Have you ever been on a roller coaster? That stomach-dropping, adrenaline rush feeling you get on a roller coaster can be thrilling, and plenty of people find it to be a lot of fun. But imagine you have that feeling with no warning, while simply going about your day, no roller coaster in sight. And imagine that feeling showing up alongside an intense sensation of worry, fear, or doom, nausea, sweating, chills, and more.
Panic attacks are an intense experience, whether it’s your first or your 500th. They are disruptive, frightening, and exhausting. We want to share with you tips for managing panic attacks that will help you cut them short, help you ride them out, and help you avoid them in the first place.
What is a panic attack?
A panic attack is an intense physical and mental experience; they're often mistaken for heart attacks, and they can be so incredibly intense. When you have a panic attack, your sympathetic nervous system—the part of your nervous system that spurs you into fight-or-flight—engages, and your body and brain act as if there is an emergency. It can take time, but your brain will eventually calm down and re-engage your parasympathetic nervous system, allowing you to rest. But attacks can repeat, and fear of another panic attack is a not uncommon symptom of panic disorders.
It’s not certain exactly why people experience panic attacks, but it is likely that they are signs that a person’s stress and anxiety levels have been chronically high, leading to the nervous system assuming there are emergencies happening even when you are safe.
Symptoms of a panic attack can include:
- Racing heartbeat
- Shortness of breath
- Pain in your chest
- Tingling in your hands and face
- Dizziness
- A feeling of doom
- A feeling of being out of control
- Intense fear
- Shaking
- Nausea
- Sweating and chills
7 tips for managing panic attacks
Panic attacks don’t need to be passive experiences, you can take back control of your body and mind with some preparation, including pursuing therapy for panic attacks. Consider trying these methods for managing, or preventing, panic attacks.
Sour candy
You read that right! Eating sour candy provides just the nudge your brain needs to shift out of fight or flight mode and draws your attention back to the present moment. When your mind can re-start thinking and noticing instead of reacting, you can reassure yourself that you are safe. Consider keeping some sour candy on hand if you regularly experience panic attacks, to help bring you back to the here and now when your mind starts to panic.
Talk yourself through your experience
Any way you can get your thinking mind to kick in during a panic attack is going to help you cut it short. If you describe to yourself what’s happening, and reassure yourself about your safety, you can calm the panic.
Consider telling yourself:
- I am safe.
- This will pass.
- I am uncomfortable, but this will not hurt me.
- I will get through this.
- Lots of people have panic attacks, I am one of them.
- I can do this.
Breathing exercises
Slowing your breathing proves to your mind and body that you are actually safe. When we panic, breathing can get shallow and fast to prepare for having to respond to an emergency, so breathing in the opposite way—slowly and deeply—demonstrates to your body that being calm is a possibility.
There are many breathing exercises available for panic, including simply breathing in slowly through your nose, and then breathing out slowly through your mouth. Combining breathing exercises with talking yourself through your panic can be particularly effective, as can grounding exercises.
Grounding exercises
Grounding exercises help you stay in the current moment. There are an abundance of them to try. A particularly simple one to try in the midst of a panic attack is to choose an object you can see and start describing it to yourself in painstaking detail. Describe its size, shape, color, location, material, and everything you can think of. This mundane thinking about something right in front of you can help you stay present, and convince your mind and body that you are safe, and can calm down.
Use cold to trigger your diving response
If you can splash cold water on your face, particularly around your eyes, or even dunk your face in a bowl of ice water, you trigger your body’s diver response. This response is like a reset button for the sympathetic nervous system because it triggers your vagus nerve, which is responsible for your parasympathetic nervous system. Your heart rate will slow to its regular rate, your breathing will regulate, and you will literally—and figuratively—cool off.
Get moving
Going for a walk, dancing, or even wiggling and shaking your body can all cut a panic attack short, and regular exercise can also reduce the frequency of panic attacks. The movement helps your body release stored-up energy, and your deliberate choice of activity and engagement with it helps show your brain that you are safe enough to choose what you’re doing.
Go to therapy for panic attacks
When you have recurring panic attacks, they are usually triggered by underlying mental health difficulties. Whether chronic stress, out-of-control anxiety, depression, mania, OCD, or other mental health disorders are responsible, psychotherapy can help free you from the panic cycle. Psychotherapy from Patterns Psychiatry in Texas, Minnesota, or Iowa can provide you with a safe space to dig into the underlying reasons for your panic, practice coping mechanisms, and pursue a treatment plan that helps free you from the panic cycle.
