Mini Panic Attacks Different From Trauma Energy?

[Valentino]

I'm going to throw in a different perspective, as me and Hashi probably think and experience things in an opposite way...

I was just starting to feel emotions and it was uncomfortable, but I didn't really know what I was feeling. Then she was listing emotions to try to help me pinpoint them. I knew I was feeling anxiety, but didn't know what else.

I think what your reaction was exactly a mini-panic attack.. or simply a panic attack..

What you were dealing with is a fear of feeling old emotions. Anxiety came up because you were scared that old unresolved emotions might overwhelm you and possibly re-trigger some old trauma energy. Therefore anxiety is all that you feel, and when anxiety becomes INTENSE it creates feelings of panic and your body experiences a mini nervous breakdown.

I personally also don't experience panic attacks, my Aspie brain gives me a type of emotional blindness, so that I can't see my emotional triggers coming up in advance, so I just feel higher alertness or hyper-vigilance when I get close to triggers. I can still have nervous breakdowns, though most people get caught up with a panic attack and never reach the full blown nervous breakdown with spontaneous shaking trauma release.

I have seen and felt when my girlfriend has had panic attacks. It confused the heck out of me at first, because I was feeling intense anxiety from her, but I didn't see significant real danger in reality. Also she would keep holding onto the panic, trying to combat it with intense anger and rage, projecting blame on anything and anyone that was nearby. She tries to fight her panic attacks by using anger and BURNING the fear up with RAGE.

Her strategy was highly confusing to me, especially when I didn't know what was going on. Now it is easier to deal with, as I don't identify with or try to address the fear. It's her panic attack, it's her right to try to ignore it and choose to use Anger to fight it. I can be a good friend and stay conscious to her emotions and simply bear witness to what's going on.

So I wanted to know, is mini panic attacks different from trauma energy? Are they similar? How are they different?

I think panic attacks are simply early warning for the potential of trauma energy coming up. A mini panic attack is simply a less extreme panic attack. A full blown nervous breakdown is what I would label as trauma energy actually coming up and out of your nervous system.

I had a full blown nervous breakdown when I finally faced my raw fear of rejection, I was curled up in a ball sitting on the bathroom floor, trembling, shaking, weeping, totally enveloped and overwhelmed by all the past unresolved hurt emotions coming up and out all at once.

feeling like they are going to die

Panic attacks and nervous breakdowns can both have elements of feeling like you're going to die. It's simply just degrees of severity. It's probably more like feelings of losing control, getting overwhelmed and taken over by emotions, diving into the unknown. Or it could be some death anxiety that's getting triggered, so fear of death comes up, and it feels like death could be there. But rationally and objectively there won't be any real symptoms of upcoming death, it probably feels like the rush that comes from a roller coast ride. So the adrenaline theory might be pretty accurate.

 

[Abstract]

Confused! :confused:

Hashi, I don't think I have ever understood the trauma release stuff or being able to relate it to my experiences. I need to think some more and come back to this.

 

[Hashi]

@Abstract, have you read "Waking the Tiger" by Peter Levine? This would be the best explanation, and has some very scientific sections. ;) Of course, I don't worry about those too much myself. :p

I'm talking about somatic release of trauma energy, ie fight or flight energy. This is always associated with shaking, and I think always (or at least often) with feeling cold. In my case it wasn't "unlocked" until I had craniosacral therapy. Then it happened every day for months.

There are other types of release, such as releasing emotions held in muscles, organs etc. That's why I wonder if WillowMarie is talking about a different type of processing, but I don't know.

 

[WillowMarie]

Just an update. My therapist shared with me that she thinks it is normal response, having a panic attack, because it happens to her. She took a risk in sharing this with me. I know she wanted me to feel normal and that my response isn't abnormal. Honestly, I think she must be biased and still think it may be some trauma release in the mix. I know my last appointment, I wasn't really feeling any emotions or dissociating much, but still started shaking during the first half of the appointment and my fingers were cold. I was talking about nightmares I had, and I have always started feeling that way, shaking and cold, when talking about these particular nightmares, but never feel any emotions while talking about them. So I don't think I can count that as a panic attack since I wasn't feeling panicked.