Stress is a horrible feeling that can stop you dead in your tracks or throw off your whole day. Everyone experiences stress from time to time, but some people are so crippled by their anxiety that they actually have panic attacks.
Not only do panic attacks have a lot of physical symptoms that can leave the person experiencing it feeling awful, they can also begin to have an effect on a person’s self-esteem.
Our Top Pick For Beating Panic Attacks
Stopping, and preventing, panic attacks is now even easier.
This is because panic attacks can happen anywhere and anytime. This can seriously compromise a person’s ability to meet obligations and enjoy outings with friends. As such, it’s absolutely crucial to find ways to manage stress, anxiety, and the panic attacks that come along with them.
If you’re looking for some simple ways to combat panic attacks and get back on track in your life, keep reading!
Calm Yourself Using These Powerful Panic Attack Solutions
The best way to approach panic attacks is to train yourself to respond to stress in an appropriate and realistic manner. According to Dr. Patti McDermott, there are four simple solutions a person can follow to do just that. They are as follows:
Relax
The first and most important thing to do is try to relax. It’s easier said than done, but trying taking regular and measured breaths while finding ways to ease the tension in your muscles.
Change positions. If you’re standing, you should lay or sit down. Moving around a bit, then settling in a comfortable position, can help you to momentarily refocus your thoughts and prevent you from hyperventilating.
Remind yourself that your thoughts may be frightening, but they cannot actually cause harm. By reminding yourself that you’re in no real danger, you will reduce the levels of adrenaline in your bloodstream.
Shout the Word Stop
Mentally shout STOP at your own thoughts, telling them to leave you alone and stop overwhelming your thought process. You can also use coping statements to reduce the stress, such as: this panic attack is temporary, it cannot kill me; I am fine and so is everything in my life; and all is well.
You can also try listening to your favorite music, watching your favorite movies, or a comforting activity that will redirect your thoughts.
You can get soothing audio and video files from Panic Away, a program that offers information and resources to help people manage stress and anxiety.
Use Coping Strategies and Statements
Learning to redirect your thoughts is essential to managing panic attacks. The negative and stressful thoughts that plague your mind during an attack can become a vicious cycle, causing your thoughts and panic to become increasingly worse.
You can try using statements such as those offered in step 2, repeat a favorite poem to yourself, read your favorite book out loud, or even sing your favorite songs.
The trick is to introduce different and calming thoughts to your mind. This should help ease your anxiety because it will disrupt the flow of negative and stressful thoughts that feed into it.
Accept your Feelings
Last but certainly not least, you should accept how you’re feeling. This will help to prevent future panic attacks and decrease your stress in the moment.
Work to control your thoughts and maintain a comfortable body temperature, and try to understand how you’re feeling and why you’re feeling that way. By understanding what feelings and thoughts trigger the stress that cause panic attacks, you will go far towards being able to less how often you experience panic in the future.
As you learn to cope with the feelings and situations that give rise to your stress, you will begin to free yourself from this negative cycle of anxiety and panic.
These four simple methods will help you to cope with panic attacks when they occur, and they will eventually help you to eliminate them as well.
Most of these techniques take very little effort and can work within minutes. If you continue to suffer from panic attacks, you may need to consider enlisting the help of a psychologist to figure out what is truly causing the anxiety in your life.
You will also learn advanced techniques for dealing with panic attacks, or be able to work with your therapist to create techniques specific to you. Some people need medications to begin managing panic attacks, but this route should only be explored if you have exhausted all other options.
Our Top Pick For Beating Panic Attacks
Stopping, and preventing, panic attacks is now even easier.
