What Are Anxiety Attacks?
There are those moments in time when all of a sudden, out of nowhere, you feel scared, worried, or nervous. These feelings can be debilitating and may feel like they are overtaking your body and mind. Learning a bit more about anxiety attacks can teach you a few pointers on how to manage those moments.
Exactly What is an Anxiety Attack?
An anxiety attack is a term describing a sudden overwhelming sensation of fear and anxiety in a person. It feels like being in horrible danger without any obvious threat. Such attacks may just cause a very fast heart rate, very fast breathing, and even shaky limbs. You must not forget that anxiety attacks will not be lasting and can be controlled.
Common Symptoms of an Anxiety Attack
If you are going through an anxiety attack, you might experience your heart racing, breathlessness, or dizziness. Other feelings may include the feeling of not being able to regulate your body temperature, or developing extremely cold or clammy palms. In some cases, people believe they are about to lose it or cannot shake off the sense that something bad is going to happen. Understanding these symptoms can help one through the process and offer relief as fast as possible.
Causes and Triggers of Anxiety Attacks
Anxiety attacks can arise for several reasons, including the demands of studies, changes about important issues in a person’s life, or merely thinking about frightening events. In other instances, the cause may not be clear. You don’t have to blame yourself since it also does not imply that there is something wrong with you. Knowing what triggers your anxiety allows you to handle it better.
Immediate Steps to Calm an Anxiety Attack
There are also quicker ways to help yourself calm down when you feel the wrinkles of an anxiety attack appearing. These steps help you get a better sense of control and help in dissipating the frightening sensations.
Deep Breathing Techniques
Deep breathing is one of the best remedies, which can be employed when experiencing an anxiety attack. Get comfortable in general and close your eyes. Come up close enough to your nose to draw in air steadily and deeply. Keep it for a few seconds and then exhale through your mouth for as long as you can. Do it a few times and follow immediately. Deep breathing tends to slow down an elevated heart rate which on the other hand makes one feel at ease.
Grounding Techniques
Grounding techniques assist you in remaining in the present time frame in case you’ve got worried. One is to use the people five things you can see. For four that you reach out and touch. Three things that you can listen to. Two things that you can smell and one thing to taste. This helps redirect the brain toward the current situation rather than the anxious emotions.
Using Positive Affirmations
Positive affirmations are also termed self-motivating statements made in a short time and easy language. For instance, try to say “I am safe” or “I know that I will be fine.” Saying these phrases over and over reminds you of how this anxiety will pass and how you can fight through it.
Physical Ways to Reduce Anxiety Symptoms
Physical movement is also one of the quickest and easiest ways to control anxiety. Physical activities can relieve the tension that is often built up during the entire anxiety attack.
Quick Physical Movements
Mild exercises such as handshaking, foot stomping, and doing a cereal of jumping jacks are essential in easing off some of the excess nervous energy. These movements are quick and simple and are aimed at increasing blood circulation.
Progressive Muscle Relaxation
Progressive muscle relaxation is when one systematically and purposefully induces muscle tension to achieve muscle-deep relaxation later on. Tensing and relaxing muscle groups start from the innermost body parts. So starting with the toes, curl your toes back and hold and relax. Move to the legs, and the belly then the arms, the last one being the face. This technique helps you to locate those areas of tension instead of completely getting rid of them and will teach your body to relax.
Soft Stretching or Short Walking
Soft stretching or taking a short walk could also be beneficial in helping you settle down. Standing up and moving the arms and the legs and even taking a blog or a nice walk outdoors assists in clearing the head. Both of these activities are a very easy way of helping with anxiety.
Mental Strategies for Anxiety Attack Relief
Being able to use your mind constructively can reduce the fright of anxiety attacks. There are a good number of mental methods that can assist in limiting your thoughts to calmer areas.
Techniques Using Imagination
Imaginative presence and cushy visualization mean creating a picture in one’s mind of people, events, and scenes that are soothing and pleasant. For people with anxiety, it is usually a beach, a garden, or any other place they are inclined to. Focus on the colors and sounds of the surroundings. This brings the mind to other more calming thoughts rather than anxiety.
Mindfulness Practices
The discipline of mindfulness focuses on the task at hand. If you are washing hands then only how water is coming in contact with the skin as well as the fragrance of the soap should be capitalized. If that’s not possible, then when eating, it is the flavor and solidity of the food that should be paid attention to. Mindfulness avoids getting overwhelmed by excessive sympathetic thoughts.
Redirecting Your Thoughts
You want to panic and usually go to the worst scene of the story. However, make every effort not to engage in the worst of them. In this case, do your best to change the emotions. For example, a pleasant picture of the past, an activity that brings pleasure, or an event that is going to happen shortly. Changing your thoughts makes you feel considerably more powerful.
