A panic attack is a sudden and rather frightening experience, which can make you feel like you are about to have a heart attack, die or lose control. Many people have at least one or two panic attacks during their lifetime, while others suffer from them all the time. In the latter case it is possible that they are affected by a psychopathology called "panic disorder". During the panic attack, one experiences strong and sudden fear for no apparent reason, along with quite noticeable physical alterations, such as accelerated heart rate, excessive sweating and increased respiratory rate. You can take some steps to stop a panic attack and prevent it from recurring in the future.
Steps
Part 1 of 2: Quickly Calm the Crisis
Step 1. Learn to recognize the physical symptoms
During a panic attack the body undergoes changes that prepare it to fight or flee ("fight or flight" reaction) as if it were in a truly terrifying and dangerous situation, with the difference that in reality there is no danger. The most common symptoms during a panic attack include:
- Chest pain or discomfort
- Lightheadedness or fainting
- Fear of dying
- Fear of losing control or the arrival of an imminent catastrophe;
- Feeling of suffocation;
- Feeling of detachment;
- Derealization;
- Nausea or stomach pain
- Numbness or tingling in the hands, feet, or face
- Palpitations, rapid heartbeat or heartbeat;
- Sweating, chills, or hot flashes
- Trembling or shivering.
Step 2. Check your breathing
In most cases, the panic attack causes rapid, shallow breathing, which fuels the attack and increases the intensity of the symptoms. By controlling your breathing, you have the ability to bring your heart rate back to normal, lower your blood pressure, slow sweating, and feel in control of your body again.
- One method of slowing the breathing rate is to take a deep breath and hold it for as long as possible. It will allow you to balance the oxygen and carbon dioxide levels, hindering the feeling of lack of air.
- After holding your breath, start breathing deeply using your diaphragm. Inject the air slowly and deeply, then expel it even more slowly.
- To practice diaphragmatic breathing, try sitting in a chair by placing one hand on your chest and the other a little below your rib cage. Sit back with your knees bent, relaxing your shoulders and neck.
- Then inhale slowly through your nose and let your stomach dilate, holding your upper chest as much as you can. Breathe out slowly, contracting your stomach muscles and continuing to hold your upper chest still. The hand on your stomach should move outward as you inhale and inward as you exhale, while the hand on your upper chest should remain as still as possible.
- You can also use the 5-2-5 method. Inhale with your diaphragm for 5 seconds, hold your breath for 2 seconds, then exhale for 5 more. Repeat 5 times.
- Generally speaking, it is no longer recommended to breathe into a paper bag. It is not as useful as previously believed and can even be harmful.
Step 3. Take prescription psychiatric drugs
One of the most effective ways to stop a panic attack is to take oral medications classified as anxiolytics, usually benzodiazepines.
- The drugs commonly used for the treatment of panic attacks, belonging to the benzodiazepine family, are alprazolam, lorazepam and diazepam. These substances have a rather rapid action and can help relieve symptoms in 10-30 minutes.
- Other active substances that fall into the benzodiazepine group produce a slower effect, but circulate in the blood longer. This is the case with clonazepam, chlordiazepoxide and oxazepam.
- Often these drugs are prescribed in small doses and taken regularly until panic attacks become more manageable by taking other drugs, such as serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or by resorting to cognitive-behavioral therapy.
Step 4. Continue living your life normally
As far as possible, don't stop going about your chores and don't interrupt your daily routine to prevent panic attacks from wearing you down.
Keep talking, moving, and staying focused. By doing this, you will communicate to the brain, and to your anxiety, that there is no danger, no alarm, and no reason to have a "fight or flight" reaction
Step 5. Avoid running away
If you are having a panic attack in a certain place, perhaps a supermarket, you will probably want to escape and get out of the store as soon as possible.
- By staying where you are and taking control of your sensations, you will begin to accustom your mind to recognizing the absence of real danger inside the supermarket.
- Instead, if you leave, your brain will begin to associate that place, and perhaps all supermarkets, with the possibility of danger, generating a panic attack every time you enter a supermarket.
Step 6. Focus on other things
With the help of a therapist, you can learn a few ways to naturally focus on your thoughts and keep panic under control.
- For example, you can have a hot or cold drink, take a quick walk, sing one of your favorite songs, talk to a friend, or watch television.
- You can also try something else to distract yourself from the looming panic sensation, perhaps by doing some stretching exercises, solving a puzzle, changing the air temperature, rolling down the car window if you are driving, taking a breath of fresh air. fresh air or reading something interesting.
Step 7. Try to distinguish a stressful event from a panic attack
Although they are quite similar experiences from the point of view of physical reactions (for example, in both there is the acceleration of the heartbeat, the increase in blood pressure and sweating), in fact they are distinctly different episodes.
- It can happen to everyone once in their life that they experience a lot of stress. It is possible that the body's natural reaction to protect itself or escape is activated during a stressful or anxious situation, just as it does during a panic attack, but there is always a trigger, an event or an episode directly related to this kind of. physical reactions.
- Panic attacks, on the other hand, are not connected to an event, but are unpredictable and their severity can be extreme and terrifying.
Step 8. Practice some relaxation techniques
Help your body calm down by using established relaxation methods to regain control of the situation when you are the victim of stress or anxiety.
