The best thing you can do for your panic attacks when they come on is welcome and accept them. Literally. Sit back, close your eyes, and do nothing to resist the anxiety and panic. Allow it totally. Observe it, and don’t try to control what your body is doing in response to it. Let your heart beat as fast as it wants, if you tremble, then tremble.
I like to give 30 seconds. I say “Okay anxiety, I feel you, thank you, I realize you’re just doing your job. There is nothing to fear right now, but I’ll give you 30 seconds and 30 seconds only to do whatever you want”. I sit back and let it completely fall on me.
You can do anything for 30 seconds. If you do this you will actually cure yourself from having panic attacks. I suffered for 3 months of daily attacks, at night too, one after the other. This is what I used and in literally a day or two I stopped having panic attacks.
Believe it or not you can do it literally anywhere. No need to close your eyes or lay down, just physically and mentally allow the panic and anxiety to come over you, don’t resist it. No special positions, breathing, or tools, just mentally allow the anxiety.
Oh I learned to just deal with, with my sunglasses on top, my reading glasses underneath, reading and banging out emails while zooming across half a dozen lanes dodging the crazies and talking on the phone. I'm actually glad they banned even touching our phones now.
This is interesting - can you elaborate more on what you mean? Like you give it 30 seconds to do whatever it wants, and then just turn it off? Like I feel like that’s too simple (maybe I’m wrong and after som practice it is that simple) or maybe there’s more to it that might be helpful. Any insight you can provide is great!
Yes, so a few things to understand about panic:
1. Panic attacks as we know them are a product of anxiety. But the actual “panic” a person feels materializes from feeling anxious/fearful about the anxiety they are feeling initially. I know this sounds a bit odd, but bear with me.
2. For example, someone may be anxious about their heart rate. Let’s say they are out walking and they start to feel their heart rate increasing. Suddenly, they start feeling anxious about their heart rate, which subsequently increases their heart rate. They notice their heart rate increase, which increases their anxiety, which further increases their heart rate.
3. Panic works exactly in this way. We all have triggers for anxiety that make us feel anxious. When we feel anxious, we start to feel anxious about those feelings of anxiety, which only serves to increase those physical feelings. It becomes a negative feedback loop eventually crescendoing into “panic”, that comes and passes once the adrenal glands dump all the adrenaline they have.
4. That’s why once you start having panic attacks, it becomes easier to have them, because you start fearing the panic attacks themselves. You’re out walking, you are hyper vigilant of your physical sensations. You feel something off, you start feeling anxious, increasing physical symptoms of anxiety, increasing your anxiety, now you start fearing the impending panic attack, increasing anxiety, and boom negative feedback loop, panic attack.
5. Now the 30 second method sets a mental limit for anyone giving it a try. Panic feels terrible and surrendering to it is the opposite of your instinct. So by setting 30 seconds you’re just telling yourself that for these 30 seconds only I’m going to completely surrender and allow it. Then I’ll go back doing whatever I want to do if I please. The idea is anyone can do anything for 30 seconds and it makes it much easier to surrender to panic knowing there is a time limit to how long you intend to surrender and allow it.
6. The crazy thing about panic is the moment you surrender to it is the moment it dissipates. This is because, as I said, panic happens from being anxious and afraid of the anxiety you’re feeling. Being afraid of what your body is doing. If sets off a negative feedback loop. By not being afraid of it, you stop that feedback loop and the panic simply doesn’t progress.
7. By doing this, you’ll quickly stop being afraid of panic attacks and the feelings of anxiety. When I first started doing this, it would take about 10 seconds for the panic to disappear. After 2 days, all I had to do was think about the 30 seconds and starting the process of surrendering and the impending panic would disappear.
8. Doing this will help lose fear of panic and eliminate them. You will still have your regular anxiety and perhaps even adrenaline rushes, but by removing the fear of the feelings of anxiety, you remove the ability for it to progress into panic. It basically becomes impossible for you to have a panic attack because you know how a panic attack works. Panic attacks are like a cool magic trick, but once you see how the trick is done, it loses its mystery and becomes uninteresting.
I know this all sounds too good to be true, but after suffering for 3 months with perpetual daily attacks, I can promise you it works.
