A panic attack manifests in different ways for different people. While some experience a feeling of anxiety and worry, others feel an increased heart rate and some others might have headaches, dizziness and trouble swallowing. No matter how your panic attacks manifest, they're a real problem and often interrupt your daily life. Art therapy can be used to help you regain control over your thoughts and emotions while exploring the underlying causes of your panic attacks.
How it Works
Art therapy is used to help remedy and treat a variety of psychological and behavioral issues. Because art is expressed in a variety of ways, without rules and regulations it's a therapeutic way for individuals to sort through their feelings and emotions while learning how to deal with symptoms. Art therapy is often offered through hospitals and clinics, in therapy offices and as part of inpatient treatment in rehabilitation and psychological clinics.
Expressive Media
Articulating the way you feel when you have a panic attack or correctly identifying your triggers is often difficult with words. You may be embarrassed to say what you fear or how you feel or have a difficult time explaining it to someone else, even a therapist. Art therapy is used to help you express yourself more clearly so your therapist and health care professionals can better treat the source and the symptoms of your panic attacks.
Therapeutic Art
For some, art becomes a therapeutic practice that helps to ward away and treat impending panic attacks. The idea that art is calming and all-inclusive helps you focus on something other than your anxiety and sense of doom and depression. Having art supplies on hand to sketch, paint or even sculpt helps to take your mind off your panic attack symptoms. Even if art therapy can't stop your attacks altogether, it often helps you manage them so they're less likely to disrupt your life.
Dance and Movement Therapy
Creating art through drawing, sculpting and painting aren't the only ways for you to learn to manage your panic attacks. Some clinics and hospitals offer dance and movement therapy to help you learn more physical ways of expressing yourself. Whether it's participating in modern dance to help you visualize the way a panic attack makes you feel or the act of moving to music that helps take your mind off your panic attack symptoms, movement is considered another part of art therapy that is beneficial for psychological conditions.
References
- MayoClinic.com; Panic Attacks and Panic Disorder; March 2010
- "Psychology Today": Therapeutic Methods
- Timberline Knolls Residential Treatment Center: Panic Attacks Treatment
- Art with Heart: Art Therapy as an Intervention Tool
- "Introduction to Art Therapy: Sources and Resources"; Judith Rubin, 2009
