Triggers cause panic attacks but not the way you think they do. Triggers are just triggers, what you do with them is what makes panic attacks out of them. It is true without a trigger you can not have a panic attack, but you can have the same trigger and no panic attack with CBT. CBT is two parts, coping skills and restructuring. Restructuring is the more important. Changing thought patterns makes the trigger harmless. It is still there but how you see it is different. A store is just a store, why should it cause panic. Agoraphobia is why. Not having control of the situation is why. Fix that and the store just becomes a store again just as it always was. A noisy crowded building. Harmless really. How do you look at a store? A necessary evil? Bad start right there. Better to think of it as a place that has what you
want. Note that word. It is the key to control. Not of the trigger (situation) but of your panic thoughts. A trigger is just that, how you see it is what causes panic. It doesn't
have to. Note that word too. If you have to do something it causes anxiety. Wanting to can only cause anxiety if something gets in the way of doing it. At that it is minor compared to having to. So changing negative to positive as in changing thought patterns is changing your thought from I have to to I want to. And this does work if you really mean it. There are lots of these thought patterns, Another is changing worry to concern. With worry you replay the question without an answer or too many answers. With concern you make one decision and drop the question. (you do this also with mindfulness)
Exposure in this case is seeing how well you can really want to do something, how well you can take control of your thought, not how well you can bull through the situation. Because you won't have to if you do it right. It takes practice because the tendency is to bull through and that is nit how to do it. That is negative and only accesses more negative. It isn't the store you are fighting, it can't change but how you see the store.
This works for me and everyone who has seriously tried it. And under any situation. Exposure then becomes a test not a tool.
Davit.
As per the forum rules this is personal experience as taught by my therapist and only information and I'm only a member, but a successfully recovered one.
