Help for panic attacks.
Panic attacks feel awful. Even if they only last for a short amount of time, it can feel like an eternity. What exactly are they? And how can I take care of myself when I have one?
The definition of panic is: the fear of fear. It is when we think of and behave as though anxiety sensations are a threat. If I were to feel my heart beating faster and think “oh no! I don’t want to feel this again!”, then I have just treated a bodily sensation like a threat. Now my body gives me a boost of energy to protect me from the threat. Now I have the energy to fight or run for our life. My heart might be pounding, it’s feels hard to breath, maybe even like Ii am choking, palms sweaty, dizzy, vision blurry, a general sense of doom……. It feels awful.
Over the course of our lives, most people will experience one or more panic attacks. Panic attacks only become a problem when we start to fear the next one. Once we start to fear the next one, our lives can start to get smaller. We might avoid the place or situation that we were in when the last one occurred. It can all pick up pace quite fast.
So what can I do in the moment when I have a panic?
Well, first of all reminding ourselves that as bad as this feels, it is NOT dangerous, and it WILL pass. (There is no record of anyone having a panic attack that lasted forever). Really, the way that we think about these normal albeit unplesant sensations is the MOST important part. The attitude that will really set us free sounds something like: “I’m feeling anxious, so what?”
Then, refocus on the world outside of our body. As long as we keep looking for internal sensations that we don’t like, we will find something. (If I told you not to focus on your big toes right now, you would probably start noticing how they feel).
Grounding is a great way to refocus on our surroundings instead of our internal sensations. There are many ways to practice this, but one of my favorites is color counting. All you need to do is pick a color (really, any color) and start counting all of the things that you see that are that color. You can sit still or walk around. Spending a few minutes doing this will give your brain a small solvable task to focus on.
Finally, go back to doing what you were doing before you started to notice the sensations of anxiety. The less space you give anxiety, the less of you it will take.