Page 65 - Advance Copy: Todd Kaufman, Author

HOW TO MANAGE ANXIETY & END PANIC ATTACKS
day, and we somehow consolidate them into a comprehensive memory with a beginning, middle and an end. They are then filed away for future retrieval in our hippocampus.
In the case of any event, including a potentially traumatic event, we take the information into our brain through our senses. There are sounds, smells, tastes, feelings, and of course what we see. These pieces of information are all fragments of a complete picture or story, and if left scattered about the brain – as opposed to included in a consolidated, complete picture during sleep – they can seem puzzling or frightening when triggered.
If you suffer from PTSD, panic attacks and high-level anxiety are often part of the package. The triggers you experience are believed to be these unprocessed memory fragments. Inasmuch as the brain is unable to connect the dots when a PTSD survivor stumbles upon a trigger such as a particular sound or smell, it is an alarm trigger for the amygdala and the release of adrenaline and cortisol is imminent.
If you suffer from PTSD or think that in some way your panic attacks or high anxiety levels are connected to a past traumatic event, you might want to seek out a therapist who practices EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) therapy. This particular therapy seeks to replicate the brain activity normally found in REM sleep to help desensitize your triggers by folding them into the complete memory in the same way healthy sleep does. EMDR is often a very helpful therapeutic modality in combination with other forms of treatment.
Having PTSD does not stop the techniques in this book from alleviating the symptoms of high cortisol and adrenaline in your system. A good therapist will teach many of things you will learn in this book to help you alleviate symptoms. A good therapist will also help you get to the bottom of why your brain is behaving the way it is at this point in your life, and in unpacking that understanding, they can help you prevent your
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