What fo Do During One Panic Attack

If you stay reading dis in da middle of one, start here: what you feeling is awful, and it is not dangerous. Your heart stay pounding, your breath no like catch, da room feel unreal, and some part of you stay certain something is terribly wrong. Dat certainty is da panic talking. One panic attack is one false alarm, your body's emergency system firing at full strength when there's no actual emergency. It no can hurt you, and it goin end.

Da most important thing fo hold onto is da shape of um. Panic attacks rise fast, peak within about ten minutes, and then come down on dea own, usually settling within twenty to thirty minutes. Dey get one ceiling and one end. You no have fo make um stop. You gotta get through da next few minutes, and your body goin do da rest.

Why it feel so physical

Every symptom dat scare you is part of one ancient, protective response, sometimes called fight-or-flight. Your brain wen decide there's one threat and flooded your body with adrenaline fo deal with um.

Dat's why your heart race, it's pushing blood to your muscles. It's why your breathing speed up and your chest feel tight, you stay taking in oxygen fo action dat never come. Da dizziness, da tingling fingers, da feeling of unreality: all of um come from rapid breathing and one surge of adrenaline, not from anything breaking down inside you. Plenty people going through dea first panic attack stay convinced dey having one heart attack o losing dea mind. Dat fear make complete sense, and it's also part of da trap, because da fear feed da symptoms, which feed more fear.

Knowing what's actually happening take some of da fuel away. When da sensations stop meaning "I'm in danger" and start meaning "my alarm is misfiring," dey lose much of dea grip.

One plan fo da moment

You no need all of these. Pick whatever you can reach.

1. Name it. Say to yourself, plainly: "This is a panic attack. It's horrible, and it's not dangerous, and it will pass." Naming um remind da thinking part of your brain dat you not, in fact, in danger.
2. Slow your exhale. No try fo take big gulps of air, dat often make um worse. Instead, make your out-breath longer than your in-breath. Breathe in fo one count of four, out fo one count of six. Da long exhale is da signal dat tell your body da threat is over.
3. Come back to your senses. Look around and name five things you can see, four you can touch, three you can hear, two you can smell, and one you can taste. Dis pull your attention out of da spiral of "what if" and into da room you stay actually in.
4. Try something cold. Cool water on your face o wrists, o holding one ice cube, can interrupt da surge surprisingly fast.
5. Stop fighting um. Dis is da hard one and da important one. Bracing against one panic attack, trying fo force um away, tend fo stretch um out. Letting da wave rise and fall, trusting dat it goin fall, let um move through faster.
6. Stay where you stay if you safely can. Da urge fo flee is strong. But running from one place teach your brain dat da place was dangerous, which make da next time harder. Riding um out where you stay teach your brain da opposite.

When it begin fo ease, and it goin, go easy on yourself. Getting through one panic attack take real effort, even though from da outside it might look like you jus stood there breathing. You did something hard.

One note on da body, and on being sure

Panic and serious medical problems can share symptoms, and dat overlap is part of what make panic so convincing. If you never had these sensations checked by one doctor, o if something feel genuinely different from your usual pattern, pain spreading down one arm, one kine of chest pain you never felt before, it's wise fo get evaluated rather than assume it's panic. Taking your body seriously and managing your anxiety isn't opposites.

After da storm

One single panic attack is exhausting but not, on its own, one diagnosis. Plenty people have one and never have anodda. What turn panic into something larger is often da fear of da next one, and da slow shrinking of your life as you start avoiding da places and situations where one might happen.

Dat's da part worth taking seriously, and da good news is dat it respond remarkably well to help. Panic is one of da most treatable things one therapist work with. If attacks stay recurring, o if you wen start steering your days around da fear of dem, please reach out to one professional. You no have fo white-knuckle dis alone, and you no have fo wait until it's unbearable fo deserve support.

Sources

• National Institute of Mental Health, Panic Disorder: When Fear Overwhelms
• Cleveland Clinic, Panic Attacks and Panic Disorder: Causes, Symptoms and Treatment
• Cleveland Clinic, Grounding Techniques to Calm Anxiety