Tips For Panic Attacks

A number of people with anxiety disorders turn to alcohol to escape from feelings of anxiety and dread. Although it may help you to counter feelings of severe anxiety and panic, it is easy to become dependent. Drinking excessively will often worsen anxiety in the long term. It’s far better to try alternative and safer tips for panic attacks.

Using visualizations can improve your confidence and well being, so imagine yourself in a perfectly healthy body, full of energy and happiness as often as possible. Imagine that you are an assertive and confident person and imagine living without panic attacks. Practice mastering your emotions and begin to take control of negative thoughts.

As you already know stress and anxiety can disrupt the normal sleep cycle. Constant stress and worry has a diminishing affect on your health and quality of life. One thing you can start doing is reducing your intake of caffeine as it can cause irritability and nervousness.

Caffeine is a stimulant which increases your brain waves, heart rate and blood pressure, and can last up to 6 hours in your system. Try an alternative beverage such as an herbal tea like chamomile. This herbal tea is caffeine free and has a soothing and relaxing effect on the nervous system.

Burning up adrenaline is a natural way in how to stop a panic attack from happening. Going to the gym and experiencing pain for an hour is probably not everyone’s idea of fun. But, exercise doesn’t have to be intense and strenuous. Cycling and swimming and other sports are excellent for getting the heart going and burning calories. Both the body and the mind benefits from exercise.

It is effective at enhancing mood, confidence and even your self esteem. Harmful chemicals in your body are expelled during exercise, relieving stress and tension. Mental exercise is also important for health. Mental stimulation is important for the development of the mind and can keep us from boredom. Everyday, try and do something that stimulates you mentally.

Try learning something new and fun, or creative like painting, cookery or writing. Playing games such as chess or sudoku are good ways to keep the mind sharp. They can also be an excellent distraction from anxious thoughts and worry. Mental stimulation increases alertness and improves memory and mood. This doesn’t mean you should burn yourself out mentally everyday. A good dose of daily relaxation is just as important.

Music is an excellent way to enjoy relaxation and give the mind a break from the days stresses. Music can also bring great pleasure and trigger the release of natural opiates in the brain. It’s a good way to unwind at the end of a busy day. These simple preventative cures for panic attacks may sound basic but you will be surprised at how much difference they can make.

Massage is a fantastic way to ease out physical and mental tension. People find massage deeply relaxing and calming both mentally and physically. Take it in turns to massage with your partner or even a friend. Do some research first on the basic techniques. A massage of the neck, hands and feet can help ease away built up tension, stress and anxiety.

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The Enemy Of Our MInd

People who experience panic attacks will often say that they feel out of control as soon as the panic is in full swing. Christian Nevell Bovee once wrote:

“Panic is a sudden desertion of us, and a going over to the enemy of our imagination.”

Doesn’t that sum it up well?

A confident self poised self can suddenly feel powerless and vulnerable as soon as the panic manifests. As the bodily sensations race, the mind jumps from logic and reason to wild fears fueled by the imagination.

The toughest part for most people to get their heads around is why they feel so suddenly powerless during a panic attack?

The automatic reaction for most to the sensations of a panic attack are to fight against it. To shut it down and end it as soon as possible. Coping techniques like deep breathing and distraction are mildly effectual at best. When these techniques fail to get consequences, that is when the self really leaps over to ‘the enemy of their imagination’.

It goes something like this:

“I used all my coping techniques but I still feel very nervous, in fact it may be getting worse!

“What if this keeps getting worse and no help can get to me here?”

Where people run with this type of thinking their imagination will continue to escalate the dread, leaving them feeling more and more vulnerable and out of control.

The secret to regain control and come back to yourself, is to learn how to respond to the panic in an appropriate manner.

The solution is to work with the bodily sensations rather than against them.

Let me give you a small example. If you were sitting on a train and started to feel sensations that indicated the beginning of a panic attack, instead of trying to stop the experience do the opposite.

Acknowledge that you are safe, mark the sensations and then tell the sensations that scare you, to get worse. If you are sweating tell your body to sweat more, if your heart is racing, tell it to race quicker.

Go into the experience rather than against it.

The real panic only starts as soon as you hand over reason and control to your imagination. By moving into the experience voluntarily, you become the choice maker and therefore save control. If you’re going to have a panic attack it is going to happen on your terms.

You empower yourself because you are directing the whole experience not handing “over to the enemy of our imagination.”

Learn more about this approach and how to apply it to various manifestations of panic and general anxiety.

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