Bringing PHOBIAS Under Control

When Fear Leads to Panic

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You Can Manage Stress!

FOR some social phobics, anxiety is so intense that it leads to a panic attack. This sudden, overpowering fright often leaves its victim hyperventilating, feeling faint, and believing that he or she is having a heart attack.

Experts say that it is best not to fight the attack. Rather, they advise the sufferer to 'ride out' the anxiety until it passes. "You can't stop it once it starts," says Jerilyn Ross. "It just has to run its course. Just keep telling yourself it's frightening, but it's not dangerous. It's going to pass."

Melvin Green, director of an agency that treats agoraphobia, likens the attack to a small wave that can be seen approaching a beach. "This represents your initial feelings of anxiety," he says. "As the wave approaches land it grows larger and larger. This represents your feelings of anxiety growing. Soon the wave is very large and peaks. It then flows down into a smaller and smaller wave until it disperses on the beach. This image represents the start and finish of the anxiety attack." Green says that sufferers should not fight the feelings but flow with them until they pass.

Appeared in Awake! July 22, 1998