3 Effective Ways To Deal With Panic Attacks

 

The severe symptoms you experience during a panic attack or anxiety attack can be a frightening experience especially when your heart starts to race fast,  your chest starts to hurt,  you feel light-headed and you feel like you cannot breathe and gasping for air. These are just a few of the most common symptoms experienced during a panic attack. While there is a huge amount of information about the symptoms experienced, the information about the cause is still a bit sketchy and unclear.  Unless you fully understand panic attacks then how can you even begin to manage them right? Well, by the end of this article you will have a thorough understanding of first, what panic attacks are, what is happening to your body when you are having one, what are the most common factors that bring on panic attacks, and what techniques you can use to manage them.

What Is A Panic Attack?

When you feel threatened by a situation that makes you feel vulnerable and not in control, in split seconds your brain releases the chemicals that you will need to either run away from the situation (flight) or to deal with the situation (fight) – this is the ‘fight or flight’ that you have probably read in many articles.  This is a normal response that every human being and animal has.  It is meant to help you survive the threat.

What Happens To My Body When I Am In The Fight or Flight Phase?

One of the chemicals that is released by your brain when you feel threatened, is Adrenalin.  The role of Adrenalin is to help you survive and keep you alive.  It is meant to increase your efficiency, agility, strength, effectiveness, and alertness. If you are involved in a motor vehicle accident Adrenalin will be your best friend because it will help you to think on your feet, and to deal with the situation as efficiently and effectively as possible. So, the first thing in learning to manage panic attacks is to understand that as uncomfortable and as scary as the symptoms might be, when you are experiencing a panic attack it is a normal defensive reaction that your body needs to have in order for you to survive. Without the Adrenalin you will react slower, not have as much strength, not think as clearly or as quickly to make the right decisions at a time when you need to.

If Adrenalin Is Meant To Help Me, Then Why Do I Experience Symptoms Such As Palpitations, Nausea, Dizziness, Heart Racing, Difficulties Breathing And Tight Chest

Ok, this is where it gets tricky.  When Adrenalin is released into your system, and there is a ‘real’ threat, and by ‘real’ I mean a war, an assault, a vicious dog, or a serious motor vehicle accident, the Adrenalin that is released is actually being used up when you are running away or fighting.  It isn’t just sitting in your system.   As it is being released it is also being used.    So, during this process, because the Adrenalin is not just sitting in your system, you are less likely to experience the ‘horrible’ symptoms that you would be experiencing during a panic attack when you are faced by an ‘unrealistic’ fear.  Ok, now this is where it gets even trickier.  “Unrealistic”. What does that mean your probably thinking?

An ‘unrealistic’ fear is one that is anticipated by you but not likely to happen.  For example, all the “what ifs” that you worry about that never eventuate.  Everytime you do this you are constantly putting your body in a state of preparation to deal with whatever you think is going to happen.  Imagine a ‘red panic button’ that you keep pressing every time you think something bad is going to happen only to find that it doesn’t happen.

Why Am I So Tired After A Panic Attack? 

Every time that your brain releases Adrenalin whether it is for a ‘real’ or ‘unrealistic’ threat, you will feel exhausted after the ordeal is over and the last bit of Adrenalin leaves your system.  The more Adrenalin, the more tired you will be.  So, if you are one of the seven Adults who suffer from a Panic Disorder, then there is a high chance that a percentage of your fatigue is due to the frequent and intensive panic attacks that you are having.

Why Do I Get A Tight Chest, Nausea, Shakiness, And Have Difficulties Breathing Every Time I Have A Panic Attack?

When Adrenalin sits in your system every muscle in your body will tighten and tense.  The muscles on your chest area will become tight and tense, and this can be misinterpreted as a heart attack.  The best person to help you determine whether this sensation is due to a panic attack or something more serious is your doctor.  When the muscles in your stomach spasm it can make you feel nauseous. The muscles around your throat can feel firm.  Often the combination of a firm throat and the fast and shallow breathing can give the sensation of not being able to breathe.  When Adrenalin is released it can also cause the shakiness in your arms hands and legs.  In a real situation you would be using your hands arms and legs to either fight or run to safety.  While these symptoms are common during a panic attack I highly recommend that you discuss them with your doctor to confirm that they are related to a panic attack and not a more serious condition.  

What Can I Do To Manage My Panic Attacks?

There are two stages in the treatment of panic attacks.  The first, is to learn to manage the symptoms and the second is to identify and address the triggers.  Now, while I will be discussing these triggers in this article, some of the most common triggers, to address these triggers I recommend that you do this with a therapist as it is not always an easy process for you to do on your own. I will be releasing an online course called “Stop Worrying, and Start Living” later this year which will be covering most of these triggers, so if you haven’t already done so, make sure you have joined my email list to receive your notification.  Anyway, in the meantime, what you can do on your own is to learn to manage your symptoms.  By ‘managing’ I mean learn to control the intensity and frequency of the symptoms.

There are three techniques that can be helpful in managing a Panic Attack:

• Controlled Breathing

• Being Active

• Distraction

 1. Controlled Breathing

You might have heard how ‘controlled breathing’ can help with panic attacks.  As simple as this technique might sound, it does help but it depends when and how you do it.  Let me explain.