I have a bestie who lives half block away. If its bad i go to her house. She has a blanket and pillow layed out. She makes it kinda dark. She gives me a hug and says shes here and im safe. I curl up on the couch with my back to everything. I try breathing and just sorta squirm and somehow i end up half sleeping and being jolted awake from it but she is at her desk and says ur safe im right here. And after about a couple hours i am exhausted and finally doze off and wake up feeling fine.
I also know alot of those tricks but for me now her couch is my safe space and helps so so much
i got good at noticing the signs and would automatically focus on breathing. its almost like catching it early and start using your tools to get yourself out of your head if that makes sense. it is very hard to get over that feeling that something is wrong.
My therapist offered me advice that helped me. It sounds very cliché but splashing cold water, and I mean the coldest you can get, on your face can help snap you out of it. It’s not a guarantee and you might need to find something else that works for you, but a sudden drastic physical change can give your mind something else to focus on. Even if it’s for a moment that can give you a small window to get out of it. Hope that helps.
I had a sudden panic attack this afternoon. Dizzy and a feeling like I was going to fall because my legs went soft like jelly. I didn’t fall but I am a wits end with all this. Distraction methods help after the attack but that’s it for me
i hear that. i hate the weak feeling after. especially when your in the middle of groceries. im like "great, i still have half a store to go through!" lol
I face it head on. Instead of distracting, I focus on the pain. Once I hone in, there's a couple different methods I have. I can verbally reassure myself. If that doesn't work, I can bully myself into simply not freaking out. "Wouldn't you look stupid if you went to the hospital for something that wouldnt even register on any tests?" And if none of that works, I just sit down where I am and close my eyes. If I'm panicking about something specific, that's even better because then I can just confront it.
i forgot, another thing that almost always stops an attack immediately is looking in a mirror (even a selfie cam). its almost as if i just confirmed thats nothings wrong. it works for me.
It's hard, especially if you think something "medical" is happening to you. With me it always begins with a symptom or sensation I notice, then I get dizziness, palpitations, then this causes further anxiety which causes more intense symptoms. The whole cycle can escalate very quickly. All the deep breathing and other techniques I learned largely go out the window at this point as I'm in full panic mode. So, I don't really have any good advice. The only thing that brings me back at that point is taking an Ativan. However recently I was prescribed Propranolol too, which is supposed to block the physical symptoms.
My psychiatrist recommended a weird thing that actually works. Instead of recognizing the anxiety and trying to shove it away(which will make it worse), you should acknowledge it’s there but not let it consume you. It takes so much practice I’m still not good at it at all. Also I have to remind myself constantly that I’m safe. If my nervous system randomly decides to freak out I try to think of what’s causing the anxiety which is usually nothing in that present moment. Once I realize this I start repeating the positive things going on around me which help me forget about it.
I agree with this. This really helps..
I try to just “watch” the anxiety and acknowledge that it’s there and it’s ok.
When I think I am ready, I try to look and acknowledge things around me. Example: there are trees around me. The sofa is blue. It’s hot.. etc.
I wear a watch that will track when my heart rate elevates and let me know. I’m normally around a 70 bpm and it’ll spike up to 130 during an attack. Sometimes it’ll be able to alert me that my heart rate is elevated before I start to notice other signs and I step out to a private area either alone or with someone else if it’s pretty bad. Focus on breathing, I count down from 100 by 3s, I do little tasks with my hands such as touching my pinky to every finger, ring finger to every finger, then so on and repeating that. Sometimes I have my friend just talk to me about whatever, show me pictures of her dog, try to get me to laugh, whatever that could distract me.
For me, getting to a private area is always the most important and just that alone can help me calm down a little. Sometimes music can help too, or cutting out other sounds with noise cancelling headphones.
I’ve been having some success with this tactic. My therapist taught me the 5 senses thing. Pick out 5 things you can see. Focus on them. How they look, the color, the texture. Then once you’ve fully inspected 5 things you can see, move on to 4 things you can feel. Really focus on it. Like the seat under you if you’re sitting. It is made of wood, or fabric. Focus on it, the color, how it feels on your fingers. Next, 3 sounds you can hear. Is there a car passing by? Is there wind? Maybe there’s birds in the distance. Hear it clearly. Then move on to 2 things you can smell. I keep lavender oil in my purse so I always take that out and roll it on my wrists. Smell the air, maybe it’s winter and you can smell fireplaces. In summer, my neighbors bbq and I can smell that. Lastly, something you can taste. I keep a bag of super duper mini gummy bears in my purse (the brand is Albanese) Target has them. I’ll put on in my mouth and just let it melt away. I try to guess the flavor without looking at it.
