Chronicle of a red button that got stuck
Logbook – EMDR PEPS practice
Some fears warn you. They build slowly, like a storm forming out at sea. Then there are those that strike without warning. That's what a panic attack is: your body triggering a maximum alert when, on the outside, nothing has changed.
My heart races as if I need to flee immediately. The air becomes thin. My thoughts contract, narrowing into a tunnel. And a certainty imposes itself, brutal, final: I am in danger.
In my EMDR PEPS practice, I have learned to recognize that precise moment when the nervous system stops thinking.
He presses the red button.
Understanding anxiety attacks
Two paths for the same fear
It is essential to distinguish between two experiences that are often confused in everyday language.
An anxiety attack builds gradually. It's like a pressure cooker that's been left on the stove: thoughts accumulate, the pressure increases, and the body follows suit. You can feel the overflow coming.
A panic attack, as described in international clinical classifications (DSM-5, ICD-11), is of a different nature. It is a sudden discharge of the survival system. In a matter of minutes, sometimes seconds, the body triggers everything: palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness, derealization, fear of dying or losing control.
Neurobiologically speaking, the amygdala takes over.
The circuit is short.
The fire alarm goes off before anyone has even checked to see if there is a fire.
Would you like to find out if EMDR en visio is right for you? Let's have a chat together.
How EMDR helps calm crises
When the body confuses excitement with disaster
What EMDR helps us understand—and, above all, transform—is this: a panic attack is not the fear of a situation. It is the fear of the internal surge itself.
At some point in the person's history, intense physiological arousal was experienced as dangerous, uncontrollable, perhaps even deadly. The body learned a simple rule:
if it rises, I am in danger.
EMDR does not seek to prevent the surge.
It teaches the nervous system that this surge is no longer a threat.
It's a matter of recalibration, similar to an overly sensitive circuit breaker: it trips at the slightest voltage fluctuation. We don't cut off the electricity. We adjust the threshold.
This finesse has been developed through clinical experience and continuous analysis.
When the road becomes a restricted area
One story among many
I think of this 45-year-old man I met after a serious car accident. Physically, everything had been repaired. Administratively, too. But his nervous system had remained at the point of impact.
Gradually, violent panic attacks began to occur. Not on the highway. Not in objectively dangerous situations. They would strike as soon as he left home.
The further away he got, the more his body reacted.
It was as if an invisible circle had been drawn around his home.
Beyond this boundary, the alarm went off.
Its internal GPS repeated over and over: "
"
Dangerous area beyond this perimeter.
The EMDR work did not focus on the fear of driving or on the road itself. It focused on the bodily memory of helplessness, on that second when everything spiraled out of control during the accident.
As these footprints were reprocessed, the circle widened.
Kilometer after kilometer.
The breathable territory returned.
Why video calls are sometimes a refuge
Weathering the storm from a familiar harbor
Panic does not strike in a well-lit office.
It strikes in real life: at home, on a mundane journey, in silence.
EMDR via video allows you to work where the fear actually lives. From a familiar place, known to the body.
In this configuration, the video becomes a port.
Not a shelter to avoid the sea, but a stable point from which to learn to read the waves.
This method is particularly suitable for panic attacks and severe anxiety.
Would you like to find out if EMDR en visio is right for you? Let's have a chat together.
Starting remote EMDR therapy
Learning to descend without falling
You can't defuse a panic attack by force.
And above all, you don't rush a system that is already in crisis.
The first step is to observe. To understand the precise mechanics of crises. To establish support systems.
Like a pilot learning to recognize turbulence before flying through a storm.
It is a condition of safety.
Conclusion
When the emergency ceases to be a prophecy
EMDR via video does not aim to eliminate all intense feelings. It allows for something more fundamental: no longer confusing physiological arousal with mortal danger.
The challenge is to strip panic of its status as absolute truth.
When the nervous system finally understands that the alarm may be wrong, the red button is released.
And the world slowly begins to open up again.
Would you like to find out if EMDR en visio is right for you? Let's have a chat together.
