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Today I will be discussing anxiety attack tips and techniques that have helped me in the past when I would suffer with them.
Anxiety attacks are truly terrifying, something anyone who has suffered having one will agree with.
Your heart beats out of your chest, breathing becomes more difficult, and everything you feel is impending death.
Luckily there are ways to keep attacks from happening, or even riding one out while remaining relatively calm.
I was 36 when I had my first one, and I needed an ambulance, as at the time I truly believed I was going to die, it was horrible.
The paramedic talked me through calming myself down and I felt a bit silly afterwards as I thought I was having a stroke or heart attack!
I used to suffer with regular anxiety attacks for a period of about 2 years. Over time I learned how to control them and calm down myself down, and eventually eradicate them completely.
Anxiety attacks can be unpredictable. And I think it’s important to know how to deal with them when they happen because you’re not always in a place where you can just lie down and ride it out.
These techniques are designed to take the mind off the state of anxiety that you’re in and respond to something else instead.
It can help you calm down faster, or avoid the anxiety attack altogether.
They don’t work for everyone, but here are some of my favourites.
Disclaimer: I am not in any way a certified therapist/councillor, therefore all the advice is given from my own experience and should not be taken as medical advice.
An anxiety attack is a short period of strong fear that happens for no reason that you.
An anxiety attack can be a one-time event, or can become an ongoing problem.
If you have two or more anxiety attacks in a month, you may have a condition called anxiety or anxiety disorder.
If anxiety attacks become severe (very bad), they may keep you from living a normal life.
Caregivers do not know for sure what causes anxiety attacks. Sometimes they are caused by being in a situation that you find upsetting.
You may have them due to a stressful life event, such as getting divorced.
You are more likely to have anxiety attacks if you also have another mental health problem.
Other mental health problems include depression (feeling very sad most or all of the time), or alcoholism (abusing alcoholic drinks).
Anxiety attacks may happen for no reason. Anxiety attacks can happen to anyone, regardless of age or gender.
Some health conditions or medicines may cause anxiety attack symptoms.
Using or withdrawing from alcohol or illegal drugs may also cause symptoms.
Some people have anxiety attacks that are triggered (started) by the fear of having a future anxiety attack.
You are more likely to have anxiety attacks if someone in your family also has them.
The symptoms felt during an anxiety attack can feel like symptoms of a serious health problem, such as a heart problem.
On the other hand, some serious health problems can cause anxiety attacks, such as heart or breathing problems.
Have your symptoms checked by a caregiver to make sure they are not caused by a serious health problem.
The main symptom of an anxiety attack is extreme fear. Other signs and symptoms are different from person to person.
The same person may even have different signs and symptoms during repeat anxiety attacks.
Signs and symptoms usually do not last longer than 30 minutes. Besides fear, other signs and symptoms of an anxiety attack may include:
With an anxiety disorder, you may have anxiety attacks that happen often.
These attacks often come without reason or warning.
You may be troubled with a fear of having another anxiety attack.
You may have a lot of anxiety attacks, followed by weeks or months without having any.
Some people become so fearful of having anxiety attacks that they are afraid to leave their house.
This is called agoraphobia.
People with agoraphobia may also fear being in crowds, or in any place where they cannot leave quickly.
Since the symptoms of a anxiety attack can be so intense and frightening, one of the first things you should do if you’re trying to figure out how to stop a anxiety attack fast is to recognise the warning signs.
After an anxiety attack occurs, take the time to write out the physical and psychological symptoms you experienced so you can look for consistencies over time.
You’ll probably notice a lot of similarities, and will eventually be able to recognise the symptoms you are experiencing are a result of a anxiety attack and not something more serious.
Write your symptoms down in a notebook you carry around with you or as a note in your smartphone, and remind yourself to review your list each time you start feeling the symptoms of an impending anxiety attack.
This will help you remember that you are not losing control or having a heart attack so you can focus on strategies to help bring yourself back to a place of calm.
Another great tip for those who want to know how to stop an anxiety attack fast is to figure out what triggers your anxiety attacks to begin with.