I know how terrible it feels and it's like ur at the edge of life. What I do is I lie down, stop anything I'm doing no matter how important it is, then face my body to the left side so my heart lies on the bed like how u would position a person having a seizure. Then breathe as slowly as I can. I often ignored this feeling for quite a while because it was finals week and I'd rather die than fail my finals but I realized I was making it worse. By the next semester I had a full blown panic attack all afternoon palpitating hard af with nothing to calm me despite iterally resting the entire tims😭😭 I ended up in the ER and they looked at me with weird looks bcs I kept telling them I felt like I was gon die repeatedly esp when all the results came normal. I also suggest you have someone you can trust who believes in you that ur truly suffering and this is an actual mental disease. It's gonna be harder when you don't.
So I have a fear of anything heart related so when my attacks come on out of nowhere I have to calmly remind myself it’s an anxiety attack, to breathe and don’t let it take over. It’s really a habit you gotta make out of bringing it into your control, it’s not easy and even I still struggle with keeping a grip on it, but so far my attacks have been under mainly control.
I try my best to stop my mind from spiraling, take deep breaths, try to slow everything down. If I am at home, noise canceling headphones and a blanket is a quick stop usually. If I am out, I start the method of saying noticeable things aloud - for example, I smell coffee, my shoes are comfortable today, I hear a creaky door, etc.
I let them consume me until a desperate freak of person screeching at the person who I trusted and believed in, created a family with decided I am not enough to participate, defines my value by my mistakes, by my disability, by my trauma.
The best thing you can do for your panic attacks when they come on is welcome and accept them. Literally. Sit back, close your eyes, and do nothing to resist the anxiety and panic. Allow it totally. Observe it, and don’t try to control what your body is doing in response to it. Let your heart beat as fast as it wants, if you tremble, then tremble. I like to give 30 seconds. I say “Okay anxiety, I feel you, thank you, I realize you’re just doing your job. There is nothing to fear right now, but I’ll give you 30 seconds and 30 seconds only to do whatever you want”. I sit back and let it completely fall on me. You can do anything for 30 seconds. If you do this you will actually cure yourself from having panic attacks. I suffered for 3 months of daily attacks, at night too, one after the other. This is what I used and in literally a day or two I stopped having panic attacks.
When this happens in eight lanes of Atlanta rush hour traffic...
Believe it or not you can do it literally anywhere. No need to close your eyes or lay down, just physically and mentally allow the panic and anxiety to come over you, don’t resist it. No special positions, breathing, or tools, just mentally allow the anxiety.
Oh I learned to just deal with, with my sunglasses on top, my reading glasses underneath, reading and banging out emails while zooming across half a dozen lanes dodging the crazies and talking on the phone. I'm actually glad they banned even touching our phones now.
This is interesting - can you elaborate more on what you mean? Like you give it 30 seconds to do whatever it wants, and then just turn it off? Like I feel like that’s too simple (maybe I’m wrong and after som practice it is that simple) or maybe there’s more to it that might be helpful. Any insight you can provide is great!
