How To Deal With Panic Attacks

Having a panic attack is incredibly frightening you actually really do feel like you're dying. It is important to learn how to deal with a panic attack, how to ask for support, and how others can support you.

There are things you can do during a panic attack and of course, it is important to look after yourself after having one.

Panic attacks can be one-off experiences or reoccurring relating to trauma.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to this talk on how to deal with a panic attack.

Having a panic attack is incredibly frightening.

You actually really do feel like you're dying.

And then when you come out of it,

You can feel ashamed and you don't know how to talk about it.

So this is a series of three where I've talked about what is a panic attack.

And then I've done a lovely meditation to support you with panic attacks because I'm creating them because I want to normalize it.

I want to be able to share with people what it can be like and that it's okay.

I've had them and I still had them.

I'm Chantal and a psychotherapist and Reiki master.

Panic attacks can come for all sorts of reasons.

But we also need to understand why and what they are and how we can not only support ourselves,

But how someone else can support us.

And we can support someone who's going through it themselves.

Because I know until I had them,

I had no idea what they meant.

I didn't get it.

I hadn't been around anyone who had had them.

So I didn't know how to support not only myself,

But someone else.

And as I already mentioned,

I felt incredible shame and embarrassment.

Because when a panic attack happens,

Of course,

There is a trigger within your body,

Your body's remembering,

Remembering a an experience,

A trauma,

But it can come up for no apparent reason.

You're safe in your life,

But there it is.

So there's no logic.

So right at that moment when you've had a panic attack,

You actually can't understand why it is just simply there.

It's learning how to cope with that.

So something I was taught,

But I did find it quite difficult at first to do was when you're actually in the attack,

The aim is to slow your breath down,

Because you will have shallow breathing,

You feel like you're choking,

You feel like you're being smothered.

I have to say I did find that a bit too hard to do.

Because the other thing they also say is to start relaxing your body.

Because what that does,

Slowing down your breathing,

Relaxing your body will support you and bringing you back into the present moment.

It doesn't keep you from heightening the experience.

Because of course,

The more uptight you get,

The more anxious you get,

The more it's going to happen.

And the other thing that they say is don't resist it,

Allow it to take its course.

Now again,

That can be hard to do.

I know I wasn't able to do that at first.

I actually found that really difficult because I didn't want to resist.

You don't want to feel like that.

You want to get out of that state of feeling so petrified and like you're dying.

And my heart felt like it was having a heart attack.

But over a period of time,

You'll find that you can start doing that.

But it takes practice.

It's about being kind with yourself and being very loving with yourself.

So this is when the next part comes in.

What to do after you've had a panic attack.

It's about self care,

And knowing what your triggers are and how to support yourself.

So immediately after one,

If you can,

You will feel exhausted and tired and washed out.

So make sure you can get rest.

Talk to someone you trust.

Make sure you're eating well.

And just do something that soothes you,

Soothes your nervous system,

Nurtures you,

Because that you'll find will help you.

Well,

I know it does me.

And also might take a day or two to recover.

But be kind with yourself.

Be patient.

Really be with what it is,

And that is really,

Really important.

Now there are things that you can do in the long term,

Like make sure you get good sleep,

Understand why by practicing a therapist,

A professional,

A GP.

Get them to help you diagnose that and understand what's happening and where they're coming from.

Have EMDR,

Tapping,

As mentioned,

Make sure you're eating well,

Getting plenty of sleep.

Do something creative.

Get a massage,

Use essential oils.

There's so many things you can do to support you.

So you must find something that you love doing.

These are just ideas.

What it does is teaching you that you're not in danger.

It is helping you reduce that anxiety,

Stress,

Overwhelm,

All the triggers that can come up that can bring on a panic attack.

So when you do trigger,

You actually know how to support yourself.

You know that it's okay,

That you will come out of it.

So I can still have them,

But I trigger my sleep.

And I spoke to my psychologist about it and did I have a dream?

No.