This can take time, but can be very effective in helping you avoid the things that cause you to feel anxious, and to anticipate and minimise your symptoms when you can’t.
Each time you experience a anxiety attack, take the time to write down the events that occurred beforehand, as well as the physical and psychological symptoms you experienced.
Over time, you will likely see patterns, and can then formulate a plan to avoid (or manage) your triggers.
During an anxiety attack, your senses may feel overwhelmed. Loud, busy, and bright environments can make anxiety attacks worse because they cause too much sensory input.
Furthermore, being in crowds or in triggering situations can worsen symptoms.
Avoid these issues by getting to the most comfortable environment possible quickly.
For example, you may go into your bedroom, turn off the lights, and avoid the television.
If you’re at work, you can go to a private area or your office.
If you’re driving when anxiety attacks hit, be sure to pull over in a safe place and do not drive until you can focus again.
Grounding is simple and free strategy to reduce anxiety that you can use anywhere.
Grounding distracts you from your worry and anxiety.
It uses mindfulness principles to refocus your attention on concrete, observable things in the present.
As the name says, it grounds you in reality so that your mind isn’t stuck in the past or future.
There are very few rules to grounding. You can change the questions as they suit you and your environment.
The key is to just get you to tune into observing and using your senses.
If you’re searching for tips to help you learn how to stop a anxiety attack fast, you’ve probably read about deep breathing.
It’s one of the most common breathing techniques for anxiety and anxiety attacks, but it’s not always easy for everyone.
It does take practice, but when you get the hang of it, you’ll be able to do it with ease.
To get started, find a chair to sit down in and put your arms on the armrests.
Take a deep breath in through your nose, lasting for about 5 seconds, hold your breath for 3 seconds, and then breathe out through your mouth for 6 seconds.
Repeat 10 times, and as you get more comfortable, you can repeat up to 20 times.
If you want to step it up a notch, try mediation.
Mindfulness is our innate ability to be fully present in the moment – to focus on where we are and what we’re doing without allowing other, intrusive thoughts, worries, or fears to permeate our minds.
When we’re practicing mindfulness, we’re impartial and non-judgmental to what’s happening around us, and when our minds wander, we redirect our thoughts back to the present moment.
Mindfulness sounds pretty simple in theory, but we live in a day and age where we are encouraged to overschedule our time as much as possible.
It can be surprisingly difficult to focus on the here and now without letting all of the things that are vying for our attention to take hold and send us into a stress-induced state.
If you’re looking for tips on how to stop a anxiety attack fast, mindfulness is an excellent strategy to learn.
There are tons of great mindfulness resources and classes available online, and you may be able to find mindfulness instructors and classes within your area.
I am also a Mindfulness Practitioner, so feel free to ask me for help.
This technique will take you through your five senses to help remind you of the present. This is a technique that can help you achieve a calm mind in stressful situations.
Take a deep belly breath to begin.
5 – LOOK: Look around for 5 things that you can see, and say them out loud. For example, you could say, I see the computer, I see the cup, I see the picture frame.
4 – FEEL: Pay attention to your body and think of 4 things that you can feel, and say them out loud. For example, you could say, I feel my feet warm in my socks, I feel the hair on the back of my neck, or I feel the pillow I am sitting on.
3 – LISTEN: Listen for 3 sounds. It could be the sound of traffic outside, the sound of typing or the sound of your tummy rumbling. Say the three things out loud.
2 – SMELL: Say two things you can smell. If you’re allowed to, it’s okay to move to another spot and sniff something. If you can’t smell anything at the moment or you can’t move, then name your 2 favourite smells.
1 – TASTE: Say one thing you can taste. It may be the toothpaste from brushing your teeth, or a mint from after lunch. If you can’t taste anything, then say your favourite thing to taste.
Take another deep belly breath to end.
Slow down and focus on one body part at a time and release any tension then move on to the next area.
Practice doing this at night when you’re chilling in bed.
