Ways To Manage and Control Panic Attack

Panic attacks can cause disabling anxiety and fear which can make the heart to continue beating fast and abnormal.

It generates physical effects that cause frightening symptoms which can lead to heart problems or stroke.

 

The information below provides 10 easy ways by which you can help yourself to control a panic attack.

 

1. Accept Your Fear

This can be regarded as a form of Reverse Psychology, which simply implies during the opposite of what is actually required to solve the issue. This has proven effective in many cases, and in this case, the same method is expected to be applied as well.

• When you are trembling in panic due to certain circumstances, you don’t have to fight against it forcefully, what you have to do is to accept it then apply the technique of counting down as fast as you can starting from 100. Do the counting repeatedly. You can change pattern by counting in 3s from that same number, it will help reduce the fear.
• Taking a deep breath will have a long way to help as well, it will aid in relaxing the muscles especially that of the stomach making it expand and contract as you breathe in through your nose and breathe out through your mouth respectively.
• When you can’t do it on your own any longer, the best option is to rich out to a professional therapist who will help you overcome your fear.

This is one of the tools which can make you feel comfortable in such situations.

 

2. Have a Cold Water Splash

Cold water splash is a hydrotherapy which is a form of alternative medicine used to relieve pain and for treatment of other health conditions like arthritis, and in this case, it helps to fight depression, anxiety and fear.

Splashing cold water on the face when you have a panic attack has a physiological effect that helps to calm your mind and improve your memory, it calm and cool your nerves as well.

Sometimes, it is required to have a quick cold bath, this may not necessarily involve soap and sponge, just place yourself under the bathroom shower head for some time and feel the soothing relief.

Another advantage is that cold water when splashed on the face improves the brain function and produces a parasympathetic effect.

 

3. Watch Funny Programmes

You can control or manage panic attack (fear) by distracting yourself for a while, but let the distraction not be on what that will worsen the fear, rather it should be fun making you laugh away your fear.

Funny movies and TV programs can improve your mood and produce dopamine - which is a hormone known to trigger happiness.

A panic attack can be scary and depressive but when you watch funny programmes on the television and laugh, it will make you feel good and ease out the fear.

Laughter is a natural and excellent medicine that can improve situations especially one that has impacts on memory.

 

4. Listen to Soothing Music

Music helps to control fear but not all Music helps. The genres of the music, in this case, is not the issue, but the meaning of the songs you listen to, as some might bring back the memories that you dread of, or might even worsen your situation.

This is why you have to listen to soothing music which will make you relax and be peaceful (calming your fear), it is best recommended to listen to songs you are familiar with as it can help you in this situation.

Listen to the music that you enjoy best and sing to it as you play along to improve mood and banish depressive moment. Neuroscientists discover from studies that music is a cognitive therapy that can reduce anxiety by 65% and improve emotions.

 

5. Try to Eat an Apple

The fruits, vegetables and food we eat, at one point in time, serve so many purposes which we may not even be aware of.

Apple has been proven an effective anxiety food. It has a positive effect on panic attack because of the adrenaline content in it that helps to create an impulse to organs that produce an effective response.

If you are in this condition, eat an apple. Apples are natural medicine effective for a panic attack but remember that this health condition has no medication, we are only helping in controlling it through some of the foods we eat.

 

6. Engage Yourself

If you have a panic attack and keep sitting at a place all the time, you are making the situation more dangerous. You have to be doing things that can keep you busy and make you happy at all times.

Visit your friends, engage in stories with your neighbours, call your loved ones and do other leisure activities to ease yourself of the emotional and mental stress that panic attack can cause.

Regularly engage yourself in activities that will keep your mind away from fear or trigger panic attack, when you want to rest, you can play music, read books, write journals or watch funny TV shows which will help you by making you happy.

 

7. Exercise

Exercise is a therapy itself, it improves health in all round and in this case helps to improve the memory and provide one with a sound mind.

Help yourself with physical activities to reduce the mental stress that you are passing through.

This physical exercise includes running, jumping, yoga and much more can release endorphins which have an analgesic effect.

Performing physical activities as a daily routine can help to restrain panic disorder.

 

8. Share Your Fears With Families

Panic attack/anxiety is quite an awful situation to undergo all alone but even if you want to share with people tell your immediate family. 

They are the ones to help you in such situation when you can not handle it all alone. An adage says that “a problem shared is half solved” or "a problem shared is a problem solved”.

This literally means that when you share your fears with your family, it relieves you of some burden, releases some of the fear out and make you more relaxed knowing that your fears are not limited to you only again.

Do not tell your friend about such problem because he or she might end up “rubbing salt into the wound” thereby making the situation grow worst unless they are trustworthy.

 

9. Take Control of Yourself

Taking control of yourself eliminates the fear itself – Constantly keep reminding yourself that you are in charge of your body.

When you have a panic attack or in such related situation, taking control of yourself is the best you can do instead of allowing the situation to control you.

It is always characterized by losing control because of the feeling that you are in grave danger but you have to calm your body and mind so that you will be fine.

Relax and control yourself, and ensure yourself that it will soon be over.

 

10. Think Positivity

Positive thinking is a therapy itself as well, and it leaves no room for negative or other bad thought.

You can engage yourself in reading positive and optimistic quotes which will help to change your mindset, giving you a better life perspective, some of the quotes include;

Willie Nelson - “Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you’ll start having positive results.”

Zig Ziglar- “Positive thinking will let you do everything better than negative thinking will.”

Dalai Lama - “In order to carry a positive action we must develop here a positive vision.”

Reading inspirational, motivational and positive quotes will help you a lot in alleviating panic attack and its associated fear.

 

How Can I Stop A Panic Attack?

A panic attack is an intense fear that comes all of a sudden, you can stop a panic attack by practising one or more of the above strategies which have been listed above.

 

Is Panic Attack the Same with Anxiety Attack?

A panic attack is a sudden intense fear that occurs within a short time and may be caused by heart attacks, social phobia, panic disorder, hypoglycemia, agoraphobia, and other phobias.

Note: Panic disorder is a reoccurrence of a panic attack when one is in constant fear.

Anxiety attack tends to build up over time, and when it accumulates so much, it comes in form of an attack, such can be caused by constant worrying and by other underlying health conditions especially those that affect the mental health such as trauma and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

 

What are the Signs & Symptoms of Panic Attack?

Panic attacks come with the below-associated symptoms;

• Trembling
• Nausea
• Sudden Fear
• Pain in the Chest (due to muscles contraction)
• Sweating
• Dizziness
• Palpitation
• Numbness
• Shortness of breath and much more.

 

Conclusion

These tips which have been provided above will serve as an aid to hold panic attack under control.

You must have found out from the article that there is no medical treatment for this situation; you are the doctor involved in this case.

So follow the tips and combat panic attack.