Monday, March 25, 2024

How To Manage Panic Attacks

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Tip : Practice Deep Breathing

Managing Panic Attacks

Breathing deeply is a very powerful tool to help to calm oneself down.

To practice good deep breathing, first look for a quiet and comfortable place. Then, make sure you breathe in and out through your nose by placing one hand on your belly and the other on your chest.

Keep in mind the most effective deep breathing exercises expand the belly and not the chest.

Causes Of Anxiety Fear And Panic

There are many different causes of anxiety, fear or panic and it’s different for everyone.

When you’re feeling anxious or scared, your body releases stress hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol.

This can be helpful in some situations, but it might also cause physical symptoms such as an increased heart rate and increased sweating. In some people, it might cause a panic attack.

Regular anxiety, fear or panic can also be the main symptom of several health conditions. Do not self-diagnose speak to a GP if you’re worried about how you’re feeling.

Learn To Recognize The Signs Of Panic Attacks Are These Signs Of A Panic Attack

Some people experience panic attacks occasionally, while others do so more frequently. Symptoms of a panic attack vary from person to person

The following signs or symptoms are usually associated with panic attacks:

  • A Feeling Of Impending Doom Or Danger
  • The Fear Of Losing Control Or Dying
  • Fast, Pounding Heartbeat
  • A Feeling Of Numbness Or Tingling
  • A Feeling Of Being Detached From Reality

Fear of having another panic attack is one of the worst things about panic attacks. You may avoid situations where panic attacks might occur so much that you fear getting them.

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What Is It Like To Have Panic Disorder

One day, without any warning or reason, a feeling of terrible anxiety came crashing down on me. I felt like I couldnt get enough air, no matter how hard I breathed. My heart was pounding out of my chest, and I thought I might die. I was sweating and felt dizzy. I felt like I had no control over these feelings and like I was drowning and couldnt think straight.

After what seemed like an eternity, my breathing slowed and I eventually let go of the fear and my racing thoughts, but I was totally drained and exhausted. These attacks started to occur every couple of weeks, and I thought I was losing my mind. My friend saw how I was struggling and told me to call my doctor for help.

Ways To Prevent Panic Attacks

8 Tips to Help Manage Panic Attacks  feel the blog  Medium

“You need to try to work out what particular stress you might be under that could make your symptoms worse,” says Professor Salkovskis. “It’s important not to restrict your movements and daily activities.”

  • Doing breathing exercises every day will help to prevent panic attacks and relieve them when they are happening
  • Regular exercise, especially aerobic exercise, will help you to manage stress levels, release tension, improve your mood and boost confidence
  • Eat regular meals to stabilise your blood sugar levels
  • Avoid caffeine, alcohol and smoking these can make panic attacks worse. Panic support groups have useful advice about how you can effectively manage your attacks. Knowing that other people are experiencing the same feelings can be reassuring. Your GP can put you in touch with groups in your area
  • Cognitive behavioural therapy can identify and change the negative thought patterns that are feeding your panic attacks

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Panic Attack Survival Kit

The thing is, when we focus on panic attack symptoms, they become more intense. The key to stopping or minimizing any panic attack is to focus on your external world rather than the internal signs .

Ever heard of a panic attack survival kit? If you or someone you love has dealt with panic attacks before, you know they can come on without warning. You can use these five tips to put together a small bag of items to reach for the next time a panic attack strikes.

Tip 1: Talk To Someone

Dont forget the importance of a friend in helping you combat panic attacks.

Sometimes talking to someone who can empathise with your situation can be one of the most helpful ways you can deal with panic attacks. Seek out friends who are able to encourage and provide you with a sense of comfort during difficult times. All it takes is a simple phone call or text.

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Acknowledge The Panic Attack

People spend most of their time in the two wrong places: the past or the future. In the past, you drown yourself in depression. In the future, youre scared for your life. But in the present, thats where you can find the most joy. While having a panic attack can be wildly unpleasant, its important to sit with yourself in the present moment and acknowledge it.

Tell yourself, Right now, Im having a panic attack. I feel scared, anxious, and worried that something will go wrong. However, right now nothing bad is happening right now. I am safe. I feel myself taking a deep breath in. I feel the oxygen entering my lungs. I feel my toes grounded on the floor. Im shaking my arms back and forth. This moment isnt perfect but it will pass. Good moments are up ahead. All I need to do is feel this present moment.

Managing A Panic Attack At Work

How to Manage Panic Attacks

A panic attack, defined by the American Psychological Association as, a sudden surge of overwhelming fear that comes without warning and without any obvious reason can strike anyone at any timeeven at work. The feelings and physical symptoms are very real and can be very scary. Panic attacks wont kill you, but depending on how severe and frequent they are, they can have a significant impact on your quality of life in every realm, including work. Often triggered by stressful situations, the symptoms of panic attacks usually recede when the stress ends. Common triggers at work include public speaking, conflict, an important meeting, a major transition such as a promotion or a big project, or a work-related social event such as a meeting with a key client or after-work drinks. The author provides tips for managing your symptoms and keeping them from taking over your workday and how to support a colleague who may be experiencing one.