If you suffer from panic attacks, with the help of a cognitive-behavioral psychotherapist you can learn the right strategies to relax and control the feeling of panic as it begins to increase
Step 9. Use your senses to manage the panic attack
If you are in the throes of a panic attack, anxiety or are in a situation of high stress, focusing on the senses, even for a few minutes, you can slow down the manifestation of unwanted physical symptoms.
- Use the view to observe pleasant things in the surrounding environment. If you are in a safe place, try closing your eyes and imagine your favorite flower, your favorite painting, your favorite beach or something that is able to relax.
- Stop and listen to what is around you. Try listening to distant music, birdsong, wind or rain, or even the roar of traffic along a nearby road. Focus on a sound other than that of the heartbeat and the ones that distinguish the stressful experience you are having.
- Keep using your senses, identifying surrounding smells. Maybe you are at home and someone is cooking, or maybe you are outdoors and you have the chance to smell the scent of rain in the air.
- Focus on touch. Even if you don't realize it, you always touch something, all the time. When you are seated, concentrate on the sensation given by the chair or notice if the table on which you rest your arm is cold or hot, or maybe notice if you can feel a breath of wind brushing your face.
- By taking a few moments to identify the sensations that run through your body, you will be able to take your attention away from panic, anxiety and stress.
- Clearly these strategies will not eliminate the cause of panic, anxiety and stress, but keep in mind that it is useful to focus on the senses to manage the unwanted physical reactions that tyrannize the body.
Part 2 of 2: Preventing the Manifestation of Future Attacks
Step 1. Talk to your doctor about your panic attacks
Your doctor will be able to offer you drug therapy or advise you to go to a psychologist who, after examining your situation, will be able to prescribe an appropriate treatment. Both the treating physician and the specialist will likely recommend that you go through cognitive-behavioral therapy.
Typically, panic attacks are related to other underlying disorders, including some mental illnesses and health problems. Talk to your doctor to rule out the possibility of an underlying disease
Step 2. Seek medical help as soon as possible
Studies show that people who treat panic attacks and panic disorder early on experience an overall improvement in health with fewer complications.
Step 3. Take the prescribed medications
Commonly used substances include benzodiazepines, both fast-acting and intermediate-acting.
Benzodiazepines are considered addictive substances, so be sure to take them strictly following the dosage indicated by your doctor. It is dangerous to take higher doses than recommended, as they can cause severe and life-threatening withdrawal effects if taken regularly
Step 4. Take fast-acting substances only when needed
Fast-acting substances help you manage symptoms when you feel a panic attack is starting. Often they are prescribed so that the patient can readily use them when needed or as soon as he begins to feel the onset of a panic attack.
- Use these drugs only when necessary, so as not to get addicted to the prescribed dose.
- Medicines prescribed to be used in case of need, that is when a panic attack begins, are lorazepam, alprazolam and diazepam.
Step 5. Take long-acting substances regularly or as directed by your doctor
Intermediate-acting substances take longer to act, but their effects are longer lasting.
- These are drugs often prescribed with a dosage schedule that counteracts the manifestation of panic attacks, until other solutions, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy, can be used.
- Among the intermediate acting substances are clonazepam, oxazepam and chlordiazepoxide.
Step 6. Take selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors
Commonly known as SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor), they are effective in the treatment of panic attacks.
The most common are fluoxetine, fluvoxamine, citalopram, escitalopram, paroxetine and sertraline. Duloxetine is a very similar substance that can be used in treating the symptoms of panic attacks
Step 7. Talk to a cognitive-behavioral psychotherapist
This form of psychotherapy is crucial for exercising the mind and body to overcome panic attacks and help you reach a point where they should no longer show up.
- Know what to expect from cognitive behavioral therapy. The specialists of this form of psychotherapy use 5 fundamental elements during their collaboration with patients suffering from panic attacks. The 5 sectors they focus on are the following:
- Learn about the disease to better understand what happens and what causes the symptoms of fear felt when a panic attack occurs.
- Monitor and record the days and times when episodes occur, for example by keeping a diary, to help the patient and therapist identify the factors that trigger panic attacks.
- Use breathing and relaxation techniques to reduce the severity of symptoms.
- Changing the way of thinking in order to change the perception of panic attacks and no longer feel them as catastrophic events, but for what they really are.
- Expose yourself, in a safe and controlled way, to the places or circumstances that are the triggers of panic attacks to accustom the mind and body to react differently.
Step 8. Consider getting a diagnosis of panic disorder
Panic disorder is recognized when at least 4 of the above conditions are present.
By promptly treating panic disorder, an overall improvement in health is achieved and any complications associated with the recurrent manifestation of panic attacks are reduced
Advice
- It is possible for some serious heart and thyroid problems to come in the form of a panic attack.
- Undergo regular visits to your doctor to rule out any medical conditions.
- Seek treatment for panic attacks as soon as possible.
- Rely on a close family member or friend, especially at times when you need immediate assistance during a panic attack.
- Take care of your body and mind. Eat a healthy diet, get enough sleep, avoid the consumption of high-caffeinated drinks, exercise, and regularly do what you like best.
- Consider learning a new method of relaxation, such as yoga, meditation, or mindful meditation.