I like to start with my feet and work my way up the body.
Take deep breaths and release any tension in that body part before moving on to the next. You may drift off to sleep from the relaxation.
During an anxiety attack focus on this until you’re through the other side of the anxiety attack.
Close your eyes while doing deep breathing or muscle relaxation. If you’re feeling lightheaded this is not the best alternative.
Instead, focus on an object while breathing. You may find one way works better for you than another.
Try to establish a night time routine to improve sleep quality, as well as your ability to fall asleep in the first place.
This may reduce the likelihood of experiencing anxieties during night time hours.
So, aim to go to bed around the same time each night and get up at a regular time as well.
It’s also a good idea to head to bed at a time that will allow you to get 7-9 hours of sleep.
Make room in your mind for a destination that makes you think of relaxing and unwinding.
It could be a beautiful beach on the coast, a tropical oasis, or a snowy mountain in the middle of nowhere.
Try to imagine yourself at this place, taking in all of the scents and feeling the sun on your face.
Escaping to your happy place can help ground your mind and ease the anxiety away.
Regular exercise can help release tension and lower blood pressure, two physical issues that many anxiety sufferers might face.
Instituting an exercise regimen can have excellent long-term benefits, but it’s also useful as a quick fix.
The next time you feel anxiety starting to creep in, pull out your jump rope or hop on the treadmill.
If there are others in the house, do not be afraid to wake them up to let them know what’s going on.
They will likely be a reassuring, positive presence to help you get through the anxiety attack.
If you are alone, there are many 24-hour helplines you can contact for support in getting through your anxiety attack.
Samaritans and Mind are just two options here in the UK.
During an anxiety attack, find one object and focus all your attention on it.
Note everything you can about it (patterns, colours, size, etc.) to yourself.
This technique has the potential to take your mind off your anxiety attack and help your symptoms subside.
This can sometimes be an instant fix, but you should let yourself soak in the peace of the moment.
Allow the warmth to calm you, and allow yourself to feel safe.
The feeling of being clean is also anxiety reducing, so the whole process can diminish any anxiety.
Try thinking of positive things during an anxiety attack. This could be a list of your favourite songs, foods or animals.
For example, start at the beginning of the alphabet, naming a place beginning with each letter, and work your way along from A to Z.
If you can, another idea is to get a notebook and write down a ‘page full of positive things‘.
Put down all the things you love (hobbies, sports, people, movies) until the page is full up.
Take a look around you, are there a particular colour you can see? Blue, green, pink?
Now, search the area around you and find as many objects as you can in that colour.
Once you run out of things, you can move on to the next colour – and repeat, until you start to feel better.
This one is quite fun, and if you are a visual person it may be a better option than the two above as you are focusing on things that are actually in front of you.
Learn as much as you can about anxiety attacks. This could be the key to your handling of them.
Make sure you learn as much as you can about the possible causes and how to deal with them.
The more information you have, the better able you will deal with a anxiety attack when you have one.
Each of these ways have been helpful to me when I was suffering from anxiety attacks.
If you can apply some of them, your anxiety attacks won’t be so severe and extreme.
Once the severity of the symptoms starts to wear out, you will know that you are on the right track.
It is not a fast process, but if you are persistent in your attempts to prevent and stop anxiety attacks, at one point they will go away.
What are your coping techniques for anxiety attacks? I would to hear them below.
I would love to hear your thoughts below on what you are doing to change your life in the coming days and years!
If you have any questions please reach out to me via adam@adam-lawrence.org. I would love to hear from you!
I really hope you found inspiration in this article.
Hello! My name is Adam and welcome to my space on the internet. Here you can find me writing about subjects such as spiritual growth, self-discovery, wellbeing, addiction recovery and mental health. Please connect with me on my journey and join the community!
Today we will be talking you through tips for managing stress and anxiety. It is normal to feel stressed or anxious amidst a global pandemic where everything seems tragic, drastic, and messy on our lovely blue planet. The rising spread of COVID-19 and the fear it has…
Today we will be talking you through tips for overcoming social anxiety. All of us have spent a big chunk of the last 18 months locked away inside, not seeing anybody outside of our household. Even with the lockdowns now eased in July 2021, groups…
Today I will talking you though natural ways to help with anxiety.
