Anxiety Panic Attack Symptoms - Coping With Panic Attacks And How To Cure Them

Panic Attacks

When you first have a panic attack, you have no idea what the hell is going on and you probably feel like you are going to die. I know I did.

It doesn't just stop at the first one either, every time it happens you think what's going on, I'm going to die. Even after you realise what is happening to your body, that you are having panic attacks, it's no less scary.

But it does get better. It can be a long healing process, mine was over 2 years, but I'm absolutely fine now and so can you be. One of the hardest aspects of getting rid of panic attacks is you have to stop thinking about them. I can feel that tightening of my chest just writing about the subject, but I won't let a panic attack happen, because I've conditioned myself to fight them. They won't disappear overnight, it will take time, but one day you'll notice that that it's you who has the power over a panic attack, not the panic attacks having power over you.

Having A Panic Attack And The Vicious Circle It Creates

If you're anything like me, one day it just happened. It came from nowhere, no warnings, nothing. Your chest got tight, you had major trouble breathing, You couldn't swallow, you felt light headed, shaky, maybe needing the bathroom. You maybe wondered if you were having a heart attack.

Panic attacks are disabilitating conditions that leave sufferers with a total sense of doom. After that initial panic attack eventually subsides, you are left with a sense of confusion and fear. What makes panic attacks more frequent and prolonged is the simple act of thinking about them.

It seems silly, but it is you yourself who is creating the panic attacks. The way this works is, after the first experience of a panic attack, you wonder if it will happen again. By wondering and thus thinking about having a panic attack, you are allowing your brain to create information on the subject. When it happens again, once subsided, you panic about having another one, so you end up in a vicious circle of thinking about having a panic attack, having one, then thinking some more about it.

This creates so many problems on so many levels. Leaving the house may become difficult because you're worried about a panic attack happening, the more you worry, the more likely it is that you will suffer an attack. If you've had an attack in a certain situation, whilst driving for instance, this may make you wary of that situation and so you try to avoid it. Panic attacks can ruin lives of not only the suffer but the people around them.

The Power You Need To Fight Panic Attacks

I can only speak from experience, but the breathing in and out of a paper bag did nothing to alleviate my panic attacks, it actually made them worse. The way I began to control them was to focus on something other than what was happening to my body. This is of course very difficult when you feel like you are about to stop breathing at any moment, but if you can get the brain focused, you will see the attacks subsiding.

A trick that really worked for me was when I felt the attack coming on, I would focus on a number from 1 - 10. How bad was the panic attack feeling? So I would being with say 7 and constantly measure the attack in numbers. The numbers may go up, but they will eventually come down. What I found useful, was whilst I was thinking of a number, I would visualise it in various forms. Different colours, fonts, in different settings, anything that would take the mind off of the physical symptoms I was feeling.

After I used the numbers method a few times, I began to see an improvement in the longevity and severity of the symptoms. The trick is to eventually begin the attack at a low number, that way you will have convinced the brain that the symptoms aren't as severe and so they won't be physically. You are lowering the fear factor, and that's a huge thing as a sufferer of panic attacks.

The way to recovering from panic attacks is to remove the information about panic attacks from the brain. You may think I sound crazy, but trust me, if I'd have had the knowledge that I'm writing about now when I was at the height of my suffering, I would have recovered way sooner than in the 2 years that it took me. Once I had the knowledge that the power of positive thought could cure me, it took less than 6 months.

Coping with panic attacks is hard, and you can only really understand the depth of terror that they bring if you yourself have suffered.

My advice to anyone who is suffering from panic attacks is to vow to fight them. It can seem like there is no hope, no way to lead a normal life again. That the horrifying symptoms will one day kill you. I thought like that for a long time, but you have to fight back. If you just give in to the panic attacks and let them take over your life, they will. No matter how hard it seems, you have to tell yourself that you will get better, and you have to focus on anything but panic attacks. The less you think about them, the less they will occur. By removing the thoughts about panic attacks, you are removing the fear, if you have no fear of them, they eventually disappear.

It's a simple solution to a terrible condition, but it's not that easy to put into practice. The vicious cycle is how panic attacks work. You have an attack, it goes, you think about when you will have another one constantly. You have another attack, it goes, you think about when you will have another one. Over and over.

This is the cycle that has to be broken, it was a clear as day once I worked it out. If you do not let yourself think about panic attacks, they hold no power over you. They won't just disappear overnight, but once you are of the mindset that you do not suffer with panic attacks, that will be the case. Mind over matter as the old saying goes. Difficult to put into practice as a sufferer, but take up a new hobby, plan something, do anything that requires your attention be focused on it. Once you forget about panic attacks, you can be sure that they will forget to happen.