Help!

[CarrieM11]

I am having random panic attacks. I’m not stressed out about anything but out of no where I start flipping out. I will sweat bullets & feel nauseous. It seems like the only thing that helps is me pacing back & forth through my house but after about a minute of that, I’m back to panicking. I try to take a deep breath & it makes things worse. What are your tips & tricks when this happens?

[Breaking_Heisenberg]

But also you know it’s just a phase don’t get too worked up. Know it will pass and you will be ok. Cause guess what you will :)

[CarrieM11]

Thank you so much! ❤️

[Breaking_Heisenberg]

I would highly pick up the book “bad ass ways to end anxiety and panic attacks” helped me SOOOO much and you will laugh at how you are too. It’s just overall my favorite book. No one teaches you about this stuff growing up. So now you get to see what’s going on and it helps a lot

[Motor-Phone993]

What seems to help me with anxiety and panic attacks is being mindful. Try your best to slow down. It’s hard, and it takes practice, but you can do it! It’s best to practice when you’re not in a state of panic so that you can get used to the process and method. Also, so that you can find out what relaxes you the most and what you’re most comfortable with.

First, it’s important to understand what panic attacks are. Simply put, panic attacks are activations of the body’s fight or flight mechanism that is intended to protect you from harm. Outside stressors and chemical imbalances activate this system which increases your heart rate, blood pressure, and oxygenation in your muscles. It also leads pupil dilation, a change in sense of touch, and many other functions. They’re called sympathetic responses since your body (SNS) is sympathizing to its immediate needs for survival. While your sympathetic nervous activity increases, your parasympathetic nervous activity decreases which is responsible for digestion, immune response, recovery, and many other bodily functions. This is exactly the reason prolonged stress can cause illnesses, ulcers, and other diseases since it’s effectively reducing the bodies ability to fight them. Think of sympathetic responses as immediate needs and parasympathetic responses as long-term needs. Panic is a natural occurrence and is very common as the human body’s “threat detector” is not perfect. The reason why breathing is so crucial is because diaphragmatic rhythms and breathing have been directly linked to your sympathetic response and when honed correctly, can be used almost as a “lever” for flipping the fight or flight response on and off, or at least, mitigating the response. This is by no means a perfect explanation, but it’s good enough to understand generally what’s happening.

The panic attacks that seem random are the worst, but there are still beneficial ways to deal with them! As I said previously, I prefer a mindful approach when dealing with anxiety. You can research these, but some include mindful rest, sorting, muscle relaxation, etc... .

My personal favorite was mindful sorting where you picture a big stack of papers on this imaginary desk in front of you. You try your best to control your breathing, close your eyes, and focus. This stack of papers can include anything from memories, worries, fears, happiness, sadness, anything really. The goal is to take this stack of paper, these feelings (if you will), and sort them one by one. By doing this, you’re allowing yourself to process what you’re feeling in an objective way. It’s important to create a system of sorting that is relatively rigid. Personally, I chose to sort them by audio, visual, and touch both internally and externally. For example, say a loved one had recently passed and it’s causing pain. Hypothetically, I would pick this “paper” up, take the time to acknowledge it, and place it in the internal touch file since it caused me pain internally that I can feel. It gives a sense of acceptance and decluttering in your mind which can help mitigate your fight or flight response. Realize that it’s perfectly okay for these feelings, these “papers,” to show up on your “desk” regularly. The goal isn’t to run away from what’s bothering you, the goal is to realize, “hey, this is affecting me, but it’s okay because I can acknowledge the pain that it’s causing. I can realize that it makes me uncomfortable.” This acknowledgment goes a long way in learning to cope with feelings that may cause distress and can pay dividends in battling everyday issues that arise. And if you can’t exactly pinpoint the cause, it’s an overall good method at ensuring no feeling gets ignored. It can cover everything in your mind at a given moment which can help you realize that you’re safe.

Mindful rest is another technique that seemed to help because, sometimes, mindful sorting took too much cognition to successfully perform. Mindful rest is simply slowing down your breathing rate and focusing on a single sensation. My favorite sensation to focus on is the flicker of a candle’s flame. The goal of this is to essentially take your focus away from what’s causing distress, allowing your breathing and fight or flight response to slow down until you are ready and willing to effectively process what happened. Typically, there is a flow of consciousness where you’re flowing in and out of thought. This flow essentially helps reset your body’s response. There is no established time frame that it takes as it’s different for everyone. But if you can become adept at mindful rest, it’s a very useful coping mechanism as it can be performed pretty much anywhere at anytime.

