Lesson 2 of 6 · The false alarm
A false alarm runs on the same machinery as a real one
This is the part that trips everybody up, so read it slowly.
When the alarm fires, your body does the same thing whether the danger is real or not. Heart speeds up. Breathing changes. Muscles tighten. Digestion stops, which is why your stomach turns. Attention narrows onto the threat and drops everything else.
That means the strength of the feeling tells you nothing about the size of the danger. It tells you the alarm is loud. You have been reading the loudness as evidence, and it never was.
What the research says
A panic attack is the body's ordinary fear response firing when there is nothing to fire at. It is the same system working, not a broken one, and that matters because a false alarm is not damage.
The false alarm account. A panic attack is the ordinary fear response of the body firing when there is nothing to fire at. It is the same response, not a broken one.
Barlow DH (2000). Unraveling the mysteries of anxiety and its disorders from the perspective of emotion theory. American Psychologist, 55(11), 1247 to 1263 doi
This is the account that panic begins as an ordinary bodily sensation and grows because of the conclusion drawn about it. The sensation comes first and the frightening meaning is added, which is why the meaning is the part that can change.
Panic is explained as the catastrophic reading of harmless bodily sensations. The sensation comes first, the conclusion is added, and the conclusion is what makes the sensation grow.
Clark DM (1986). A cognitive approach to panic. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 24(4), 461 to 470 doi
Panic can be understood as anxiety learned about your own body's signals. That is why the sensations themselves become the trigger, and why noticing your heartbeat can start it.
Recasts panic disorder as learned anxiety about the body's own signals, which is why the sensations themselves become the trigger.
Bouton ME, Mineka S, Barlow DH (2001). A modern learning theory perspective on the etiology of panic disorder. Psychological Review, 108(1), 4 to 32 doi