We cannot deny what we are feeling is real but what we are experiencing will not hurt us. Some symptoms that are associated with a panic attack are; intense fear, excessive worry such as you are loosing control, heart palpitations, sweating, shaking, shortness of breath or a feeling of smothering and an intense rush of heat running through your body.
For me, panic attacks were frightening and I lived in fear of when the next one would attack my body. I remember having panic attacks several times a day and especially when I awakened in the morning. The fear that accompanied a panic attack was so intense I thought for sure I would die and at times wished I did, so I could escape this hell.
I learned with time and counselling some things that helped during a panic attack. First I had to take control of my breathing. When in an attack my breath was fast and shallow but that would make my attack worse. I had to focus intensely on my breathing and take deep breaths. I would breath in on the count of four, hold for count of three and breath out on the count of four. Do this for four or five times and I found this would calm me down somewhat.
Remind yourself that panic attacks cannot hurt you, the panic will reside in a few minutes, which may seem like hours. You have to look at your panic attack as being a ship riding out a storm. You have to let your attack to take its course and ride it out. Don’t try to fight it, that will only make it worse. I know that’s hard to do when you are in the middle of a panic attack and all you want to do is fight.
My panic attacks were so frequent and frightening that I was prescribed medication. I used one pill for each panic attack that I had and was taken by dissolving under my tongue. This way the medication got into my bloodstream almost immediately. It did help to calm me down, it was used as a band aid and could not be used for long term use. I had to learn how to cope and get these attacks under control myself.
Another form of self-help was a method that was taught by my doctor called mindfulness (to learn more about this in greater detail visit Google). In a nutshell, it was living in the moment. Not letting your mind wander to the pass or to the future., if it did just gently bring it back to the moment and concentrate on your breathing, pay attention to the inhaling and exhaling of your breath.
A big part of being able to survive a panic attack is through distraction; refocusing your mind to or on something else. This does take practice and even seems silly but if you want to take control of your panic attacks and not the other way around, then you will do whatever it takes. This is something else I learned in therapy; use your senses. And by that I mean, use your sense of smell to distract your mind. Use a scent, such as orange peel, feel it as it flows through your nostrils. Is it pleasant or unpleasant? Do you like the smell or not? Keep concentrating on the orange peel and nothing else. The sense of touch; hold something in your hand and keep your thoughts on how it feels. Rough or smooth? Describe it to yourself. Another sense you could use is the sense of hearing (you don’t use all the senses at one time). Distract yourself yourself by listening to the sounds around you. How many different sounds can you hear? Keep listening until your panic attack as subsided. Then lastly you can use your sense of sight; look around the room at the different colors you can see. What colors are there? How many can you see? Let your thoughts only go to the colors and nothing else. Practice makes perfect.
I must admit my panic attacks lasted for a long time, maybe 2-3 years, but that was me; everyone is different. I haven’t experienced a panic attack for a while now and I hope I will never experience another. It is one of the worse, horrifying, frightening and paralyzing experiences of my whole illness. I am thankful that right now I haven’t had one in a long time. But be encouraged, as bad as they are, they will not kill you; they just feel like they will. You too will conquer this ravishing beast; this horrible chapter in your life.
