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When Bullying Causes Anxiety and Panic

Written by Administrator

Tuesday, 03 May 2011 00:00

Bullying is the cause of a great deal of anxiety and panic among people of all sexual orientations, races, religions and gender. Anxiety and panic are two different things.Anxiety in the form of worry thoughts can initially be useful but, can go rogue if adaptation to the demands of stressful events and circumstances is not achieved. Panic expresses in physiological symptoms that worsen if the mind fuels its fire.Both anxiety and panic are rooted in our thoughts and the good news is that we have control over our thoughts if nothing else. Here's a perfect example. A client of mine has been bullied since she was a small child. She is very androgynous and is now in her early 30's. On her way into San Francisco over the weekend she had an anxiety attack.

She had been assaulted in Hunter's Point several years ago and memories of the event were triggered as she was trying to decide what to wear for a day long event. Radical changes in the San Francisco weather were not her only concern. She wanted to be comfortable but at the same time, rogue anxiety and worry thoughts warned her to "blend in" and not be seen as a target. She was afraid if she dressed too comfortably, in cargo pants and a sweatshirt, gender ambiguity could trigger a hostile response.

In therapy, she has come to understand that she has a predisposition toward lapsing into irrational thinking based on historical events. Yes, she began to have an anxiety attack but, she was able to talk herself down because she had learned to identify cognitive processes that involved maladaptive patterns such as overgeneralizing, personalizing and exaggerating the likelihood of the negative event.

She told herself that her anxiety was a result of poorly formed cognitive patterns and took a time out to get centered and grounded before leaving the house. After 5 minutes of positive self-talk such as "The violence I have experienced was random and not about me". "I have the ability to recognize and avoid dangerous places and dangerous people". "I can be safe in the world if I choose".

Positive self-talk is a powerful way to counter the rogue anxiety formed by echoes of past violence triggered in real time current events. Especially if you are aware of the negative patterns you are likely to engage in, it becomes easier to just observe them, and not identify with them. Then, you can create positive alternatives and choose to identify with the adaptive patterns instead.

Check out these pages on EMDR Therapy for Anxiety and Online Anxiety Therapy for more info.