Panic attacks and how to stop them can be a major problem for the people who suffer from them. They can prevent you from enjoying life and in some cases keep you housebound and lonely.
Stressed businesswoman
How you overcome your panic attacks is a big issue, because once you can overcome them you can get on with your life again. Many sufferers of panic attacks only want to be able to live a normal life.
There is some simple technique you can use to help you overcome panic attacks and stop them from happening as frequently.
Firstly, when you start to panic your breathing becomes quicker and shallower. When you are in a relaxed state focus on your breathing and teach yourself to breathe deeply and evenly from the bottom of your stomach. You want this type of breathing to become natural to you so you do it most of the time.
When you feel a panic attack starting up you need to instantly think about your breathing and start breathing in this deep and regular manner. If necessary stop what you are doing, sit down and close your eyes and focus on your breathing to make it regular. Often this is enough to get rid of your panic attack completely and prevent it from happening.
After some practice this will become second nature to you and when you start to panic you will automatically breathe deeply and relax, which will quell the feelings of panic. Initially, you may want to have a cue to remind you to breathe in this way, perhaps write it on your hand or tell the people around you to remind you.
Practicing relaxation or self-hypnosis techniques will also help you cope with panic attacks. You can either attend yoga or meditation classes or teach yourself self-hypnosis.
Panic attacks come from the feeling of being out of control, fear and not being able to cope. All of these induce stress in the body and prevent rational thought. Through these relaxation techniques, you can release the stress and prevent the panic attack from taking over.
If you can learn the triggers for your panic attacks then you can start to avoid them. Some triggers may be unavoidable, in which case you need to change how you feel about them. There are a number of techniques you could use to do this, but one of the most effective is for you to visualize yourself just before you enter the situation feeling relaxed. Then keep that feeling of relaxation and calm as you enter the situation and go through it in your mind.
As your subconscious mind doesn’t know the difference between what you imagine and what is real (just imagine something that hurt from the past to test the truth behind this) you will change how you feel about those situations.
Do this visualization enough and you will find that the situations that used to cause panic only cause you to be relaxed and calm. It can be a strange feeling when this happens, but it is a great one.
You can overcome panic attacks using the above techniques. Be prepared to be patient and to give yourself some time and you will see great results.