Youre at work when you suddenly feel a deep sense of dread. Heart pounding, hands trembling, lightheaded, and drenched in sweat, you cant breathe. You think youre having a heart attack and feel like youre about to die. Youre about to call for an ambulance when the symptoms start to fade. You just had a panic attack.

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People With Social Anxiety Don’t Want To Be Alone

3. Relax Your Muscles: Another helpful tactic is progressive muscle relaxation, which essentially involves doing a full-body examination and tightening then releasing each muscle group in your body. You can start at your toes and work your way up, taking turns tensing one muscle group for a few seconds, then relaxing it for about 30 seconds. Move on to the next muscle group until youve worked your way up to the top of your head.

4. Remember, You Arent Dying Youre Having a Panic Attack: Remind yourself that what youre experiencing is a panic attack, and the feelings it brings are normal panic symptoms. Describe your symptoms to yourself, allowing yourself to feel them so you can let them go. Instead of judging your symptoms, just acknowledge them. Remind yourself that this is simply a sympathetic nervous system response that will soon pass. The first thing people tend to do is try to fight their symptoms and judge themselves for having them. Be with your symptoms and try to quiet your thoughts. That’s the best way to start gaining control of the panic attack without trying to get rid of it right away. Just be with your experience in the moment.

6. Drink Chamomile Tea: Recent clinical and laboratory research has determined that chamomile is not only relaxing but it can also significantly decrease anxiety and even fight depression. When feeling especially anxious, place four chamomile tea bags in hot water. After letting them soak for five minutes, drink up slowly.

What Is A Panic Attack

Panic attacks are a type of fear response. They’re an exaggeration of your body’s normal response to danger, stress or excitement. This page covers:

“My teeth would chatter uncontrollably and my whole body would tremble, I’d hyperventilate and cry with panic as the feeling that I was going to fall unconscious was so convincing.”

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What Do Panic Attacks Feel Like

During a panic attack, physical symptoms can build up very quickly. These can include:

  • a pounding or racing heartbeat
  • feeling faint, dizzy or light-headed
  • feeling very hot or very cold
  • sweating, trembling or shaking
  • pain in your chest or abdomen
  • struggling to breathe or feeling like you’re choking
  • feeling like your legs are shaky or are turning to jelly
  • feeling disconnected from your mind, body or surroundings, which are types of dissociation.

During a panic attack you might feel very afraid that you’re:

  • losing control
  • going to die.

Tips To Stop A Panic Attack

5 ways to manage panic attacks

People with panic attacks and panic disorders can often benefit from a cognitive-behavioural therapy session and other forms of counselling. By using cognitive behavioural therapy, you can learn to see challenging or frightening situations differently and find new coping methods as they arise.

There is no way to cure an underlying anxiety disorder without medication, but it can lead to dependence quickly. Because of this, doctors typically recommend the short-term use of these drugs during a crisis.

Controlling your breathing decreases your chances of experiencing hyperventilating, which can easily reduce the effect of a panic attack. Take breaths in and out through your mouth multiple times, allowing your chest and stomach to fill up with air slowly, then slowly empty.

Mindfulness can help you stay connected to whats going on around you. Panic attacks may cause you to become detached from reality. A person experiencing a panic attack may find it helpful to focus their attention on something else. Concentrate on one object in your line of sight.

During a panic attack, repeating the mantra I am strong I can handle this, internally can be soothing and reassuring, and it gives you something to grasp onto.

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What Does A Panic Attack Feel Like

The first step in managing a panic attack is being able to recognize when it’s happening.

Panic attacks can impact the entire body and mind and, along with physical symptoms, bring about feelings of doom, dread, and intense fear. They usually come on without warning, and their cause may be unknown.

Panic attacks can be so distressing that they can cause the person to feel as though they are dying, and the experience of having a panic attack can bring about additional fear or anxiety of future panic attacks.

When panic attacks continue to occur over time, it could be a sign of a panic disorder.

Tip : Think Of A Happy Time

Fond memories can play an important role in helping us feel better. Placing photographs and positive mementoes around your desk can help induce positive emotions that help prevent a panic attack. Try shifting your memory back to a happier time or recalling something positive someone said about you. This helps you regain a sense of positive wellbeing.

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Anxiety Sensitivity Is A Risk Factor For Panic Disorder

Most people experience some level of nervousness before a date or a presentation. In fact, it would probably feel strange if you delivered a presentation to your colleagues and didnt experience an increase in heart rate. But why do some people have panic attacks while others experience only subtle arousal?

The underlying mechanism that drives panic disorder is called anxiety sensitivity, a phenomenon where an individual becomes afraid of their bodily sensations, explains Gruner.