Does anxiety come at you in the most inconvenient times? Do you suffer from not having the right tricks to help reduce your anxiety on the spot? If you’re an anxious person, then you know how difficult is to find relief when you need it instantly.
Some people are able to meditate or use deep muscle exercises when they time. Most of us don’t have time to indulge in exercises that takes time and concentration.
The truth is that the majority of people find it embarrassing to talk about anxiety because of the stigma that surrounds it. The misconception that anxiety is a weakness means that more people suffer in silence and ignore help.
Nobody should suffer in silence. This is not a quick fix but instead the following habits to reduce your anxiety will offer relief when you need it the most.
I suffered bad with depression, stress, anxiety and panic attacks for 4 years, therefore I think it’s important to share what has helped me overcome these illnesses to live a happier and healthier life.
Here are a few habits that helped me turn things around!
Disclaimer: I am not in any way a certified therapist so all the advice is given from my own experience and should not be taken as medical advice.
When you ground yourself in nature, you discharge negativity, and even more importantly, you recharge yourself with the loving and nurturing energy from Mother Earth.
After grounding yourself you’ll feel renewed, refreshed, centred, and balanced. Whether you simply walk barefoot in your garden, or go to the beach or the wood, just get out in nature, allow yourself to be present by opening all your senses: see, taste, hear, smell and feel.
If you live in a big city or work in an office, you may feel you don’t have much opportunity to connect with nature.
Nature time could be:
This is also where crystals, essential oils and houseplants come in. You may want to bring little bits of nature with you and consciously tune into them at home.
One of the best things to do to raise your vibration is without a doubt moving your body. Think about it: your body has been lethargic and lying down for 6-8 hours, your muscles are probably still sleeping and need to stretch.
Now, I don’t expect you to do a full 45-minutes workout when you’re still feeling sleepy and unmotivated, but if you force yourself to move your body (even with some low-intensity exercises) for as little as 10 minutes, it will be a game changer, I promise.
It’s been proven that working out in the morning – even with some light exercise – can boost your metabolism up to 22% for the rest of the day and reduce tremendously sugar cravings.
Moving in the morning will get your heart pumping, your metabolism to speed up, while also making you feel more alert and active for the rest of the day.
When you put Mindfulness into practice your anxiety and stress will reduce massively!
I can’t explain how much this practice has changed my life. When you’re mindful your life will transform massively.
By living in the present moment, you become at peace with your past thoughts and illusions made up in your mind.
Observe your thoughts, become at peace with them, take away the emotional attachment.
When you find your mind wandering, revert back to the present moment.
The more you live in the present moment, the mind quickly loses control over you. The mind is a tool that should be working for you, not controlling you.
This takes a lot of practice, as your mind has spent so many years in control. The mind has been projecting its illusions on you all your life.
Purchase a book, research it on YouTube.
The Mindfulness practice is life changing when used consistently and persistently!
Some great channels that I use for mindfulness videos, are the following:
I also recommend the following books to read:
I thought this was complete nonsense a few years ago, now I love it.
The one thing that calmed my mind beyond belief, if done properly, is meditation.
This helps you become at peace with your thoughts, and also mindful meditation helps you stay in the present moment.
Try to meditate before breakfast, if not, then late afternoon/early evening is a good time to do it.
Meditation will seem like a chore at first, but the more you practice, it will become more of an enjoyable experience that you will look forward to.
There are tonnes of videos on YouTube to help you get started.
The below channels on YouTube are great for guided meditations;
If you want to learn about meditation, the follow channel is excellent:
If you’re interested in learning more in-depth about meditation, then the below books are excellent:
One of the main reasons I was so stressed when I was in the midst of my anxiety disorder was I was on total autopilot. Whilst mindfulness can bring you more awareness, making time for what you’re passionate about is the next best thing.
