Panic attacks are among the most overwhelming feelings you'll ever experience. You feel like your entire personality has been ripped to shreds. Like you are falling head-long into an abyss with no bottom. Like you can hardly breathe and are being crushed by overwhelming forces. In short, you feel like you are dying.
Take heart, though.
The Self Compass can help make your personality panic-proof.
Let's see how this works by using the Self Compass of
Love, Assertion, Weakness, and Strength —
the LAWS of personality—to give you the balance you need to become psychologically and spiritually resilient in the face of full-blown panic.
That is, able to withstand or recover quickly from difficult circumstances.
On the
Love compass point, remember that God loves you. That friends love you. That you are learning to love yourself. The best way to experience love that counters anxiety is to simply define yourself as a worthwhile human being, with your fair share of strengths and weaknesses. Ask God to help you love yourself as He does. Here is where I rely on the Love God shows me through his Son Jesus Christ. I accept deeply without conditions that Jesus loves me and will see me through anything I face, including occasional feelings of intense anxiety.
On the
Assertion compass point, get angry at being a victim of fear. Anger is as active emotion that counters anxiety, which is a passive feeling. Get angry that you shake in your boots, that life seems to have you by the throat, that the devil in on your shoulder. Get angry enough to say, "No, I won't roll over and become terrified by life! I won't let my existence deteriorate into mindless fear! I won't live by fear instead of faith!" The Assertion compass point mobilizes resourcefulness for creative coping. Most of all, it helps you call upon God with conviction and active expectancy, trusting that "underneath are the everlasting arms."
On the
Weakness compass point, realize that even the strongest people at times feel anxious and overwhelmed. Life is difficult. Nobody gets a free ride. Even our faith is tested by God. But that's okay. You can make it with just a mustard seed of faith. Given time, even snails and tortoises reach their destinations. And you are a person made in the image of God! Isn't it fascinating that when God became incarnate to live and walk among us, he didn't display overbearing strength, but identified with our weaknesses by himself becoming weak. Jesus had a panic attack in the Garden of Gethsemane, immediately prior to his humiliation and crucifixion. He showed us that it is only human to sometimes feel frightened, helpless, and alone. In times like this, you can say to yourself, "I'm scared right now, but this too will pass." "I'm feeling terribly alone, so I need to confide in someone." "There's growth in the valley." "Please help me, Lord!"
On the
Strength compass point, visualize in your mind the blessings you've known, the relationships you treasure, the potentials you've yet to actualize. Look beyond current anxieties to the growth curve of lifelong learning, where you, like Jesus, are made wiser and stronger through the things that you suffer. Picture the child who has a panic attack after falling down and skinning her knee, seeing blood for the first time. There is terror in that moment! But the loving parent offers consolation in the form of a band-aide and a reassuring hug, helping the pain to stop hurting. Just so does our Heavenly Father look out for us, bringing the Holy Spirit to sooth our pain and heal our panic. "There's a better day coming," says the Lord within us, "and I will guide you toward it!"
You overcome panic attacks by accepting that occasional anxiety is part of the human condition, known even by Jesus
(Weakness), by sharing your fears with those who care about you, including your Heavenly Father
(Love),
by taking steps to face and work through the obstacles that are scaring you
(Assertion), and by accepting that you are a child of God through the will of the Father, by the grace of Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit
(Strength).
How do I know? I've been the victim of numerous panic attacks and bouts of anxiety in the course of life. I have learned to trust my Self Compass in Christ. It is because of this that I am able to write these words of encouragement to you! I've been there and I've come out on the other side.
