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Discover How to Treat and Prevent Panic Attacks
Does This Sound Like How You Experience Panic Attacks?
- Have trouble breathing
- Lose control of your body
- Your heart races
- Fear courses through you
- You sweat and shake
- You feel numbness in your fingers or toes
You’re not alone. These are all common symptoms of panic attacks.
Does This Sound Like How You Experience Panic Attacks?
It's Scary and Frustrating...
It's Scary and Frustrating...
It’s like you’ve lost control of your body, hyperventilating as the panic attack runs its course.
Panic is really tough because it stops you in your tracks.
You can’t function until the panic attack has passed and you can breathe again.
It’s exhausting.
It gets in your way.
It keeps you from relaxing and accomplishing the things you want to in your life.
It can even get in the way of connecting with loved ones or being successful at work because you can’t relax.
What are Panic Attacks?
What are Panic Attacks?
Panic attacks are a kind of anxiety where your system goes into a fight or flight response. Your body thinks it needs to fight or run away.
Panic attacks occur when stress and worry build in the system, starting with a thought which gives rise to stress and anxiety, which leads to another thought which gets rise even more stress and anxiety.
This continues creating a downward spiral until a panic attack happens as a result of so much anxiety building up in the system.
This in turn leads to the symptoms that we looked at above.
The Downward Spiral of Panic
How to Prevent Panic
How to Prevent Panic
1. First, notice the feelings that arise related to your thoughts.
When you’re thinking a thought, ask yourself how you feel as a result of that thought.
When you’re thinking a thought, ask yourself how you feel as a result of that thought.
Maybe you notice you’re feeling sad, anxious, happy, etc.
2. Second, when you notice that you can redirect your attention somewhere else, you can bring yourself back to the present moment by focusing on:
· Your Breath: Paying attention to the sensation coming in and out
· Your Bodily Sensations
·Your Senses; What we can see, hear, smell, taste, touch in our environment:
By focusing on any of those three things, we’re coming back to the present moment.
This is refocusing our attention away from the thought spiral that we looked at a moment ago.
This stops the panic spiral.
How to Treat Panic
How to Treat Panic
There is a nerve in your body that gets activated when you feel safe or when you’re in fight or flight mode (panic).
It’s called the Vagus nerve.
It runs through the majority of your organs, spine, and brain.
When a panic attack happens this nerve gets stimulated causing the panic.
Your system is perceiving a threat that’s not really there; as if a tiger were attacking.
In most cases, there is no tiger, the your mind is focused on an imagined threat to your survival.
To stop a panic attack, the trick is to signal this nerve that you’re safe and that it’s okay to relax.
One way to do this is through the breath.There is a connection between the breath and the nervous system.
When you’re feeling anxious, you breathe faster. When you’re feeling relaxed, you breathe more slowly. If you slow the breath down, you signal to the nervous system that it can relax.
You can signal your system to relax when you’re having a panic attack by:
- Deep Breathing
- Singing
- Humming
- Chanting
Taking long inhalations and exhalations through any of the above four activities stimulates the Vagus nerve and tells the nervous system it’s okay to relax.
Want Support Working with Panic Attacks?
Counseling for panic attacks can help you learn how to treat and prevent panic attacks.
You can also gain the skills to feel less anxious, more relaxed, and empowered to manage yourself and your emotions.
Don’t let panic stop you from living your life the way you’d like.Take control back with care, support and proven techniques from a panic attack professional.
Want Support Working with Panic Attacks?
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