I had given up what I liked doing, the things that have always made me feel that bit more alive and that get a kick out of.
Yes, sometimes it’s hard to make a bit of time for your passion or hobby, but even half an hour a day can be enough to de-stress.
For me it was always exercise that made me feel excited and good. Half the battle is allowing yourself to do what you love. With the many responsibilities we have in life, we can feel guilty doing something that we like.
These can be anything;
Whatever it is that you love to do, let yourself do it and plan to make time for your passion or hobby. This is one of the best ways to reduce stress and anxiety yourself.
If you feel like you don’t have a passion or hobby that you can find stress relief in, try something new.
Avoidable stress can also take form in getting wrapped up in other people’s issues. Some of us feel as if we have a place in forcing our views on others or we simply want to be part of the conversation.
This type of behaviour is amplified with social media where it’s easy for someone to comment on something that has nothing to do with them in an attempt to stir the conversation or voice their opinion.
Whilst you can argue that some people just like drama, this is totally avoidable stress. The issue with getting involved with the things that have nothing to do with you is the negative feedback.
When we get involved in other people’s issues, we can get negative feedback which can make us very stressed. With social media like Facebook, it’s easy to become very anxious and stressed whilst we wait for the conversation to unfold.
If you find yourself getting involved in other people’s drama, it’s time to step back and think about why you’re doing it.
Sticking to a regular routine can help you regain a sense of stability and keep a better structure to your days during a time when it feels like we can’t even keep track of what day it is.
Have you ever slept in way too late and just felt like your whole day was ruined and like you were so behind on everything? I have for sure and it’s not a good feeling! So, try to wake up and go to bed at the same time every day, and stick to somewhat of a consistent routine to reduce your stress.
Typically, us millennials don’t write things down – we use the notes or other app in our phone. But too much technology actually contributes to stress in a big way, so get a notebook and start physically writing in it and put your phone away for a bit.
You can practice gratitude journaling and write about things that you’re grateful for, or just write out how you’re feeling on that particular day.
Writing can be very therapeutic and it will bring you more in tune with yourself so you can better understand what you need to do to make yourself happy.
Anxiety and worry can keep you awake at night, but not enough sleep can also cause anxiety.
When you’re sleep-deprived, you’re less able to handle stress and anxiety. In contrast, getting enough sleep keeps your hormones in check, which is necessary for managing anxiety and worry.
Gentle instrumental music helps to lower blood pressure, heart rate, and stress hormones and is great for relieving anxiety.
Nature sounds are also calming and you’ll find these often in relaxation and meditation music. So, whenever you’re anxious put on your headphones and listen to relaxing music.
Going along with the above point, technology can sometimes really do more harm than good, especially in times like these.
In order to reduce stress during the quarantine period, it’s a really good idea to limit how often you’re on your phone checking the news and social media.
Find something else to occupy your time instead – I read a lot, and it is so relaxing. I also limit times I spend on social media. Facebook, Instagram etc are great for keeping in contact with people, but they can take over your life if you allow it.
Essential oils and nice smelling candles are known to be very soothing, so I recommend getting your favourite scent and letting it freshen up your living room area for an hour or two a day. When my house feels good, I automatically feel a little bit more together and less stressed because it signals a clean space!
There are a ton of ways you can reduce stress and anxiety, it’s all about trying things to what works for you. Sure, you can use essential oils like mentioned above, but if you find yourself becoming stressed often, or most of the day, it’s a good time to make some long-term lifestyle changes.
If introducing new habits into yourself lifestyle don’t work, then look to seek advice from a doctor.
I would love to hear your thoughts on what you are doing to change your life in the coming days and years!
If you have any questions please reach out to me via adam@adam-lawrence.org. I would love to hear from you!
I really hope you found inspiration in this article.
Hello! My name is Adam and welcome to my space on the internet. Here you can find me writing about subjects such as spiritual growth, self-discovery, wellbeing, addiction recovery and mental health. Please connect with me on my journey and join the community!