Thinking can alter in various ways when panic or phobias occur.

a). The unhelpful thinking styles.

During panic, there are strong fears that something terrible or catastrophic is happening right now. You may jump to the very worst conclusion (catastrophic thinking) that things will go very badly wrong.

Common fears are "I'm going to faint", "I'm going to suffocate" "I'm going to collapse", "I'm going to have a stroke", or "I'm going to have a heart attack".

You may fear that you are going mad or are losing control. You may overlook your own strengths and be very self-critical. You may be prone to mind read and second-guess that others think negatively of you and rarely check out whether these fears are true.

Overall, your thinking becomes extreme, unhelpful and out of all proportion. By focusing on problems that are taken out of all proportion, your own strengths and ability to cope are overlooked or downplayed. Things are seen as being out of control.

Key point: All these unhelpful thinking styles occur in each of us from time to time. However during times of high anxiety they become more frequent and are harder to dismiss from the mind.

Now, think about your own thinking over the last week:

My anxious thinking.

Q1. Am I being my own worst critic? (bias against myself) Yes � No �

Q2. Am I focusing on the bad in situations? (putting a negative slant on things – a negative mental filter) Yes � No �

Q3. Am I making negative predictions about the future? (make negative predictions) Yes � No �

Q4. Am I jumping to the very worst conclusion (catastrophic thinking)? Yes � No �

Q5. Am I second-guessing that others think badly of me without actually checking? (mind-reading) Yes � No �

Q6. Am I taking unfair responsibility for things that aren’t really my fault? (bearing all responsibility/taking all the blame) Yes � No �

Q7. Do I have unhelpfully high standards and use the words “should, must, ought and got to” a lot, or make statements such as “Just typical” when something goes wrong? (Unhelpfully high standards/rules)  Yes � No �

If you have answered yes to the question about catastrophic thinking, try to identify what sort of thoughts pop into your mind when you feel panicky.
Common catastrophic thoughts during panic:

"I'm going to faint or collapse/pass out”.
"I'm going to suffocate".
"I'm going to collapse".
"I'm going to have a stroke".
"I'm going to have a heart attack".
"I’m going to go mad”.
“I’m going to lose control”.
“I’m going to show myself up/make a fool of myself”.

Why are these unhelpful thinking styles so unhelpful?

These extreme thinking styles are called unhelpful because believing them worsens how we feel and unhelpfully alters what we do.

Anxious thoughts Feel more anxious.

Anxious thoughts Act in ways that worsen how you feel.

Think about a recent time when you have felt more anxious or panicky. Were any unhelpful thinking styles present? Did they have an impact on how you felt and what you did at the time?

The unhelpful thinking styles can therefore worsen how you feel emotionally and physically, and unhelpfully alter what you do in both the short and the longer-term.

Other thinking changes also occur in anxiety.

b). Becoming overly aware of things that seem scary.

High anxiety causes us to watch out for anything that is particularly scary to us. This can include difficult situations such as going into shops, seeing a spider, or the reactions of other people.

You may be overly aware of:

• Scary thoughts: (e.g. that you might die), and try very hard not to think this.

• Scary physical symptoms in our body. During times of high anxiety, all sorts of physical symptoms occur.

This is a standard bodily response in times of threat or danger. Your heart rate and breathing both speed up. This allows more blood to get to your muscles to defend yourself or run away.

These intense physical reactions can reinforce underlying fears that something terrible is about to happen.

c). Images and mental pictures – an important part of anxiety.

Another way that we think is often as a mental picture. Some people (although not everyone) notice mental pictures or images in their mind when they become anxious.

Images are a form of thought and may be “still” images (like a photograph), or are moving (like a video). Images may be in black and white or be in colour.

They may include a mental picture of some catastrophic event occurring such as collapsing, suffocating, or of your own funeral. As with all extreme and unhelpful fears, the images add to feelings of anxiety.

Summary for Area 2: Altered thinking.

Having answered the questions in this workbook about altered thinking:
Q. Overall, do I have any problems in this area? Yes � No �

These difficulties are potential targets for change. You will find out more about what steps to take to tackle these in section 5 of the workbook.

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Overcoming Anxiety © Dr C J Williams (2003)

Excerpted from online workbook: Understanding panic and phobias by Dr Chris Williams

Related books by Dr. Williams:

Overcoming Depression: A Five Areas Approach

Overcoming Anxiety: A Five Areas Approach

I'm not supposed to feel like this: A Christian self-help approach to depression and anxiety.