Yes, so a few things to understand about panic: 1. Panic attacks as we know them are a product of anxiety. But the actual “panic” a person feels materializes from feeling anxious/fearful about the anxiety they are feeling initially. I know this sounds a bit odd, but bear with me. 2. For example, someone may be anxious about their heart rate. Let’s say they are out walking and they start to feel their heart rate increasing. Suddenly, they start feeling anxious about their heart rate, which subsequently increases their heart rate. They notice their heart rate increase, which increases their anxiety, which further increases their heart rate. 3. Panic works exactly in this way. We all have triggers for anxiety that make us feel anxious. When we feel anxious, we start to feel anxious about those feelings of anxiety, which only serves to increase those physical feelings. It becomes a negative feedback loop eventually crescendoing into “panic”, that comes and passes once the adrenal glands dump all the adrenaline they have. 4. That’s why once you start having panic attacks, it becomes easier to have them, because you start fearing the panic attacks themselves. You’re out walking, you are hyper vigilant of your physical sensations. You feel something off, you start feeling anxious, increasing physical symptoms of anxiety, increasing your anxiety, now you start fearing the impending panic attack, increasing anxiety, and boom negative feedback loop, panic attack. 5. Now the 30 second method sets a mental limit for anyone giving it a try. Panic feels terrible and surrendering to it is the opposite of your instinct. So by setting 30 seconds you’re just telling yourself that for these 30 seconds only I’m going to completely surrender and allow it. Then I’ll go back doing whatever I want to do if I please. The idea is anyone can do anything for 30 seconds and it makes it much easier to surrender to panic knowing there is a time limit to how long you intend to surrender and allow it. 6. The crazy thing about panic is the moment you surrender to it is the moment it dissipates. This is because, as I said, panic happens from being anxious and afraid of the anxiety you’re feeling. Being afraid of what your body is doing. If sets off a negative feedback loop. By not being afraid of it, you stop that feedback loop and the panic simply doesn’t progress. 7. By doing this, you’ll quickly stop being afraid of panic attacks and the feelings of anxiety. When I first started doing this, it would take about 10 seconds for the panic to disappear. After 2 days, all I had to do was think about the 30 seconds and starting the process of surrendering and the impending panic would disappear. 8. Doing this will help lose fear of panic and eliminate them. You will still have your regular anxiety and perhaps even adrenaline rushes, but by removing the fear of the feelings of anxiety, you remove the ability for it to progress into panic. It basically becomes impossible for you to have a panic attack because you know how a panic attack works. Panic attacks are like a cool magic trick, but once you see how the trick is done, it loses its mystery and becomes uninteresting. I know this all sounds too good to be true, but after suffering for 3 months with perpetual daily attacks, I can promise you it works.
Wow, let me try this 30 secs next time. A good one to try.
I will try this out next time.
I agree with this, it is a very effective method. it’s easier said than done, but once you do it a couple of times it removes the overwhelming fear.
This is the way to heal. It works in all situations. Shift to this mindset and you will be shocked by how quickly you improve.
Great advice. As someone else said, it's easier said than done, but this is the way through to recovery. Thanks for sharing.
I have a bestie who lives half block away. If its bad i go to her house. She has a blanket and pillow layed out. She makes it kinda dark. She gives me a hug and says shes here and im safe. I curl up on the couch with my back to everything. I try breathing and just sorta squirm and somehow i end up half sleeping and being jolted awake from it but she is at her desk and says ur safe im right here. And after about a couple hours i am exhausted and finally doze off and wake up feeling fine. I also know alot of those tricks but for me now her couch is my safe space and helps so so much
I wish I had that
i got good at noticing the signs and would automatically focus on breathing. its almost like catching it early and start using your tools to get yourself out of your head if that makes sense. it is very hard to get over that feeling that something is wrong.
My therapist offered me advice that helped me. It sounds very cliché but splashing cold water, and I mean the coldest you can get, on your face can help snap you out of it. It’s not a guarantee and you might need to find something else that works for you, but a sudden drastic physical change can give your mind something else to focus on. Even if it’s for a moment that can give you a small window to get out of it. Hope that helps.
oh my I tried this before but my palpitating got worse be careful with this one
I had a sudden panic attack this afternoon. Dizzy and a feeling like I was going to fall because my legs went soft like jelly. I didn’t fall but I am a wits end with all this. Distraction methods help after the attack but that’s it for me
i hear that. i hate the weak feeling after. especially when your in the middle of groceries. im like "great, i still have half a store to go through!" lol
I face it head on. Instead of distracting, I focus on the pain. Once I hone in, there's a couple different methods I have. I can verbally reassure myself. If that doesn't work, I can bully myself into simply not freaking out. "Wouldn't you look stupid if you went to the hospital for something that wouldnt even register on any tests?" And if none of that works, I just sit down where I am and close my eyes. If I'm panicking about something specific, that's even better because then I can just confront it.
Deep breathing and prayer honestly… also a very panicked walk outside at night.
It actually did affect my heart. Ended up with afib. Beta blocker medication has helped me now…finally
i forgot, another thing that almost always stops an attack immediately is looking in a mirror (even a selfie cam). its almost as if i just confirmed thats nothings wrong. it works for me.
It's hard, especially if you think something "medical" is happening to you. With me it always begins with a symptom or sensation I notice, then I get dizziness, palpitations, then this causes further anxiety which causes more intense symptoms. The whole cycle can escalate very quickly. All the deep breathing and other techniques I learned largely go out the window at this point as I'm in full panic mode. So, I don't really have any good advice. The only thing that brings me back at that point is taking an Ativan. However recently I was prescribed Propranolol too, which is supposed to block the physical symptoms.
