For whatever reasons, it seems that anxiety and panic attacks have become commonplace phenomena in contemporary society. MD’s dispense meds (including Xanax, Valium, even medical marijuana, etc.) to treat these conditions. Obviously this treats the symptoms but not the cause of the anxiety and panic attacks.
Let’s break it down. What is a panic attack? What is anxiety? What is worry?
Worry is one of the four fundamental organically-based emotions. Holistic medical philosophy defines emotion as the body’s reaction to (brain-based) thought.
The reason for such a mind-body mechanism is straightforward. The body may need to react to the mind’s thought. For example, the mind may be stimulated by an externality that evokes a thought of fear – that may need a fight-or-flight bodily response. As an extreme case, suppose a group of hoodlums are following you down a poorly-lit alley en route to your car. Your brain recognizes the potential for danger – in a dispassionate manner (i.e., without emotion). The thought of danger then triggers your endocrine system, which sends hormones into the bloodstream, which alert and prepare the body for a physical response, if needed. Most particularly, the hormonal message is sent to (a) specific internal organ(s). In the case of fear – hormones alert the kidneys. In the case of anger, hormones alert the liver. Sadness alerts the lungs. Worry alerts the spleen, pancreas and stomach.
Anxiety is a combination of worry and anger. In reality, it’s somewhat rare to experience a single pure emotion – as the seed of anger frequently accompanies sadness, worry, and fear. Why is this? Reflect upon the immediate response of a baby when s/he doesn’t get what s/he wants … the baby immediately becomes filled with anger – raises a fit. Then, just as quickly, releases the anger (i.e., quickly experiences serenity). So, when we are placed in a situation which sparks sadness, worry and/or fear – we are placed in situations that we ‘resent’ – as things are not going as we’d prefer. Like the baby, the seed of fear immediately rises within us – although we may not be consciously aware of the ‘energy’ of the anger deep within. So, the point is, especially in the case of extreme worry, we resent the situation. The child within is angry that the situation is not what we prefer. So we experience worry combined with anger. This is tantamount to anxiety … a state of turbo-charged worry.
Similarly, like anxiety, a panic attack ensues due to a heightened state of worry. Unlike worry, the panic attack occurs in such a heightened state of worry that the spark of anger – that shifted worry to anxiety – is exacerbated to such extent that the spark becomes a wildfire that causes worry to shift not merely to anxiety but to a panic attack. TMI – as an aside, note that Traditional Chinese Medicine (“TCM”) likens the emotions as naturally-occurring elements. TCM describes anger as the element of fire. Fire is obviously the most potentially reactive natural element (relative to water, air and Earth). Only fire can cause an “attack” – such as a panic attack. So, to have an “attack” – the element of fire must be present – i.e., anger.
How do we heal worry? Worry is ever-present – unless one maintains a continual, pure state of faith. See a detailed description of “faith” in Encyclopedia of the Tao: A-to-Z). We learn to live with worry. We learn how to acknowledge (feel) worry, then release it (by engaging the bodymind in “conscious activity” – see Voice of the Soul: A Call to Action) – and concurrently by cleansing the mind of unhealthy patterns of thought.
How do we heal a panic attack or anxiety? We must release both worry AND anger. How do we do this? By engaging in conscious activity and truncating unhealthy patterns of thought. See Voice of the Soul: A Call to Action.
Andrew
NEXT: Humility and Meditation
