Panic and Fear!
Oh, to have some longer daylight hours and intermittent beautiful blue skies!
Welcome Spring … we can no doubt all notice some emergence of more colour in the outdoor surrounding areas! I even had the joy of encountering some newly born lambs pretty quickly into my recent Mother’s Day venture out!
As many of you no doubt, making full use of the enjoyment of some more simple things in life is key to maintaining resilience and a positive spirit during this continued time of “unknown” with the Covid 19 Pandemic. We are still in the thick of it.
FEAR and PANIC are often broadly describing the key emotions/states that can be present with so many at the moment…and have been for perhaps up to a year or more, and it is this topic I will therefore focus on this month.
Firstly we need to understand how our bodies have been experiencing and probably “holding onto” these two states. The good news is there is excellent support out there, and Homeopathy certainly understands them very well! And please remember that Homeopathy is a gentle, natural, non-addictive method of health support without side effects, so the outcomes are more thorough and permanent, exercising the body’s own natural healing mechanisms with the nudge of minimal Homeopathic remedies. It also works safely alongside conventional medication.
Secondly, you may also find this blog useful if you were generally prone to suffering with Fear and Panic more than you would like before Covid19 or know of someone else struggling too, that may be at a loss of what else to do.
So… how are FEAR and PANIC presenting in you? Here are some typical symptoms:
Are you finding yourself …
- In an over-anxious/hyper-vigilant state?
- With some heart and respiratory symptoms such as raised blood pressure, palpitations or breathlessness on little exertion? Might there be a choking sensation?
- Changes in breathing and temperature patterns? Panic attacks?
- Is there a change in your perspiration?
- How is your sleep?
- How is your hormone balance… for women, has your menstrual cycle changed? Perhaps you have developed skin symptoms such as eczema or acne?
- Are you more sensitive to noise and your environment and consequently find socialising more difficult?
- Do you want to be alone? Or do you need company because being alone is too much?
- Is your mind constantly on the go with negative or apprehensive spiralling thoughts? Are you feeling overwhelmed by simple everyday tasks?
- Our gut is also often a great teller of our inner emotional states, and we may suffer with digestive and bowel complaints and discomforts. We only need to remember the saying, “I can feel it in my gut”! Has your appetite changed for the worse?
- Is your immune system appearing compromised?
Once we notice our “symptoms”, we can start to look at what we can do to improve them, both as they start to occur/arrive and also when we are really feeling them in the moments of manifestation… i.e. in Fear and Panic.
Our bodies try very hard automatically to re-balance our intricate body systems. Still, they can only be expected to do that effectively for so long, so if we are unaware of how to support the process, it may be hard to shift out of these states and heal. We need to prepare a toolbox to have at the ready!
Along with remedies, I may encourage using breathwork and relaxation techniques, and sometimes work alongside other practitioners such as hypnotherapists, yogi’s, nutritionists, cognitive behavioural therapists…there are many wonderful complementary therapies to be learnt about, all with the intention of providing more than just a temporary improvement as they work with the body’s natural healing ability rather than temporarily suppressing the symptoms.
Our bodies already have the “Fight and Flight” mechanism to enable us to cope in an emergency. In the moments of Fear and Panic, the parasympathetic nervous system gets to work, and our endocrine system releases the hormones, mainly Cortisol and Adrenaline, to enable a burst of energy for our “escape to safety”. Then we naturally move into a recovery period where we can start to relax and re-balance as the sympathetic nervous system calms us down. Here we can be processing, understanding what went wrong, the triggers and having the opportunity to improve our physical position or allow appropriate emotions to be experienced as we work towards making ourselves safe again. We can start to make some healthy practical decisions to improve our situation. Empathy and time are a big part of this because if we only ever allow ourselves to react or experience heightened emotion or repeated fearful states, we do not necessarily enable our bodies to re-balance enough to return to their optimum, naturally designed level of working order as required.
Symptoms arrive with Fear and Panic, such as I listed earlier. And as we have been exposed to the stress and triggers over the last year of living in this current Pandemic with all its continued “unknowns’ we may relate quickly to some of them when reading this.
We can remain optimistic and positive in our thinking wherever possible. Still, we have been challenged over a long period, and many people are now suffering with Fear and Panic from a long term manifestation of concerns…the novelty of being able to stay on top form may have worn out. In Homeopathy, we understand this state of “susceptibility”.
IDENTIFYING THE CAUSE of the fear or panic is key, wherever possible, to work with it and develop strategies and actions that can support us in managing it. With a Homeopathic approach, here we understand the “Maintaining causes”… things that affect our health and life situation but are permanent or regularly interrupting our health. Many people find the talking through of this side of things within the generous time allocated during a Homeopathic appointment very helpful and calming in itself. “Things start to make sense” patients so often report back to me. Maybe, for example, we are already in a very stressful job, we aren’t getting enough sleep or exercise, we are dealing with grief or other trauma, we have moved to a new location or changed residential or relationship situations. And we are feeling more and more tense as a result. Add in thoughts of fear of the unknown, constantly adapting to new rules and ways of going about our daily business, restricted environments, fear of ill health, death, and possibly grief or sudden loss…these factors are typically contributing to a changing state of health. We may then notice significant symptoms, similar to those on our symptoms list…and then we may have a manifestation of several, putting us in a dramatically “frozen” or hysterical state where we have a panic attack, we lose our temper uncontrollably, we breakdown; these are clear signs of Fear and Panic.
For these moments, there are some wonderful remedies to induce a calming down. Aconite, Kali Phos, Arsenicum, Argentum Nitricum, Phosphorous and Arnica are some of the key remedies that may match many patient’s individual symptoms. I also love the Flower remedies such as Bach Flower Rescue Remedy or Australian Bush Flower Emergency essence, which work alone or peripherally alongside other remedies. Patients can feel added security knowing they have something to hand to help them through the most heightened moments of Fear and Panic. But as I work through each case with follow up appointments, together with the patient, I discover a changing state as he/she realises they can come out of these moments more and more easily. We can then move to the next prescription where remedies are prescribed to further support the patient’s very individual details and reach the root causes of the Fear and Panic and how they may present at different stages.
And so the Homeopathic journey begins…
The Fear and Panic attacks gradually occur in less strength and further apart in the incident. A feeling of confidence and better control re-emerges within the patient. They are better able to comprehend what has needed deeper understanding whether emotional or practical, or physical and used this knowledge to lessen other influences in a manageable way. They may have been on other conventional anxiety medication and do not feel it as effective or necessary to continue, or have concerns of side effects or addiction to their prescriptions so a discussion with their GP can also be beneficial as their health improves. Homeopathic remedies work alongside conventional medicine.
The Homeopathic journey continues…sometimes only one or two follow up appointments are necessary. Other times there may be up to 6 appointments and sometimes more. Homeopathy works slowly and surely and is not a typical “Quick fix” medication. However, we often have remarkably fast results too! Remember, using a holistic approach; thorough recovery is very specific to each individual. The body continues to re-balance with the prompt of the energy of the remedies on its own natural healing system. Some patients value a regular “check-in” appt every 2,3, or 6 months. It is a very individual choice. But the very art of participating in Homeopathic medicine is that we get to understand how our body works and what we can do to achieve optimum health so when health states change, we can be the quickest to get ourselves back into the desired equilibrium we so benefit from in managing life and all that it can sometimes throw at us!
Please do get in touch if you have any questions.
I am continuing to work via video appointments wherever possible, but of course, will keep you updated when things change.
Be kind and gentle with yourselves this month!
Best wishes
Ali x
