5 Ways to Deal With Panic Attacks

Right off the bat, I just want to say: I am not a doctor and my advice is purely from personal experience and research. My advice should not be mistaken for medical advice and should not replace medical advice! If you are experiencing anxiety and panic attacks, please seek help from a doctor. Working with a therapist will also allow you to customize a plan of attack (see what I did there?) for when you feel a panic attack coming on.

Also, the links in his post are affiliate links and if you purchase something through them, I will receive a small commission, at no extra cost to you, that will help me continue to bring you blog content!

My Experience with Anxiety

I started having panic attacks when I was twelve. The first major one happened at a Jonas Brothers concert (LOL). It was my first concert ever and my mom had taken me and a few of my friends to see our favorite boy band. I was SO excited. Nick Jonas was my major celebrity crush (my bedroom was practically a shrine to him).

The concert was loud, hot, and crowded and I FREAKED. My mom took me to the medical services area, where some extremely kind workers gave me water and earplugs. I didn’t know why I felt the way I did, but I just knew that something was very wrong with me (typical anxious thinking).

At that same time I started having trouble focusing in school (super strange, as I was a total nerd and loved learning). You could literally look in my notebook and see at what point during the lecture panic started setting in. My handwriting got wobbly and disorderly, and then there’d be huge gaps because I was constantly fleeing class to go to the bathroom and collect myself.

I was at the nurses office more days than not, calling my mom and begging her to take me home (bless her heart, she did every time). Turns out my body was in constant fight-or-flight mode, and therefore couldn’t concentrate on anything but getting to “safety” (logically, I was always safe, but my body was reacting as if I wasn’t).

You can read more about my journey with anxiety, as well as anxiety medication, below:

http://balancedandblissful.com/mental-health-awareness-stigma/

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What Happens During a Panic Attack?

The first step to dealing with panic attacks is learning what is actually going on in your body.

This is an excerpt from my very first post here on the blog titled, “Invisible Illnesses”:

During a panic attack, your body goes into fight-or-flight mode. It perceives imminent danger, so it does a whole slew of things to prepare you to either fight off the situation, or flee from it. Picture that you are walking through the woods and you spot a bear. Your body is going to enter fight-or-flight mode because it sees that bear and it knows that that bear could kill you. Your brain fires a set of commands to the rest of your body to prepare it for the situation.

First your brain says: “quick heart, pump faster! We’ve got to get more oxygen to those major muscle groups!” Then your brain commands: “stop that whole digestion process, who cares about that right now?!” It might also order: “activate those sweat glands – we’ve got to cool this body down so it doesn’t overheat!”

These are essential responses if there really was a bear in your vicinity that you had to fight off or run away from. However, when your body enters this mode when there is no real danger, say when you’re sitting in a classroom taking notes or standing in line to checkout at the grocery store, things can get pretty hairy.

Your heart starts beating rapidly to pump blood faster in order to get oxygen to the body’s major muscle groups. This causes rapid breathing, which can lead to hyperventilation that makes you feel dizzy or lightheaded. It can also lead to numbness and tingling sensations or muscle tension that can cause chest pain. The deactivation of the digestion process can result in an upset stomach or nausea.

All of these physical symptoms (rapid heartbeat, rapid breathing, lightheadedness, chest pain, nausea, sweating, etc.) can lead to even more anxiety because you don’t know what’s wrong with you. You may think you’re going to pass out, vomit, or even have a heart attack. All you know is that you’re caught up in this crazy spiral that you are just sure will lead to impending doom.

And the truth is, you’re totally safe. You’re sitting in the classroom taking notes or you’re waiting in the checkout line at the grocery store. There is no bear poised to attack you and eat you for dinner. But your body still reacts as if there is.

Whew. Yeah. So the good thing about panic attacks is that they won’t kill you or even hurt you. The bad thing is that they may feel like they will.

So how can you STOP (or shorten the duration of) a panic attack one it has started and you’ve recognized what it is? Here are 5 ways:

5 Ways to Deal With Panic Attacks

1. Breathe

This is the absolute most important tip I can give anyone with anxiety. JUST BREATHE.

It sounds stupid because, well, we’re all breathing all the time. But when our bodies go into panic mode, it often times causes shallow breathing, which is set off by, and also sets off, so many of the other uncomfortable sensations we experience during pain attacks.

So what I really should say is you need to breathe properly. Again, it sounds stupid. There’s a wrong way to breathe?

Well, it’s not that you’re breathing wrong necessarily. It’s just that you’re breathing in a way that allows the panic to continue. When you experience shallow breathing, it means the lungs are only filling up part way. The air is only reaching your chest, and not getting as far down as your belly.