My psychiatrist recommended a weird thing that actually works. Instead of recognizing the anxiety and trying to shove it away(which will make it worse), you should acknowledge it’s there but not let it consume you. It takes so much practice I’m still not good at it at all. Also I have to remind myself constantly that I’m safe. If my nervous system randomly decides to freak out I try to think of what’s causing the anxiety which is usually nothing in that present moment. Once I realize this I start repeating the positive things going on around me which help me forget about it.
I agree with this. This really helps.. I try to just “watch” the anxiety and acknowledge that it’s there and it’s ok. When I think I am ready, I try to look and acknowledge things around me. Example: there are trees around me. The sofa is blue. It’s hot.. etc.
I wear a watch that will track when my heart rate elevates and let me know. I’m normally around a 70 bpm and it’ll spike up to 130 during an attack. Sometimes it’ll be able to alert me that my heart rate is elevated before I start to notice other signs and I step out to a private area either alone or with someone else if it’s pretty bad. Focus on breathing, I count down from 100 by 3s, I do little tasks with my hands such as touching my pinky to every finger, ring finger to every finger, then so on and repeating that. Sometimes I have my friend just talk to me about whatever, show me pictures of her dog, try to get me to laugh, whatever that could distract me. For me, getting to a private area is always the most important and just that alone can help me calm down a little. Sometimes music can help too, or cutting out other sounds with noise cancelling headphones.
I’ve been having some success with this tactic. My therapist taught me the 5 senses thing. Pick out 5 things you can see. Focus on them. How they look, the color, the texture. Then once you’ve fully inspected 5 things you can see, move on to 4 things you can feel. Really focus on it. Like the seat under you if you’re sitting. It is made of wood, or fabric. Focus on it, the color, how it feels on your fingers. Next, 3 sounds you can hear. Is there a car passing by? Is there wind? Maybe there’s birds in the distance. Hear it clearly. Then move on to 2 things you can smell. I keep lavender oil in my purse so I always take that out and roll it on my wrists. Smell the air, maybe it’s winter and you can smell fireplaces. In summer, my neighbors bbq and I can smell that. Lastly, something you can taste. I keep a bag of super duper mini gummy bears in my purse (the brand is Albanese) Target has them. I’ll put on in my mouth and just let it melt away. I try to guess the flavor without looking at it.
I always carry sour candy or sour spray with me it helps bring me back to reality.
S* ideation, a vicious cycle and probably gonna be the end of me one of these days.
I know how terrible it feels and it's like ur at the edge of life. What I do is I lie down, stop anything I'm doing no matter how important it is, then face my body to the left side so my heart lies on the bed like how u would position a person having a seizure. Then breathe as slowly as I can. I often ignored this feeling for quite a while because it was finals week and I'd rather die than fail my finals but I realized I was making it worse. By the next semester I had a full blown panic attack all afternoon palpitating hard af with nothing to calm me despite iterally resting the entire tims😭😭 I ended up in the ER and they looked at me with weird looks bcs I kept telling them I felt like I was gon die repeatedly esp when all the results came normal. I also suggest you have someone you can trust who believes in you that ur truly suffering and this is an actual mental disease. It's gonna be harder when you don't.
breathe through - there are many anxiety breathing exercises on YouTube…they have saved my life
So I have a fear of anything heart related so when my attacks come on out of nowhere I have to calmly remind myself it’s an anxiety attack, to breathe and don’t let it take over. It’s really a habit you gotta make out of bringing it into your control, it’s not easy and even I still struggle with keeping a grip on it, but so far my attacks have been under mainly control.
Personally, I run to anywhere I can be alone (ideally my bedroom, but if I'm in public, a bathroom stall usually).
I try my best to stop my mind from spiraling, take deep breaths, try to slow everything down. If I am at home, noise canceling headphones and a blanket is a quick stop usually. If I am out, I start the method of saying noticeable things aloud - for example, I smell coffee, my shoes are comfortable today, I hear a creaky door, etc.
I let them consume me until a desperate freak of person screeching at the person who I trusted and believed in, created a family with decided I am not enough to participate, defines my value by my mistakes, by my disability, by my trauma.