Panic attacks and the truth about medication
The vlog version of this blog post.
Here's the deal with panic attacks and medication that everyone should understand. In most cases, drugs are like a crutch. They allow you to walk about but don't cure the underlying problem. Typically when you stop taking medication, panic remerges. That's not to say that medication is useless: Far from it. Drugs are beneficial and, at times, even life-saving. Let's explore this a little deeper.
Sometimes medication is necessary.
No one desires to be on medication. However, there are clinical situations during which I would recommend drug treatment. I most often recommend medication when a person begins to approach severe depression.
Dealing with some level of sadness or momentary hopelessness is somewhat typical when dealing with severe panic attacks. So, I don't always grow concerned when someone tells me they occasionally feel down or hopeless. What worries me are situations when a person has become immobilized due to depression.
Severe depression shuts down learning.
The trouble with severe depression is that it shuts down the learning circuitry in the brain. To understand this, we must go back to the classic experiments scientists use to emulate depression in animals.
To emulate depression in animals, scientists would lock dogs in cages and deliver electrical shocks to their paws until they jumped over a barrier that did not have the floor electrified. The dog was fine as long as the dog had a means of escape. As soon as it felt a zap, it jumped over the barrier and returned to being its happy self. However, when the researchers cut off the dog's means of escape, things took a turn for the worse.
Not understanding how to cure panic may lead to (secondary) depression.
Cutting off the dog's escape route is analogous to not knowing how to solve your panic attack problem. Once the dogs could not escape, they curled up into a ball and stopped trying to look for an escape. The dogs became so hopeless that even when the researchers opened the gates, they still wouldn't move.
This lack of movement, even though the escape hatch is right in front of their eyes... even though the solution was right in front of them, is analogous to treating your panic attacks through behavioral interventions while also enduring a severe bout of depression. It's probably not going to work, just like it didn't work with the dogs.
Conclusion: Immobilizing depression and panic? Take meds.
The conclusion is that psychotropic medication should be given when signs of immobilizing depression appear. I sometimes spot signs of this type of depression in my clinical practice. The person suffering from this condition will often move sluggishly, and they'll struggle to smile. They'll also give a lot of blank stares as though they've given up on listening also. When I start to see this, I also begin to recommend medication.
How to avoid immobilizing depression while dealing with panic?
The best way to avoid this type of depression while dealing with panic attacks is to educate yourself on the cure as soon as you become aware that this is the problem you're dealing with. By doing this, you’ll become aware of a way out and you’ll be a lot less likely to feel helpless and hopeless. The bottom line is: The longer you go without care, the higher the chances of developing secondary depression.
Don't delay, and start getting help today. You could start right now by watching my panic self-help workshops.
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