But what I do now is,

This is another thing you can do to self determination and self reflection is I look at what was happening in my life at that point to trigger panic,

To trigger fear.

And that has really helped me.

So why am I feeling anxious?

So I have now learned how to turn them around and go,

Okay,

This is what I need to do to support myself.

This is what I need to do to lessen them.

So of course what's happening is I don't have very many now.

And also if you've got someone around to support you,

Sometimes that's all you need to have is someone watching,

Being there,

Reassuring you.

And this is where someone can help you.

So we'll go to that part of this talk.

What you need to do when someone is going to a panic attack is just start reassuring them.

Say their name.

Let them know that you're there.

Even if it's in public,

Because when we're in public,

It actually feels even more frightening.

Particularly if you don't know anyone around.

All you need to do is just keep asking them what do they need?

Never make an assumption that you know what they need.

Simply ask them,

Do you want me to support you?

How do you want me to support you?

It's very,

Very important to give the person a chance to be able to tell you what they need.

Remain calm,

Because by you remaining calm,

That supports the person having a panic attack to also remain calm or become calm again.

Use a soothing voice.

Encourage them to say a phrase.

It could be anything like I'm safe.

I'm okay.

Help them to breathe.

What you can do is you actually start breathing with them.

Because what happens is when you breathe with someone,

It's that they automatically start breathing with you.

So just take your time to allow them to come back into their natural rhythm.

That's all you need to do.

Talk to them,

Talk to them about things that they love,

Their activities that they like to do.

Because this also supports them to calm down,

To become present and to realise that they are safe and it's okay that they are okay.

So remember to respect their needs and things you don't say is,

Don't worry,

It's not that bad.

Because that actually doesn't help.

Because somewhere in there,

Logically,

You know it's not that bad,

But you can't do anything when you're right in the middle of it.

I'd love you to comment and let me know what have you done?

Have you got any other thoughts?

Because then we can start again creating the conversation to get the conversation happening.

Now I'd also like to mention that there are different meditation techniques that can support you around having panic attacks and help you keep grounded.

So one of them is all you could do is just breathe.

Breathing in and breathing out.

Following your breath in,

Following your breath out.

And then with that you can start doing what's called box breathing.

You count to four,

Hold,

Exhale,

Four,

Hold.

Now if you can't hold for four,

Just do three.

So again,

Work what's best for you.

Inhale two,

Three,

Four,

Pause,

Exhale two,

Three,

Four.

Now sometimes meditation can actually trigger you.

So I know for me when I first was in acute PTSD and I was in the midst of all the trauma,

I stopped doing meditation,

Reiki,

Tapping,

Because my body actually sort of knew.

Because what it can do is it can actually enhance your experience,

It can actually trigger you,

It can actually bring back the flashback and the memories.

It brings everything to the fore.

So for me it didn't do any good for a few years.

So it took me a while to come back.

So just be mindful of that to get support for yourself because it can be too much.

But you'll find in the long run it will really help you.

And another one that I really love doing is called the body scan.

You simply take the focus to the top of your head and you're just literally scanning your body all the way down.

And each time you just breathe through when you're feeling tension.

Because by being in your body,

By scanning your body,

What it is doing is helping you,

Bringing you back,

Back into your body,

Back into your breath,

Back into the present moment.

And the last one I'm going to share with you is doing the five senses grounding meditation.

Now this is where you start using your senses.

So the first one you do is sight.

Just look around you and see five things that you can see.

Then what you're going to do is then listen.

Listen to four things that you can hear.

Then you're going to touch.

Touch three things that are around you.

Then do two things that you can feel.

And then the last one,

If you happen to have something there,

Taste something.

Because this all helps you bring you present,

It helps you bring you back into the moment,

Helps you realize that actually right now you are safe.

So these are all the beautiful things that you can do to support yourself.

And you can also add the phrases.

I'm safe.

It is okay.

I'm okay.

I'm loved.

So remember,

Find what works for you.

So again,

Love to hear any comments.

Thank you for listening.

Namaste.