Centre for Clinical Interventions: When panic attacks
Available online for free.
This module describes panic attacks and panic disorder and looks at the symptoms of panic.
Topics: Panic and Anxiety; Panic Disorder: Anxiety Symptoms Worksheet
Module 2: What Keeps Panic Disorder Going
The aim of this module is to provide you with some more detailed information on how panic attacks actually develop. This module will also describe how panic attacks develop into panic disorder and what treatment strategies may be useful.
Topics: How do panic attacks happen? How does panic disorder develop? How is panic disorder maintained? Model of how panic disorder is maintained. What can be done about panic disorder? Monitoring your panic attacks
Module 3: Overcoming Thoughts About Panic
This module looks at the relationship between negative thinking and panic disorder and introduces a strategy to challenge unhelpful thinking about panic symptoms.
Topics: The Thought-Feeling Connection; Challenging Unhelpful Thoughts about Panic; Thought Diary; Following Through
Module 4: Coping with Physical Alarms
The aim of this module is to give you information about how to challenge your beliefs about panic symptoms by actually experiencing them. Research has shown that this is particularly important in being able to successfully overcome panic symptoms and distress about panic symptoms.
Topics: Planning exposure to internal sensations; Internal Sensations Exercises; Exposure to Internal sensations; Internal Sensations Exercises: Diary
Module 5: Facing Feared Situations
In this module you will learn how avoidance keeps panic disorder going, and how to start approaching situations or activities you avoid to challenge your fears.
What is avoidance? The vicious cycle of anxiety and avoidance. Approaching feared situations using Behavioural Experiments. Behavioural experiment examples. Tips for conducting behavioural experiments. Behavioural Experiment Record
Module 6: Dropping Safety Behaviours
This module explains what safety behaviours are, how they keep panic disorder going, and how to reduce your use of safety behaviours.
Topics: What are safety behaviours? Dropping safety behaviours; Safety behaviours and behavioural experiments; Behavioural experiment examples; Behavioural Experiment Record; Evaluating your progress
Module 7: Maintaining Your Gains
This final module describes how to maintain your gains and continue the progress that you have made throughout the previous modules.
Topics: The panic disorder model revisited; A new way of responding to anxiety symptoms; Dealing with setbacks; Self-Management Plan