Learning about belly breathing, or diaphragmatic breathing, can help you avoid this shallow breathing and effectively stop a panic attack in its tracks. I have shared three YouTube videos below with different breathing techniques that you can try when you are feeling anxious.

• Three part breathing is my personal favorite, and probably the best one for beginners. It is a great tool to use in the moment when you feel a panic attack coming on!
• Square breathing is great for this as well, but requires a bit more experience, as you have to make sure you are truly breathing into your belly or you may start to feel out of breath (which won’t help anything). This is, however, my most popular YouTube video to date, so a lot of people clearly like this technique!
• Alternate nostril breathing can be incredibly calming, but isn’t the most feasible to do in any sort of public space. I like to use that technique during meditation or pranayama sessions at home!

You can try them all out and see what works for you:

2. Move Your Body

When you’re having a panic attack, your body revs up because its preparing you to escape (the flight in fight-or-flight). It fires up all your bodily systems and gets you ready to run. So it can be helpful to actually go for a run (or a walk, or do some push-ups, or yoga, or anything that gets your body moving).

Example: you start feeling panicky and your heart pumps faster. Then do some jumping jacks or something that’s actually supposed to make your heart pump faster! Meet your body where its at.

*If you are hyperventilating, try to obtain control of your breath before you start moving. The breathing exercises above can help you do this!

Exercise also makes your body produce endorphins, stimulates the endocannabinoid system, and can improve mood in the short-term, and the long-term if you keep it up consistently!

3. Self-talk

I don’t know about you, but I talk to myself all the time. Mostly in my head, occasionally out loud. Once you’ve learned to recognize what a panic attack feels like for you, it can be really helpful to remind yourself in your head (or out loud) that:

• This is just a panic attack
• I am not dying
• This will pass
• I am safe

When you have a panic attack, your body is basically confused and enters fight-or-flight mode because it thinks you’re in grave danger. You can work to quell this by going at it from either angle: try and control the body (through breathing, moving, etc.) in order to gain control over the mind, or try to control the mind in order to gain control of the body.

When your body’s systems seem to be going haywire, try to talk yourself through it, telling yourself the things above, or whatever else feels comforting to you. Let your logical side take the reigns while you ride out the rest of the panic attack.

If you’re into yoga or meditation, you’ve probably heard about using mantras. Mantras are words or phrases that you repeat in your head. A favorite mantra of mine for when I feel a panic attack coming on is: I am safe in this body.

4. Find an Anchor to Reality

Derealization and depersonalization are common aspect of panic attacks. Derealization occurs when one’s surroundings or the external world feel unreal. Its like you’re existing in a dream. Ever see the movie Elf? You know that scene where Buddy finds out that he’s human, and not really an elf, and his world starts to spin and things become distorted? That’s kind of what derealization is like for me.

Depersonalization is when one feels disconnected from themselves, as if they are not real. Its kind of like having an out-of-body experience. You feel like you’re watching yourself from outside your body, on the outside looking in.

I have always found that finding some kind of anchor to reality/the real world/the present moment can help with these symptoms. I can often be found tapping my foot or bouncing my leg, because I find that it keeps me connected to my body. Something as simple as this, or snapping a rubber band on your wrist, sucking on a hard candy, or chewing gum, can give you something to focus on that keeps you present.

During one of my absolute worst panic attacks (which occurred after I was diagnosed with Sjogen’s Syndrome), I remember being hunched over on the side of my mom’s bed, nauseous, shaking, staring at a dresser and experiencing derealization, and my mom went behind me on the bed and just held me. My back to her front, her arms wrapped tightly around me. The pressure/weight against my back kept me grounded and provided relief.

If you feel comfortable, you can ask a loved one to hold or hug you when you’re in the midst of a panic attack. Another option is to get a weighted blanket! This will provide consistent pressure on your body, which can be very grounding and soothing. Having a weighted blanket on top of you is basically like receiving a full body hug.

5. Cold compress/cold water

A splash of cold water on the face or a cold wet cloth over the back of your forehead or the back of your neck can provide relief from uncomfortable side effects of a panic attack like sweating and heating up.

The shock of the cold sort of snaps you out of your anxious state, and cold water has been shown to stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system, vagus nerve, and endocannabinoid system – all things that can help you calm down.

These are my go-to tricks for working through a panic attack. Sometimes panic attacks seem to pop up out of nowhere, so its super helpful to have some tools in your back pocket for when they do! Having a game plan for when you feel a panic attack coming on can also help reduce anxiety about having an anxiety attack, which is a feeling that I know my anxious peeps can understand!

I hope you find these tips helpful too, and make sure to share your favorite tips with me in the comments!

Related reading: Top Tips for Beating the Winter Blues