Why is it that even when I know I am going to have a panic attack I can not prevent it from happening?

Panic attacks are frightening events. Often your body and brain are flooded with hormones and neurotransmitters that are responding to an event or situation that triggers your fight/flight response. Even if you know cognitively and logically that you are safe and will not need to fight or flee, subconsciously your mind senses danger, and it gives the body cues to prepare to respond to those dangers. So, perhaps you are entering into a situation that you know will make you uneasy and possibly trigger an anxiety attack, but you either don't have the skills or tools available to prevent it, or the event or situation is so disconcerting to you that all the tools that you have available just don't work. Once your brain triggers the flow of neurochemicals, it's extremely difficult to override any emotional or bodily response to them. Your heart pounds, you may feel short of breath or feel an ache in your chest or the pit of your stomach, and these are all automatic responses caused by a change in neurotransmitters and hormones in the body. Remember, your brain controls everything you think, feel and do, so using logic at that moment, such as "The snake won't harm me.", won't necessarily prevent a visceral reaction. However, there are ways to train your brain to not even begin that flood of neurochemicals in the first place. I already mentioned mindfulness, which may help your thoughts to stay on task and not worry about what may occur or what has occurred in past similar situations, which can often trigger panic attacks. This can work for such situations as preparing to do an important presentation. Perhaps you find yourself ruminating on mistakes, or perceived mistakes, made during previous such presentations, or you're under a lot of pressure to do well for the current one, and the longer you ruminate on these issues the more your anxiety builds and before you know it you feel an anxiety attack coming on. So, learning to control your thoughts and focus only on what you need to do in this moment may help to prevent the attack. Another helpful exercise you can do is utilizing relaxation techniques and incorporating a mantra. Mantras are short, personal messages that you can use to help to calm and center yourself. You practice a mantra by doing relaxation exercises first only when you are already calm. You want to be as calm and relaxed as possible when you begin practicing your mantra. So, do your favorite relaxation exercise, or just get comfortable, close your eyes and take slow deep breaths. You may try visualizing a calming setting, such as the beach or a forest clearing, whatever works best for you. Once you are very calm, begin repeating your mantra. You can find them online or create your own, but it should be short and personal to your situation, such as, "I'm calm. I'm confident. All is well." Practice doing these relaxation exercises, then incorporate repeating your mantra. What you're doing is creating your own trigger. You're tagging your mantra to a calm body and mind, so later when you repeat this mantra to yourself, eventually it works like an anti-anxiety trigger. When you know you're going to enter a stressful situation that may trigger an anxiety attack, give yourself a few moments to close your eyes, take slow deep breaths, and repeat your mantra. Your body will respond by remaining calm. Both mindfulness and relaxation techniques incorporating mantras require practice, the more you practice the better you'll get at them, and while neither are 100% effective, I'd rather do the work to help reduce the number of anxiety attacks, rather than continuing to have them 100% of the time that I'm triggered. I've been practicing both mindfulness and mantras for many years now, and can tell you that they work quite well at preventing anxiety attacks, even if I sometimes have to use them after the attack has already started. So, know your triggers, try to use these methods for prevention whenever you can, and if the attack is already starting, try them anyway. It couldn't hurt to try. :)

They are called Panic Attacks for a reason, they seem to come out of nowhere and take over our body and thoughts, and emotions. We feel so helpless because the 'chemical trigger' has already been pulled. Then the cascade of emotions and thoughts begins, and if we do not know how to interrupt that (so that the body can 'clean out the blood' of those chemicals), then we may, without intending to, re-trigger another and another attack until we are completely exhausted. Once we understand out body's response to an internal or external 'trigger' we can begin to minimize the effects of Panic. When we know we have the skills to manage and even control our body's responses, we can begin to feel safer, and that in turn reduces the effects of the panic. It is possible to stop a panic attack if you know the steps to interrupt the body's responses, and have practiced them when calm, until they are strong and automatic.

When you know you are having a panic attack you don't really go oh OK no problem. You most likely get even more scared of having another attack. Therefore more adrenaline and feelings of tension run through your body. You get even more scared, so it makes it come, sometimes even faster. If you can acknowledge you are having one, and make it seem like it isn't a big deal, sometimes they go away. Or aren't quite as bad.

Having a panic attack is as much physical as it is mental. You can't prevent your knee from jerking when the doctor tests your reflexes, and it can be just as difficult to prevent a panic attack.

Unfortunately, a panic attack causes a feedback loop that triggers increasing anxiety. The thought "I'm having a panic attack" triggers an increase in blood pressure, heart rate, and respiration. These symptoms consequently lead to increased thoughts of fear and and anxiety, further heightening the panic response. I have had to go to the emergency room a few times because I thought I was having a heart attack. It's really scary in the moment, but in reality, the worst that can happen is that I will hyperventilate and pass out, at which time I will start breathing normal again.

Sometimes when I feel so tense and wound up a panic attack is almost like a sneeze; jarring and unpleasant but it feels worse to hold it in! I have to work to remind myself that there are better ways to deal with stress than letting panic overwhelm me.

The mind is a interesting machine and can act like a boulder rolling down a hill sometimes. Once the momentum has started in a certain direction, it can be very difficult to slow or stop.