How to Deal with Panic Attacks?
If you’ve ever experienced a sudden surge of overwhelming anxiety and fear, then you’re familiar with the feeling of having a panic attack. Your heart pounds, you can’t breathe, and you may even feel like you’re dying or going crazy. Your hands may tingle or feel numb, and you might feel flushed or chilled. You may have nausea, chest pain or smothering sensations, a sense of unreality, or fear of impending doom or loss of control. Or may genuinely believe you’re having a heart attack or losing your mind, or on the verge of death. Panic attacks can occur at any time, even during sleep. An attack generally peaks within ten minutes, but some symptoms may last much longer.
Left untreated, panic attacks can lead to panic disorder and other problems. They may even cause you to withdraw from normal activities. But panic attacks can be cured and the sooner you seek help, the better.
Reading all of this you might ask yourself how often are panic attacks happening? Well, 22.7 percent of people experience at least one panic attack in their lives, according to the National Institutes of Mental Health. Many researchers feel that even this number is a low estimate, because many people who experience panic attacks never receive the proper diagnosis and “live” with it, despite its horror and its constant terror. It is interesting that women are twice as likely as men to develop a panic disorder. Another interesting thing is that panic disorder typically strikes in young adulthood and are most prevalent at the age 45–59, according to Barend’s Psychology Website. Roughly half of all people who have panic disorder develop the condition before age 24.
Sadly, many people do not seek help for panic attacks, agoraphobia, and other anxiety related difficulties, according to the Anxiety, Panic and Health Website. This is especially tragic because panic and other anxiety disorders are treatable conditions that respond well to relatively short-term therapy. The National Institutes of Mental Health is currently conducting a nationwide campaign in America and parts of Europe, to educate the general public and health care practitioners that panic and the other anxiety disorders are some of the most successfully treated psychological problems. Clinical research provides us with a solid blueprint of cognitive, emotional and behavioral methods that can help us overcome anxiety disorders, such as panic and/or agoraphobia.
Some people do not feel the need to go and seek psychological treatment because they feel scared that people will think they are crazy, which is something that happens in Bulgaria. It happens because panic and anxiety disorders are not treated as an actual disorders but there are other things you can do to help yourself.
One, breathing exercises. If you’re breathing quickly during a panic attack, doing a breathing exercise can ease your other symptoms but you can try to breathe in as slowly, deeply and gently as you can, through your nose and then breathe out through your mouth.
Two, grounding techniques. Some people find it very helpful using this method because it helps them when they feel like they have lost control of the surroundings and/or head. The technique is basically focusing what is around you, find things you can see, things you can touch, things you can hear, things you can smell and a thing you can taste.
Three, visualize a safe place. Close your eyes and think of a safe place for example the beach. Vividly think of all five senses being activated in the safe place (the view of the beach, the sound of the waves, the feel of the water and sand, the smell and the taste of the salty air as you breathe). Tell yourself that you are safe and nothing can harm you.
There are a lot more ways for dealing with the panic attack during the moment it occurred but when it comes to a long time treatment the best way is to seek professional help.
Silvia Skenderova is a 21-year-old, third-year student at the American University in Bulgaria. She chose writing about this topic because she had been fighting with panick attacks for most of ther life.