When people have high anxiety sensitivity, they can mistake natural bodily sensations as harmful physical health symptoms, and this can lead to more anxiety and trigger panic attacks. For instance, a persons increased heart rate might cause them to worry about an impending heart attack. A feeling of losing control might make them afraid that they are mentally unstable, or losing their mind, so to speak.

Most psychologists agree that anxiety sensitivity is not hereditary, but rather learned from personal experiences. Your mind and body learn to respond to internal changes as if they were a threat, says Gruner.

The process of learning to fear bodily sensations is called interoceptive conditioning. During the day, we all experience natural physiological changes. Its possible to condition oneself to be overly sensitive to even slight bodily changes, such as a natural increase in heart rate, so that panic attacks become a conditioned response to these changes.

Try Muscle Relaxation Techniques

OMG Panic – How to manage panic attacks

Another symptom of panic attacks is muscle tension. Practicing muscle relaxation techniques may help limit an attack. This is because if the mind senses that the body is relaxing, other symptoms such as rapid breathing may also diminish.

A technique called progressive muscle relaxation is a popular method for coping with anxiety and panic attacks.

This involves tensing up and then relaxing various muscles in turn. To do this:

  • Hold the tension for 5 seconds.
  • Say relax as you release the muscle.
  • Let the muscle relax for 10 seconds before moving on to the next muscle.
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    What Triggers A Panic Attack

    Regardless of who they happen to or how they manifest, panic attacks do not happen in a vacuum. Although panic attacks are often unpredictable and seem spontaneous, there are nevertheless risk factors that act as potential panic attack triggers.

    Negative mood is a situational factor that contributes to the increased likelihood of experiencing a panic attack. In contrast, an individuals general level of anxiety is a less specific factor that can work in the background and increase the likelihood of panic attacks regardless of situational factors.

    In other words, it can be useful to think of anything that causes negative mood as a trigger , while general levels of anxiety can be thought as a magnifying lens that turn seemingly innocuous events into potential triggers.

    These general triggers are useful for understanding the psychological origin of a panic attack. However, they may miss some of the spontaneity and confusion of how panic attacks manifest in day-to-day life, where triggers may be harder to identify and the timeline of a panic attack does not necessarily follow a neat beginning, middle, and end.

    An individual interviewed by Woodgate, Tennent, Barriage, and Legras described the onset of their panic attack:

    I was just walking down the street and then these guys walked past me and theyre like Whats up? and I started panicking.

    Repeat A Mantra Internally

    Repeating a mantra internally can be relaxing and reassuring, and it can give you something to grasp onto during a panic attack.

    Whether its simply This too shall pass, or a mantra that speaks to you personally, repeat it on loop in your head until you feel the panic attack start to subside.

    It is not always possible to prevent a panic attack, but the following tips may help:

    • do breathing exercises every day
    • get regular exercise
    • follow a diet that is low in added sugar and eat regularly to avoid glucose spikes
    • avoid caffeine, smoking, and alcohol, as they may make anxiety worse
    • seek counseling and other professional help
    • ask your doctor about local support groups

    Avoiding specific triggers may help prevent a panic attack, but this may not always be possible or appropriate. Some experts encourage people to ride out the attack and continue doing things, if possible.

    However, if a situation is likely to cause severe distress, consider waiting until youve worked with a professional to develop skills and strategies to help you cope.

    If you have concerns about panic attacks, consider talking with a doctor, especially if:

    • You have

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    Questions To Ask Your Doctor

    Asking questions and providing information to your doctor or health care provider can improve your care. Talking with your doctor builds trust and leads to better results, quality, safety, and satisfaction. Visit the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality website for tips at .

    Cognitive Behavioural Therapy For Panic Attacks

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    Cognitive Behavioural Therapy or CBT is considered to be one of the leading psychological treatments for panic attacks. All of our online courses use CBT strategies to help ease symptoms of panic disorder. Click below to see if CBT can help you tackle your symptoms to improve the way you feel.

    Strategies for Dealing with Panic Disorder

    Cognitive Strategies

    People with panic disorder can be overly sensitive to physical sensations that remind them of panic attacks, like tingling, dizziness, or shallow breathing. This is because they tend to worry that these symptoms are a sign of an impending panic attack. As a result, they tend to mentally scan their bodies for any unusual symptoms. They can also have unhelpful and inaccurate beliefs about panic attacks, for example, that panic attacks can cause heart attacks or insanity. People with panic disorder also underestimate their ability to cope with panic attacks, for example, worrying that they wont be able to calm down or get help. Cognitive strategies are designed to help people identify and change these unhelpful ways of thinking. By learning to challenge and overcome these kinds of thoughts, people can start to be less afraid of panic attacks, more hopeful, and more confident in themselves.

    Behavioural Strategies

    Coping With Symptoms of Panic Disorder

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