can start with a free, no obligation, initial consultation to talk things through before going ahead working together.

To your health and happiness,

Dan Regan

Panic Attacks Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

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