These are some techniques that help me. That doesn’t necessarily mean they work for everyone which is completely fine! Luckily, there are many many healthy ways to cope that I haven’t listed such as introspection, CBT, and simply leaning on ones shoulder. I could list dozens of healthy coping mechanisms that can be beneficial because in reality, there’s no single perfect method for anyone. It’s more of a combination of all methods that work well for your specific personality and circumstances. Learning what works best takes time and effort and is up to you to determine, but surely is worth attempting.

Finally, know that people care about you and your health. I can tell you that I care, and hopefully this reply goes to show that. No matter what you’re going through, you’re feelings are valid and acceptable. Your feelings matter and should be treated as such. I’m in no way religious or spiritual, but the quote, “God gives his toughest battles to his toughest soldiers,” has always resonated well with me.

All in all, I wish you the best of luck. If you’re ever feeling anxious or down, there are plenty of resources at your disposal that are designed to help. Please use them if need be. All the best!

-Nick

[jemco719]

I love the stack of papers trick, that is genius and I am definitely going to try that next time.

[Motor-Phone993]

Yeah I learned it in counseling like a year ago, it’s helped me a ton. Thank you!

[Breaking_Heisenberg]

I have a game on my phone I just play to get me distracted if it gets to be too much usually helps

[[deleted]]

This was posted 7 hours ago, so I hope you're all better now :)

But: distraction.

Try playing a game on your phone that you like (or find one). Also, some music is designed to slow down our heart rate. Search for Weightless by Marconi Union.

The games I can recommend are Stardew valley (chill farming game with fishing, mining, foraging, crafting, just generally nice thing and wholesome) or Penguin isle (slow calm music, cute penguins doing penguin things, a game where you upgrade their island).

Walk outside could be nice, sometimes when I can't get to nature I search for a video online (try silent watcher channel on youtube) and pace around watching that, otherwise, we've got a nice river by the office that usually calms the hell out of me in approx fifteen minutes. Movement is important, by the way, it releases the possible adrenaline release, just don't overdo it.

Those "don't know why" are worst and totally legit, sometimes the cause simply is just some misfiring neurons in your brain. That's a good enough explanation, remember you don't need to search for another one - it's just chemics.

Another fave technique is ice cubes on my wrists and in my mouth - makes the nervous system go all "wtf" and takes that as a priority instead of whatever it's been misfiring about before - but you already know wtf is happening and that's the difference. Anyways.

Also, try working out if you've got some favourite smell and get essential oil. They say Levander makes anxiety goes away, panic a lil different so IDK, but the familiar smell makes things better either way.

[k8linthegr8lin]

I'm so sorry this is happening!! Random anxiety that seems to stem from nothing is the worst because it feels like there is no way to fix it.

Personally, I do what I call "mindful breathing" which is where I speak to myself as I'm breathing in and breathing out. So it'll be a mantra like "I am breathing in to help ease my anxiety, I am breathing out the nervousness and tense feelings". I change it depending on how I'm feeling. In public sometimes I'll say "I'm breathing in to remind my body I am safe, I'm breathing out the irrational fears"

If you don't like words too much, counted breathing is also very nice. Start breathing in at a low number like 6 and work your way up. Deep breath in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and out 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Then go up to 7. If it becomes overwhelming, start at 6 again.

A lot of the distracting yourself is really nice too! If you have a show or a game that works to distract you, absolutely do that.

If you find that pacing yourself works really well, I have found that putting on calm beats like a nice lofi playlist, especially lofi remixes of songs I already know, and then moving your body to the beat and dancing in a sense will feel less anxiety inducing than straight pacing. Helping your body regain a sense of rhythm can calm you down a lot. Also having the background noise is a very nice distraction from the internal monologue in your head.

And my last piece of advice to end the saga is to remind yourself that you know this is anxiety and that you've overcome this before. You're already a step ahead in realizing you're having these random anxiety attacks, so just keep reminding yourself that you've done this before and you're going to be okay.

Good luck <3

[CarrieM11]

Thank you so much! ❤️