Panic attack is an acute disabling anxious response of certain persons to emergencies. Most of the people fail to cope with the stress caused by an exigent situation. Some people confuse these signs with heart attack and nervous breakdown, though they are not. Even though the panic attacks are almost harmless, their physiological effect on the person affected are great. Therefore, here we have discussed a few ways to reduce your chances of getting a panic attack.
How panic attacks happen
Nature has gifted the living beings with response abilities, in case of critical situations when they face situations demanding immediate response. When faced with danger, the body system rushes in adrenaline into the blood stream, which further sends signals to the brain to take stock of the situation and response accordingly. In some people, these signals become debilitating, causing high heart palpitation, dizziness, breathlessness and even unconsciousness.
However, getting in an emergent situation is not the only cause of panic attacks. Often, there is no specific reason for these attacks, as they just happen without any hint and sometimes even in sleep. Social phobia, depression and panic disorder are some of the factors that might cause panic attack in an individual.
Symptoms of panic attack
Apart from the more common causes of panic attack, such as heart attack, palpitation, dizziness and breathlessness, the other factors include discomfort in chest, violent trembling, feeling of choking, sweating, nausea, dizziness, numbness or tingling sensation, hot and/or cold flashes on skin and feeling of unreality and detachment from the situation. Some of these symptoms resemble heart attack, but they are far from such a critical situation.
Risk factor
These panic attacks are not dangerous to body as such, but if you do not take precautionary measures, they may become persistent and lead to a critical situation. If not cured in time, the psychological implications of these attacks on the sufferer would be immense and he may show symptoms of withdrawal from the society.
In addition, undue anxiety and fear of another panic attack and even dying of it have immense negative psychological implications on the people suffering from them.
Tips to control panic attacks
- Take long breaths: When faced with a panicky situation, take long breath. This will replenish the depleted oxygen levels in the body.
- Use distractions like ice cubes: Holding ice cube in hand tightly will deflect your mind and thus, reduce the impact of the panic attack.
- Keep yourself awake: In an exigent situation, keep your mind awake and in a fully conscious state. Do not let your mind fizzle out into the realms of unreality. Do not be disoriented and try to take stock of the situation.
- Count backwards: One way of positively reacting to the situation is to count backwards. This delay the reaction time, gives the individual opportunity to assess the situation.
Tips to stop panic attacks
+
- Keep a positive attitude: Take the life as a happy occurrence of incidents. Remove any negative thoughts from your mind. Do not let the mind bogged down by a negative incident or feeling.
- Stop overreacting: This is one single motto to get out of panic attacks. You must not attach too much importance to a situation and take things coolly. Do not react to them. Take anything that comes your way as a part of life.
- Face the situation: Many of us are susceptible to panic attack in a particular situation. We tend to run away from it. Do not fly, but fight the situation. This practice will accustom you to situation and remove the phobia from your mind. Act normal under demanding situations and your panic will slowly dwindle away.
- Keep the mind stimulated: Keep your mind stimulated with activities like reading, and exercising regularly. This is another way of reducing the risks of panic attacks.
Panic attack is not a difficult situation to deal with and if properly handled, we can cure it. You must accept that you are subject to panic attack and then take corrective measures.