How to control anxiety and panic attacks ?

Question

How to control anxiety and panic attacks ?

Answer 1

Physical Anxiety

Here is a list of the distressing symptoms of anxiety.  Some people get all the symptoms, some only a few.  Some get symptoms not listed here.  Though very unpleasant they are not harmful.  No one has ever died of fright.

Feeling short of breath

Feeling tight across the chest

Chest pain

Dizziness or light-headedness

Tingling in the fingers

Palpitations

Muscle pains, including neck pain and headache

Shakiness

Feeling hot and cold

Sweating

Dry mouth

Blurred vision

Difficulty in swallowing

Sickness or wanting to go to the toilet

How Does Anxiety Cause Physical Symptoms?

Anxiety prepares the body for physical exercise.  Either to fight or run away.  It does this by:

1. Making us over-breathe

2. Putting a substance called adrenaline into the blood stream

This is fine during physical exercise but can cause the symptoms already mentioned if we get anxious at rest.

This how it happens:

Over-breathing.  When anxious, we feel we need to breathe harder, with quick deep breath through the chest.  This helps supply more oxygen to the muscles for exercise.  This is found during heavy exercise, but can cause problems if we get anxious:

(a) It can make us feel short of breath (or even suffocating).  Even if we do not actually need the extra air.

(b) The chest muscles can get too tense.  This feels like a tight band around the chest and may even cause chest pain.

Over-breathing at rest can alter the mixture of gases in the lungs and blood causing:

(i) Dizziness

(ii) Tingling in the fingers

(iii) Light headed or “floating feelings”

These feelings are distressing but NOT dangerous.

Adrenaline

Anxiety makes the body produce adrenaline which has the following effects.

(a) It increases the strength and speed of the heart beat to pump more blood around the body for exercise.  This can cause a feeling of the heart pounding which may be frightening but NOT dangerous.

(b) It increases tension in the muscles, preparing them to spring into action.  This makes us feel tense all over.  Muscles that get most tense are, the scalp, neck and shoulder muscles causing headache, neck-ache, or a feeling of a tight band around the head.  Sometimes the muscles tremble and shake.

(c) Sometimes adrenaline sends blood to the skin to help cool the body down.  Sometimes it drains blood away from the skin to send extra blood to the muscles.  This may make you feel hot or cold or even both.  You will have heard the expression “pale with fear” or “red-faced with embarrassment”.

(d) It increases sweating.  To cool the body when it gets hot with exercise.  People often find this a nuisance.

(e) Other uncomfortable feelings due to adrenaline are:

     Dry mouth, blurred vision, difficulty swallowing, feeling sick and wanting to go to      

     the toilet.

All this is very tiring and often leaves people feeling exhausted.

Mental Anxiety

When we get anxious, our minds can be full of all sorts of worrying thoughts and feelings.  It’s often hard to concentrate and think straight.  Sometimes the thoughts may be about various problems.  But they are often about the anxiety, particularly the physical anxiety itself.  This can cause lots of difficulties.  The most common thoughts of this type are:

“I can’t cope”

“ I’ll make a fool of myself, others will notice”

“I’ll faint in front of them”

“I’m going mad”

“I’m going to loose control”

“I’m having a heart attack”

“I’m dying”

“I can’t breathe”

“I’ve a brain tumour”

If any apply to you, please underline them and write any others you get in the space above.

Of course all these thoughts are very alarming.  Making a person’s original symptoms worse.  This confirms his worst fears, so he becomes even more frightened.  And so on.................

In other words, a vicious circle develops:

Frightening thoughts



Anxiety symptoms

If the symptoms get so bad that the person feels absolutely desperate this is called a panic attack.  Example: A man with fear of heart attacks feels his heart “pounding” as soon as he thinks about a heart attack.  This confirms to him his belief that something is wrong with his heart.  Making him even more frightened.  The circle continues until he has a full blown panic attack.

Pounding heart and Confirms his fear that

other anxiety symptoms something’s wrong with his

heart



Fear of heart attack

After it has happened once, every time he thinks of heart problems, death etc.  The whole thing happens again, often becoming worse.  This is how most illness phobias develop.  Whether it is heart phobia, fear of brain tumour, cancer or whatever.

Often symptoms make us frustrated or even guilty, sometimes we get terrified that the symptoms will return.  Unfortunately all three feelings cause anxiety, making the original anxiety worse.  So the person gets even more frightened, frustrated etc.  Again a vic

Answer 2

mail me back and ill help.

Answer 3

Take a lot of deep breathes helped me a lot of find a bag and breathe in and out of it seriously taking long deep breathes help calms you down.

Answer 4

ignore it

Answer 5

You can control anxiety and panic attacks by manage stress better. Everyone experiences stress but researchers have found that constant stress increases anxiety. Therefore, it is important to learn ways to effectively deal with life's stresses. Learn and practice Yoga. There are wonderful techniques in breathing, relaxation and meditation that release stress and anxiety. Also, engage in enjoyable activities as often as possible and learn better time management techniques. Having too much or too little to do can increase anxiety.

Adopt a healthier lifestyle. Alcohol, caffeine and drugs put more stress on the body, so avoid them. Eat healthy meals, get plenty of rest and exercise, exercise, exercise! Not only will the body be better able to handle stress but it is a proven fact that people feel better after a rigorous workout and try this resource...... http://anxietyandpanicattackssolution.bl...

Answer 6

It's kind of hard to control something that is a chemical reaction going on in your body that shouldn't be going on.  When confronted with danger, we get a rush of adrenalin which is called the "fight or flight" response.  It is natures way of helping us deal with dangerous situations and is yet another means of self preservation.

With panic attacks, your body enters "fight or flight" response indiscriminately.  No one knows exactly why it does.

The good news is that your body cannot sustain an adrenalin rush for longer than 10 or 15 minutes.  So when you are in panic attack mode, if you can be rational and push through it, the worst of it will be over in 15 minutes or less.  Concentrating on breathing deeply is helpful to some people.  Trying to focus on something you consider pleasant is also helpful to some people.  Having someone talk you through it can even be helpful.

The bad news is that even 10 or 15 minutes of feeling like you are suffocating, having a heart attack or are going to die is horrendous.  That's why a lot of us who have panic attacks elect to take meds for them.  

It's a personal choice whether to try to tough them out or to medicate.  Good luck whichever you decide.  And it certainly wouldn't hurt to discuss with your doctor.

Answer 7

im looking for the same answer if and when you find out let me know!! same issues going [e-mail]

Answer 8

I started having panic attacks in April. I can finally say that I am doing great and feel back to normal. I started taking Lexapro in the beginning which for the first 2 weeks made me feel worse. I also took and currently take xanax. it is a lifesaver, honestly. yes it can be addictive but if you take it for the right reasons, you have nothing to worry about. I am in counseling every few weeks and i stay updated with my doctor. I also changed my birth control to a milder one, with less hormones and it helped. Currently i am reducing my xanax dosage slowly and i seem to be fine. eventually i plan to be off it completely. i read every night. One book is A Purpose Driven Life. I felt I had no purpose on earth and reading it helps alot. My second book is The Anxiety Cure. It is awesome. It's almost like I wrote the book myself. Also, let your friends and family know what's going on, that way when you have a panic attack, you don't fear it, you just say " I'm having a panic attack,give me some time". I hope I helped. Email me if you have any questions.