Panic attacks are a common issue that a lot of people have – not only those with panic and anxiety disorders, but also those suffering with PTSD, or otherwise healthy people who have some panic or anxiety problems. If you experience panic attacks, then you are obviously going to be keen to know what to do about it. The good news is that there are many solutions available, so you should not feel that all is lost.
In this post, we’ll look at some of the best solutions you might want to know about. It’s possible that some of these will speak to you better than others, and it’s therefore good to know about all of them. Hopefully one or two of these will be the ones you need to overcome the problem.
Practice Breathing Exercises
There are a lot of breathing exercises that can help you with panic attacks, and they can help in both an acute sense and chronically too. In other words, proper breathing can help you to get through a specific attack, and it can also make panic attacks less likely to happen at all, and to be less severe when they do happen. So in general, breathing exercises are a highly useful and effective way to manage panic attacks.
All you need to do is take ten minutes each day to sit and slowly, deeply breathe. Over time, your skills will improve, and you’ll remember to breathe like this when the situation calls for it. That is going to help you out a lot, so it’s something you might want to start with right away, today.
Counseling can also be incredibly useful for managing panic attacks more effectively. In fact, there are numerous kinds of counseling and therapy which are specifically tailored to this end, or which at least are known to be very effective against panic attacks. A good example would be EMDR therapy, which has extensively been used for all kinds of anxiety-related disorders, and is known to work very well for panic attacks too.
It’s definitely worth seeking out this kind of counseling and therapy, and for many people it’s the main way in which they can hope to overcome their problem. Even if you continue to have panic attacks, counseling or therapy of the right kind, and with the right therapist, can help you to manage those episodes a lot more effectively.
There are certain substances which are known to worsen anxiety and to make panic attacks both more likely and more severe. Alcohol is a perfect example. The problem with this drug is that it can feel as though it is easing your anxiety and panic. But in the long run, it’s actually making it worse. You will find that drinking less alcohol is definitely going to result in fewer panic attacks and less severe ones too, so this is something that you should certainly aim to do.
That can be easier said than done, of course. You might want to think about some of the solutions there are out there to drinking less alcohol. That can include, for instance, seeking therapy for the alcohol use specifically, or simply cutting down rather than cutting it out entirely. Or you could replace your drinking with a healthier habit. Whatever it is and however you do it, the less you drink, the better your panic attacks and general anxiety will be.
Focus On An Object
When you are caught in the grip of a panic attack, one method you can try is focusing on an object in the physical environment around you. Doing this can help you to feel more grounded, which is often what you need to do if you are trying to overcome a panic attack. The object can be more or less anything, but it helps if it is nothing too sensory-overloading, for obvious reasons. Usually just focusing on it will help you to feel more in control of the moment again.
It can help to think about the object consciously too, such as asking yourself what it is and who made it, and so on. This keeps the mind occupied and ensures that you are going to feel a lot more in control. You might be surprised how much it can help, so it’s something you should certainly think about.
Those are some of the very best ways to overcome panic attacks. All of them are worth being aware of and considering at the least.
