Feb

Overcoming Panic Attacks - Signs and Symptoms of Panic Attacks

Panic attacks are intensely frightening experiences. They occur for 5% of people, sometimes only once but for some they are frequent. Fortunately they are physically harmless but they can wreck havoc on a person’s life and severely limit their ability to handle everyday situations and feelings. But there are things you can do to take control of attacks and prevent them. Here is a look at the signs and symptoms of panic attacks and a three step approach to overcome them when they start to take hold.

Signs and Symptoms of Panic Attacks

Signs of a panic attack include increased breathing and a fast heart rate, chest or generalized pain, a feeling of choking, nausea, sweating, hot flashes, or chills, dizziness, shaking and/or jerking, and a feeling of being out of one’s body or everything being unreal. Common emotions that one experiences during an attack are a fear of dying, a fear of having a heart attack and, for some, a strong sense of going crazy or losing your mind.

Overcoming an Attack

Overcoming a panic attack starts with recognizing the onset of symptoms and then taking hold of the situation to reverse it. Here are three tips to approach a panic attack when it begins:

Relax: Go through a conscious relaxation process. Start with your toes and slowly relax each and every muscle group. Work gradually up your body, relaxing to a point of feeling your limbs disconnected from your body. Proceed up your body to your head. Focus on relaxing your muscles completely from toe to head.

Breathe: After you have relaxed your muscles, turn your mind to your breathing. Slow your breathing by inhaling through your nose and by pursing your lips together so that you can only exhale very slowly through your mouth. Breath deep into your abdomen through your nose for a count of four, hold for a count of seven, and then breathe out with pursed lips for a count of seven.

Talk to Yourself: That’s right! Talk to yourself. When you feel the inability to breathe, talking will demonstrate to you that you can actually breathe quite well. Tell yourself that you are normal, you are not going crazy, there is nothing wrong. Talk about relaxing your muscles and talk about relaxing your breathing.

Use these three tips to overcome panic attacks whenever you feel your anxiety levels rise. In addition, examine your lifestyle, your general health and your nutrition.

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