Panic attacks cripple so many people. I've fallen victim to them myself earlier in my life. One theory is that panic attacks stem from the built-up garbage of negative emotions spawned by past traumatic experiences that eat away at the soul and call to you from deep within yourself, paralyzing you and choking the life out of you.
We are apt to think of the emotions as independent from habit. We easily may think of acquiring habits of action, and even of thinking, but we are apt to regard the emotions as something connected with "feeling" and quite divorced from intellectual effort. Yet, notwithstanding the distinction between the two, both are dependent largely upon habit, and one may repress, increase, develop, and change one's emotions, just as one may regulate habits of action and lines of thought.
Were you ever jealous? I sure was- insanely jealous, in my early relationships with men. This came from a lack of confidence and self-esteem. If you were jealous, too, you will remember how insidious was its first approach; how subtly it whispered hateful suggestions into your willing ear, and how gradually it followed up such suggestions, until, finally you began to see green. (Jealousy has an effect upon the bile, and causes it to poison the blood. This is why the idea of green is always associated with it.) Then you will remember how the thing seemed to grow, taking possession of you until you scarcely could shake it off. You found it much easier to become jealous the next time. It seemed to bring before you all sorts of objects apparently justifying your suspicions and feeling. Everything began to look green - the green-eyed monster waxed fat.
So it is with every feeling or emotion. If you give way to a fit of rage, you will find it easier to become angry the next time, on less provocation. The habit of feeling and acting "mean" does not take long to firmly settle itself in its new home if encouraged. Worry is a great habit for growing and waxing fat. People start by worrying about big things, and then begin to worry and fret about some smaller thing. And then the merest trifle worries and distresses them. They imagine that all sorts of evil things are about to befall them.
The condition of mind known as "fault-finding" is another emotion that grows fat with exercise. First, fault is found with this thing, then with that, and finally with everything. The person becomes a chronic "nagger" - a burden to friends and relatives, and a thing to be avoided by outsiders. My domineering aunt, with whom I shared a first name, was a chronic "nagger", and she nagged over things that were silly and petty. Once, she threatened to have me arrested because my son's kitten was "trespassing" on her property! The unfortunate recipient of continuous nagging may become the person who can't get out of bed in the morning, due to being frozen with panic and fear.
Each time you give way to one of these negative emotions, the easier do you make it for a recurrence of the same thing, or similar ones. Sometimes by encouraging one unworthy emotion, you find that you have given room for the growth of a whole family of these mental weeds. This is what is thought to create panic attacks.
If you wish to choke out these habits, there are two ways open to you. First, whenever you find yourself indulging in a negative thought or feeling, take hold of it and say to it firmly, and vigorously, CANCEL! CANCEL! CANCEL! It won't like this at first, and will bridle up, curve its back and snarl like an offended cat. But never mind - just say, "Scat" to it. The next time it will not be so confident and aggressive - it will have manifested a little of the fear-habit. Each time you repress and choke out a tendency of this kind, the weaker it will become, and the stronger your will becomes.
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