How Do I Do Controlled Breathing To Control My Panic Attacks?

Your brain might not be able to differentiate between a ‘real’ and ‘unrealistic’ threat, but the one thing that it does do is that it waits for the ‘signal’ from you to release Adrenalin.  Yes! that’s right, you do have some control. The way that you breathe gives the signal.  Breathing fast and shallow signals your brain to, reduce the amount of relaxing chemicals released in your system, and instead, to increase the amount of Adrenalin released.  When you worry, you engage thinking, when you think you hold your breath and shallow breath.  That shallow breathing starts the process of releasing Adrenalin.  So, to counteract this you need to breathe more deeper and slower.

What Is The Technique Of Controlled Breathing?

The first thing I need to mention is that you do not want to engage thinking.  So, this means you do not want to start counting and focusing too much attention on your breathing.  I just ask my clients to slowly ‘fill up their lungs’ with as much air as they can through their nose, and to slowly ‘release the air’ through their mouth.  It’s as simple as that.  Now, if you have already tried Controlled Breathing and had no success, it might be because you are doing it at a time when the amount of Adrenalin that is already released in your system is too high.  Let me explain.

Controlled Breathing will be more effective when you do it immediately at the start of a panic attack when the symptoms are mild, not when you are in the midst of having a one. When the Controlled Breathing is actioned at the very beginning, there is not as much Adrenalin released for it to not work. The less Adrenalin, the more the opportunity for the release of relaxing chemicals to help calm you down.  

So, when you notice the first couple of symptoms at the beginning,, sit down and just start breathing deep and slowly until your symptoms calm down, and hopefully stop them from escalating to a moderate or severe level.  You might feel a little light headed at first when you start doing Controlled Breathing, but don’t be alarmed as this is normal and should pass.

If your symptoms are in the moderate to severe stage and too far gone for Controlled Breathing to work, then all you can do is wait it out and use ‘distraction’ as the other technique.

2. Distraction

What Type Of Distraction Will Work In Managing My Panic Attack?

Distraction is a strategy that can be useful when you have way too much Adrenalin released in your system.  The more you focus on your symptoms, the more Adrenalin your brain will release.  So, to stop you from focusing on your symptoms you need to redirect your attention towards something else. such as counting coins in your wallet, playing a game on your phone, reading something etc.
Distraction may work for some people and in some situations, but not for others.  This is where being more active can be useful.

3. Being Active

Another way to reduce the Adrenalin that is already built up in your system is to ‘use it up’.  Exercise, or being physically or intellectually active can help by using up the Adrenalin.  Mild exercise such as, walking, doing star jumps, or skipping are some examples.  Doing puzzles, such as Sudoku can also be a useful technique.
Now, all these techniques can be effective in managing your symptoms and preventing them from escalating to a moderate to severe stage, and eventually in building your confidence in being able to manage your symptoms, which feeling in control is always a good thing, but it won’t ‘fix’ your Panic Disorder.

What Is Triggering My Panic Attacks?

 While there are many triggers, the most common factors that trigger Panic Attacks are;

• Catastrophic thinking patterns.

• Trauma.

• Over-analysing.

• Over-committing, and 

• Panicking about having a panic attack.

Catastrophic thinking is worrying about something that is not likely to happen.  Worrying about the ‘What if”, and of the worst-case scenario happening.

Survivors of trauma, such as combat, having been assaulted, and childhood abuse for example, may have experienced a severe panic attack after having had a close encounter where they felt that their life was endangered. Experiencing such a severe panic attack can then develop into a fear of having another panic attack. For most survivors of trauma, trying to avoid anything that triggers a flashback or nightmare relating to the trauma is also their way of avoiding panic attacks.  This is called Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The first step in the treatment of PTSD is to learn to manage the symptoms as discussed in this article, and to participate in intensive Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to work with the therapist on putting their fear into perspective, increasing their sense of control, and reducing their sense of vulnerability.

Over-analysing engages over-thinking. This can then result in your brain releasing too much Adrenalin which is usually needed to think. This can be a habit of always wanting to be one step ahead in preparation just in case something goes wrong. Thinking too far ahead, in the future and not enough in the moment.

Over-committing, can be another trigger.  When you do too much because you over-commit, you are squeezing too much in not enough time.  In order to achieve this, you will need to rush and increase your pace.  This will cause your brain to release Adrenalin to keep up with the pace.

Panicking about having a panic attack is the other trigger.  When sufferers experience a severe panic attack and fear the symptoms, they can develop a fear of having a panic attack.  They do anything to avoid situations and places that they may have had a panic attack thinking that these factors cause the panic attack.  This avoidance can result in the development of Agoraphobia.

As mentioned earlier, to successfully treat a panic disorder, you need to first learn to manage the symptoms, and then you need to address the triggers usually with appropriate medical and/or psychological treatment.

I hope you enjoyed and found this article useful.  I would love to hear your feedback which you can do so by leaving a comment below.  To help other people who might be suffering from panic attacks feel free to share this article, and if you liked this content and want to be notified of future articles, and of my upcoming online courses please subscribe to my email list.

Corinne Coe
Psychologist

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