How Dangerous are Anxiety Attacks? What to Do About it?
Have you ever felt that all of a sudden, there is a lot of weight on your chest, and you cannot breathe enough? Your heart pounds fast, and you seem to lose all the control over yourself. These are all symptoms of Panic attacks. Panic attacks that we call anxiety attacks in layman’s language are terrible experiences that last for a few minutes but can leave a person in utter stress and shock.
Symptoms of Anxiety Attacks
The symptoms of anxiety attacks may vary, but they typically include:
- Nausea
- Sweating
- Heart palpitations
- Chest pain
- Trembling and shaking.
- Headache
- Dizziness
- Fear of falling/collapsing or dying.
- Numbness.
- Loss of control.
- Feeling detachment from the surroundings.
- Choking or feeling short of breath.
Panic attacks have severe impacts on a person’s lifestyle. The worse thing about having a panic attack is that it may trigger several physical reactions that get out of control and cause us to fear more. If you are experiencing prolonged and repetitive panic attacks, you should visit a doctor and consider therapy—avoiding which may lead to intense anxiety and result in panic disorders. After observing repetitive attacks, you might start anticipating when it will happen next, and the fear of it may prevent you from going out and leaving your home.
How to Stop Anxiety Attacks?
Panic Attacks are unpredictable and can be overwhelming when they arise. You cannot avoid them but preparing yourself in anticipation is the best thing to reduce the fear and anxiety attacks.
Accept in your mind that this is a condition you are facing and might have to face again. But it doesn’t have to mean that you start stressing about it. That would only make things worse and cause more anxiety. To break this pattern, you need to stay prepared beforehand so that if such situations arise, you can reduce their effects.
It is not fatal and will end soon
First of all, if you are experiencing panic attacks often or even once, you need to understand that they are not life-threatening. No matter how dangerous they seem, they will not cause any fatal impact on your life.
Remember that it is only a matter of a few minutes, and then it will all get over soon. You have to stay strong till it is over, and then things will go back to normal.
How to Stop an Anxiety Attacks-Try breathing techniques
Concentrating on your breathing might help you reduce your stress and get over the panic attack sooner.
- Try to breathe in slowly through your nose and then hold your breath for a few seconds. You can even count in your head, say up to five while holding your breath.
- Then gently breathe out through your mouth.
- You can keep your eyes closed while focusing on your breath. If you don’t feel comfortable with your eyes locked, you can open them to focus on an object.
How to Stop an Anxiety Attacks-Adjust your focus to some object
Panic attacks are caused due to intense anxiety and stress, and the best way to avoid these attacks is to distract yourself. Once you are distracted from your fears and anxiety, you will start getting over the panic attack.
Adjust your focus on some object or the color of the walls and things like that. When you feel stressed, focus your eyes on any object you lay your eyes on and start observing its details like color, design, and other things. Getting your mind off stressful thoughts will avoid fearful situations.
Talk to friends and family
Sharing your thoughts with other people can help in reducing your stress. If something is disturbing you, you should try talking about it with someone. When you tell your problems out loud, you seem to have a clear picture of them. This way, you can avoid overthinking and start analyzing the situation practically. And who knows, you might even get some solutions from others.
Work on your happiness every day
Make a happy routine for yourself. Practice breathing exercises every day to reduce your anxiety. Take some time out to do things that make you happy. Meet your friends and loved ones. Watch your favorite films, listen to happy music and take out some old photos and remind yourself of the best moments in your life.
Avoid what triggers you
Often, panic attacks are triggered by the same things or habits. There might be certain things like loud noises, crowds, closed spaces, etc., that trigger fear and anxiety. Observe your patterns and avoid doing things and being in situations that cause fear in your mind. Even if you fall in a stressful situation, try to keep yourself calm, close your eyes, take deep breaths, and tell yourself that it is temporary and you will get past this very soon.
Focus on Your Present with Mindfulness Meditation
According to Suzanne Westbrook,
“Our mind wanders all the time, either reviewing the past or planning for the future. Mindfulness teaches you the skill of paying attention to the present by noticing when your mind wanders off. Come back to your breath. It’s a place where we can rest and settle our minds.”
Mindfulness is all about staying in reality. Panic attacks are frightening because we lose our sense of self, drifting us apart from reality. But by practicing mindfulness, you can stay focussed on the present. Many activities are involved in this practice, like focusing on the details of the objects around you, like the texture of your carpet or details of the thing present near you. Shifting your focus to real-life objects helps in reducing anxiety and overcoming overthinking.
Go for Psychotherapy
You can seek counseling and therapy sessions to treat your anxiety. There are numerous approaches to dealing with an anxiety disorder like Panic-focused psycho-dynamic psychotherapy, Eye movement desensitization, reprocessing therapy, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Among these types, Cognitive Therapy has shown promising results to reduce anxiety and avoid panic attacks. According to NHS UK,
“Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a talking therapy that can help you manage your problems by changing the way you think and behave.’’
What Happens in CBT?
The CBT sessions can last anywhere between 5 and 20 sessions, depending on your treatment. During these sessions, the therapist tries to identify your thought process and determine how you react to certain situations that might be challenging to you. Based on your reactions, you get counseling to change your responses.
Your therapist will make you aware of the irrational thoughts developing in your mind because of your fear and how to deal with those thoughts.
Moreover, CBT will help you to work on your thoughts and responses every day to usually deal with any challenging situation you might face in your life and carry out your daily activities effectively without stress and anxiety.
To Conclude
Panic attacks are sudden and don’t give you any time to prepare. But if you adopt a resilient attitude that you would defeat them, you should try to remember all of the things mentioned above to stop the attack or lessen its effects.
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