A couple of things first…
Thing 1—The most recent issue of The
Backwoodsman Magazine contains another of our frontier scoutcraft articles—a
preview of what’s to be found in the upcoming book on the topic.
Things 2—Just like the old Burger King slogan “Have
it your way!” The Black Box Subscription Service always aims to oblige.
We offer a brand-new premium volume each and
every month of the year [have been for over two decades] it comes automatically
to subscribers but…if the current volume does not fit your current training bill,
drop me a line with your alternate pick from any of our 250+ back-titles and we’ll
make it happen no sweat.
We always look out for The Black Box
Brotherhood. I’m obliged to you!
Now on to our regularly schedule program…
How to Induce a Panic Attack
or Vice Versa
Panic, anxiety, and an overall feeling of
unease are seemingly more prevalent than one might assume.
In fact, according to sources such as the
American Psychiatric Association, such “anxiety disorders” are not only on the
uptick but experienced by 43% of adults in the US.
Such numbers are and should be troubling.
Causes of the increase are likely multifarious
and thus outside the purview of a brief overview.
Rather what I want to do here is offer an immediate
hack that can be used to “Induce a Panic Attack.”
Now, you may be asking, “Mark, WTF would I
wanna induce a panic attack?”
Glad you asked.
The Answer
If we understand how to go from zero to 60,
that is a State-of-Calm to full-blown Anxiety in the briefest amount of time we
then have a mechanism that we can reverse engineer to avoid, abate and/or
reduce panic attacks and over all “floating anxiety.”
To illustrate this, we first need to make
sure that our information comes from a universally usable cadre.
Meaning, “How to be unflappable”
advice from, say, a supposedly “Never skeered” Navy SEAL sort has less
value to the common man/woman than advice that sits within the physiology of a
unique class of human beings—a class that in fact, some would consider “damaged.”
This “damaged” cadre has much to tell us about
how we can exploit this “damage” path to quell our own anxieties and fears and
lead a far more serene existence.
Large claims, but…I ain’t even kidding.
There is a rare genetic disorder called Urbach-Wiethe
disease which results in the gradual degradation of the structure within the
brain known as the amygdala.
The amygdala resides in both hemispheres of
the brain.
Urbach-Wiethe disease is a gradual
degradation of both sides of the amygdala.
This is known as Bilateral Amygdala Damage.
Individuals who suffer from Urbach-Wiethe suffer
from a raft of unfortunate consequences but one that stands out for our purposes
being—the inability to experience normal fear or anxiety.
The amygdala, it seems, is one of our hubs
for interpreting events and assigning avoidance [anxiety/fear] signals or
stand-down or approach signals.
Where you or I might see the upcoming speech
before our peers as sweaty palm inducing, to our “Damaged” Instructors, it’s just
another conversation.
Where you or I might hear the unexpected thunderclap
and flinch until we assess—our “Damaged” Instructors? The thunder might well
have been a door closing softly.
Where our soldier must use training,
discipline, and not letting the peer Brotherhood down to stay “cool” under
fire, our “Damaged” Instructors—no need of training, discipline, or the
Brotherhood.
Sort of sounds like a super-power, huh?
Not exactly—fear-assessment is a useful thing—we
need to jump back when we see the unexpected serpent, at least until we deem it
garter or mamba.
“OK, neat story, Mark, but what has this
to do with making me any less prone to panic or anxiety? Are you suggesting I damage
my amygdala?”
Nope.
Stay with me.
In a paper titled “Fear and Panic in
Humans with Bilateral Amygdala Damage” by Feinstein, Buzza, Hurlemann et. al
published in Nature Neuroscience, 2013 the authors sought to see if they
could, in fact, induce fear in these fearless ones.
It turns out they could.
How did they do it?
A dump truck full of snakes?
Shark in the backseat?
Nope.
They essentially inverted their breathing.
The mechanism to induce full-blown panic
attacks and anxiety was to saturate them with CO2, the by-product of our own
exhalations.
A gas we expel with every breath.
The over-breathing of the CO2 did the trick—the
Fearless became fearful.
The stress-free became anxious.
The effect lasted until the CO2 saturation stopped,
then our “Damaged” Instructors returned to being the fearless ones they were.
What Can We Learn from the Induced Fear of
the Fearless?
CO2 saturation increases anxiety, even in the
fearless.
Spending more time within an exhaled CO2 bubble
and or lengthy engagement in shallow breathing where we do not have compete exhalation
leaving CO2 present within the lungs triggers the amygdala to say, “Something
is awry, let’s get hyper-alert/anxious/fearful/panicky until we get this figured
out.”
It is likely no coincidence that meditation/contemplative
practices the world over center around breathing.
Controlled breathing.
Conscious breathing.
Calm induced breathing.
But…the science tells us that not all
beathing is equal.
There is a cadence, an inversion that better
serves fear-subsidence than all others, and it ain’t Navy SEAL “Box-Breathing.”
The proper cadence deserves its own examination.
We shall do that another day.
In the meantime, I offer this resource from
the Indigenous Ability archives about hackable nighttime CO2 bubbles.
Warrior Sleep: The Plainsman, The Strongman,
& The Astronaut.
https://indigenousability.blogspot.com/2021/02/warrior-sleep-plainsman-strongman.html
Or The Suakhet’u Program for a complete
course in Indigenous Breathing Practices.
https://www.extremeselfprotection.com/store/p/the-suakhetu-program-opening-the-sensorium
Look up, My Friends!
Let is not kink the neck over the phones.
Breathe Deep!
Live Well!
Resources for Livin’ the Warrior Life
The Black Box Store
https://www.extremeselfprotection.com/
The Indigenous Ability Blog
https://indigenousability.blogspot.com/
The Rough ‘n’ Tumble Raconteur Podcast
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