[One Sip of a Book] When You Feel Like Dying from Anxiety... "Force Yourself to Smile"

Editor's NoteSome sentences encapsulate the entire content of a book, while others instantly resonate with the reader’s heart, creating a connection with the book. We excerpt and introduce such meaningful sentences from books.

Sudden nausea, severe heart palpitations, and difficulty breathing are typical symptoms of a 'panic attack.' The author, a professor at New York University School of Medicine with over 10 years of clinical experience, analyzes panic disorder based on the 'Damyujin-gyeon Theory.' The Damyujin-gyeon Theory is a neuroscience theory that the unconscious nervous system regulates emotions, social, and personal experiences. The author argues that when the Damyujin-gyeon is in balance, anxiety or fear is quickly recovered from, but when out of balance, one falls into anxiety and panic, and introduces ways to restore nervous system balance.

If you find a way to laugh consciously, you gain the leisure to make anxiety disappear within a feeling of safety. Hogwarts students learned how to dispel nightmare-like thoughts through conscious humor. This method restores a sense of safety, allowing the nervous system to escape fight-or-flight mode and overcome anxiety and panic called Bogat. (p. 56)

Lack of sleep worsens panic symptoms. Good sleep habits help reduce panic symptoms. Although the required sleep time varies for each person, aim to sleep at least 6 hours without waking. The practices and behaviors to achieve better sleep are called sleep hygiene. (p. 65)

What if all these sensations pass through your nervous system and disappear within just a few minutes, sometimes within seconds? This can happen if you leave the sensations as they are. Many people do not realize that intense panic usually comes in short waves and disappears over time. Panic and anxiety sensations subside as they pass through the nervous system and the vagus nerve. Simply accepting this fact can reduce hours of suffering to just minutes. Now, let's explore how to let panic pass through the nervous system like ocean waves. (p. 102)

Long-term aerobic exercise increases vagal tone. Vagal tone is a measure of nervous system health. The preventive methods using aerobic exercise introduced in this chapter and the next optimize the nervous system’s health measure (high vagal tone), reduce inflammation, and help improve brain efficiency and resilience against panic and stress. (p. 126)

Mindfulness practice maintains nervous system resilience and prevents panic and anxiety. Regular mindfulness stimulates the vagus nerve, releasing anti-inflammatory and calming signals throughout the brain and body, reducing nervous system stress and inflammation. Mindfulness also increases vagal tone, protecting and preventing heart rate, breathing, and digestive functions from the effects of panic. It stabilizes heart rate, induces deep breathing, slows thought speed, and creates a sense of safety. It even helps communicate smoothly with others when stressed or overwhelmed by anxiety. (pp. 137?138)

Cognitive restructuring is a coping mechanism that prevents thoughts about panic and anxiety from leading to panic attacks and anxiety?in other words, the brain’s spider sensor. Cognitive restructuring is a prefrontal cortex-based ability that helps your nervous system stay calm and focused when facing scary thoughts or threatening environments without radioactive spiders. Using cognitive restructuring, you can quickly shift catastrophic distorted thoughts to more realistic and useful ones. (p. 151)

Co-regulation, which requires connection with others, enhances brain efficiency and resilience to stress. According to various neurological studies, people who are socially connected with others and share emotions and problems have higher vagal tone and stress resilience, and lower anxiety and panic. (p. 164)

When You Feel Like Dying from Anxiety | Written by Charles Sheffer | Translated by Lee Yoon-jung | Simsim | 188 pages | 16,000 KRW