Stage 4 Bonus Q&A
How To End Agoraphobia and Situational False Alarms In Any Situation
NOTE: The principles shared below apply far beyond just driving and exercise. They will almost certainly apply to YOUR situation, no matter where you’ve have false alarms, so please read this page in full…
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QUESTION: “I can’t drive beyond a certain ‘comfort zone’. How can I use “The Worst Fantasy Technique” to change this?”
Here is a creative use of “The Worst Fantasy Technique”, from a fellow Panic Free member, that combines some variations I’ve used with clients in the past, and teaches the principles of “Chasing The Ghosts” really well…
I decided to get creative with ‘The Worst Fantasy Technique’, and wrote down the fears that go through my mind and body in my feared situations. Then, I recorded it on my phone’s voice recorder. It lasted for 6 minutes as this was the longest I could go with it, before running out of ideas.
(Note from Michael: listening to our thoughts on a recording literally gives us a different perspective, more distance from any ‘reality tunnel’ we’ve been in, and it can sometimes create a significant shift all by itself).
Listening to it had little effect on me (in creating anxiety) in my home environment, so I took a drive just to the edge of my comfort zone. Then, I listened back to it several times to try and squeeze 30 minutes out of it.
(Note from Michael: this client had already used “The Worst Fantasy Technique”, in regular form, to “Touch The Ghosts” at home).
The first 1 or 2 times I listened to the recording while being in the new location, it actually gave me the creeps.
(Note from Michael: this is because the brain learns we are safe context by context, and this is why we want to “Chase The Ghosts”, to “Touch The Ghosts” in all the different contexts we’ve been fearing them).
Then the next few times it started becoming a little boring, so I adjusted the speed just for fun as my phone app can do that — once at 60-80% speed, then another at 120%, and I found that amusing.
(Note from Michael: slowing down the speed like this, with a phone app, is as I describe in the Stage 2 Q&A for “The 1 Word Technique”. Speeding up a voice can be useful, in that it can make it sound silly, and if it intensifies the anxiety and you stay with it, you’re “Touching The Ghosts”)
Then I went for a drive to a further place where I had experienced panic at times in the past, and when the old feelings and thoughts began to return, I was both anxious and amused as I began to hear in my head the internal dialogue sounding funny at slow and fast speeds like my voice recorder.
(Note from Michael: since this was a new context where he had feared panic in the past, he had to “Touch The Ghosts” again. Why? Because, again, our brains learn context by context. We need to help our brain discover we are safe “touching the ghosts” in each context. How? By simply repeating the “Worst Fantasy” technique, or by hyperventilating, in the new context.
Also note from the story above, that things do get easier as you progress. The automatic feelings of amusement came from the process we’ve discussed in this stage -- Pavlovian conditioning. Since this Panic Free member was amused while hearing his thoughts on the recording earlier, his thoughts have started to become associated with amusement, instead of just fear).
Note 1:
This same process can be done using hyperventilation instead. Go to the edge of your comfort zone, park your car, then hyperventilate until you know the body sensations you’ve been having are safe. Then continue driving. If you think you’re going to have a false alarm, or if you do have a false alarm, repeat the hyperventilation process again in the next new location.
Note 2:
The more you repeat “Touching The Ghosts” in different contexts, especially when these efforts are grouped closely together in time (most powerfully if one after the other, in a single session), the faster your brain is likely to start generalising your positive changes into new, similar contexts, that you haven’t even “Touched The Ghosts” in yet. (Again, though, there is NOTHING wrong with going slow, and as I’ve said frequently… “sometimes the fastest way to go fast, is to go slow”).
QUESTION: “I can’t exercise to my full potential at the gym because when my heart rate goes up it creates panic for me. I tend to avoid exercise, slow the exercise down, or leave the gym early because I feel as if something bad will happen. What should I do?”
What you describe is the "Clapping The Panic Tigers Away" pattern:
1. Your heart rate increases and you get nervous.
2. You slow down or leave the gym early.
3. You feel safer TEMPORARILY, but probably imagine it would / could have been bad somehow, if you had kept exercising or increased the intensity.
4. This reinforces the illusion of danger—because every time we avoid or try to stay "safe", it reinforces the illusion that we wouldn't have been ok.
So the key here is to again, “Touch The Ghosts”.
How? By exercising with the goal to:
1. Get your heart rate up as high as you can.*
2. And to keep it high as long as you need, in order to know that nothing bad happens (that your worst fears are not going to come true).
Repeat this as much as you need, in every context you’ve feared exercising, because of false alarms.
* Obviously, exercising hard should be within the context of your physical fitness, health, and following your doctor’s advice after getting a medical checkup (we don’t want you to pull a muscle by suddenly exercising far harder than you ever have before).
QUESTION: “My fear is that I’ll lose control and go crazy when I’m a passenger in a car. How do I ‘Touch The Ghosts’ with other people around?”
The easiest way is with “The Worst Fantasy Technique”.
1. Use the full “The Worst Fantasy Technique” at home, as described in Stage 3.
Since your worst fear is that of losing control and going crazy... your goal with “The Worst Fantasy Technique” would be to try to MENTALLY FORCE yourself, with ALL your willpower, to lose every ounce of control and go crazy for a full 30 minutes (hint: you’ll discover it’s impossible).
2. Once the 30 minute version of “The Worst Fantasy Technique” is boring for you, you’re ready to take it out into the world into the situations you've been fearing.
ANYTIME you’re in a car and you get anxious that you might have a false alarm, or if you actually do have a false alarm… look at your watch (or phone) and do “The Worst Fantasy Technique” for a full 5 minutes in the back of your mind, no matter what else you’re doing (just like you can be thinking about work while brushing your teeth, or talking to a friend, or watching TV).
