It's panic but it's not an attack

The words we use to describe our experience matters. We use very specific terms like terrifying and going crazy and dying to describe how it feels. And rightfully so. But it's interesting that we continue to call our bodies' natural panic mechanism an attack. 

The word attack implies an unwelcome intrusion. And yes, it sure feels that way. But is it really an attack given that we are the originators of the panic in the first place? 

Panic is our reaction to the perception of immediate danger. The key word here being perception. We have to believe that this danger is true and justifiable for panic to happen. This is where anxiety and panic gets tricky, we often tend to justify danger using untruths. But that's another story for another time. 

So try calling it a panic *event*. I panic in perfectly safe places but in each case, it's my perception of that triggers my panic. My body is just doing what I'm instructing it to do. It's working as designed! 

When I'm in the throughs of panic, it feels like an attack for sure. But I'm going to practice calling it an *event* when it happens and remove the negative, and untrue, connotation that it's an *attack*

​Brian