Sensing Strategies for Reducing an Anxiety Attack
Senses can help relieve anxiety. You can engage your sight, taste, smell, hear, or touch to zone out and get your mind at ease.
Calming Treatment Through Aromatherapy
Aromatherapy can be described as using relaxing scents such as lavender, peppermint, and chamomile among others to induce relaxation. You could use scented oils, candles, lotions, or even just plain perfume. Scents can also assist in increasing calmness when placed on a person suffering from anxiety.
Listening Towards the Easing of Areas
People with anxiety and panic disorders can also ventilate through soothing music, soft sounds of nature, or even just white noise. One can wear earphones and ‘get lost’ in sounds of a softer intensity. Music and sounds will always change your moods to the better ones when you cope with anxiety attacks.
Soft Motion: Holding Objects with Soft Surfaces
Squeezing or holding onto soft or warm objects when a person is anxious will help to soothe them. Squeeze the soft edges of a pillow, grab onto a stress ball, caress a smooth stone, or hold onto a soft cloth. These harmless gestures make sure that one’s brain diverts attention from worrying and concentrates on emotions of pleasure.
Quick Ways to Distract Yourself for a Moment
A way to quickly recover from the anxiety attack is to start focusing on something else and forget about racing thoughts. There are activities simple enough to help you take your mind off anxious sensations.
Counting the Items in a Room
Something as simple as counting items in a room, be it the floor patterns or the number of books on the shelf helps in regaining concentration. This is a mundane task and helps in keeping the mind well-engaged by providing something to focus away from anxiety.
Playing an Entertaining App or Puzzle
A significant part of our daily routine involves trying to understand something, and trying to complete altogether different activities including playing a game or solving a puzzle on mobile phones work effectively. Engaging in games helps the mind to focus in a fun manner and does away with anxiety quickly.
Watching Short Absorbing Videos
Seeing a short video, especially one relating to nature or a humorous clip usually soothes one’s emotions. Humor and calmness tend to change feelings in the individual, hence bringing down causes of anxiety.
Managing Anxiety Attacks by Way of Controlled Breathing
Breathing techniques must be taught and practiced because they are the most reliable for cases of panic attacks since they are portable and can be done at any moment.
Box Breathing Technique
Box breathing relates to square breathing which is very easy to carry out. In for 4 seconds, hold for 4 seconds, out, and hold for 4 seconds. This kind of breathing allows your body to have a restful feeling.
4-7-8 Breathing Method
The 4-7-8 method is another additional breath-focusing exercise. Take in air through your nose deep in for 4 hold for 7 and breathe out through your mouth for 8 seconds. This lowers the heart rate and alleviates stress.
Diaphragmatic Breathing
Diaphragmatic breathing is referred to as belly breathing; this means breathing normally not just with the chest but allowing the lung muscle to expand fully down to the abdomen. Place one of your hands on your stomach, take a deep breath, and feel your stomach now lifted. This helps to turn on the relaxation response of the body making one more comfortable.
Creating a Safe Place to Cope with Anxiety
Having a personal territory that is safe and warm can highly facilitate the treatment of anxiety disorders. On the other hand, arranging your surroundings into a comfortable and protected one will make an individual more comfortable in the course of an attack.
Setting Up a Comfortable Environment
First of all, make your space as comfortable as possible. This may consist of using soft cushions or dim lights, as well as using your favorite blanket. Such conditions remove most of the worries and make one feel safe.
Using Weighted Blankets for Comfort
They are thick, heavy blankets known to offer a soothing effect to people who tend to feel anxious by providing some pressure on the body. This pressure helps to calm the body in a way that reduces the severity of anxiety episodes.
Creating a Personal Calming Kit
A calming kit is a box or a bag containing items that would make you anxious or that you would appreciate in the event of an anxiety episode. Ensure that you have items such as stress balls, scented oils, images that bring back soothing memories, and calming teas. Ensure that your kit is stored in an area that you have easy access to when the need arises.
Engaging with Support Systems
You do not have to face the attacks of anxiety alone. Talking to someone else can make a great difference too.
Talking to a Friend or Family Member
When you are having a rough time with control and you feel anxiety coming in, it may help to talk about it to someone you can trust, like an anxious friend or family member. This allows you to express yourself, making the anxiety less intense.
Support Hotlines
You can reach out to someone via support hotlines when you do not want to die – or at least talk out your frustration. The people in these hotlines have also been mobile trained and can give advice and even counseling when the needs arise.
Finding Comfort in Your Pet
People can feel relaxed when they play or spend time with pets. It is easy to overcome anxiety through activities like patting or playing with a dog, holding a cat or even observing a fish tank. Pets provide warmth which in turn caters to anxious feelings.
Healthy Lifestyle Habits to Reduce Anxiety Attacks
Maintaining a routine of exercise and mental care can effectively reduce the frequency of anxiety attacks.
Maintaining a Balanced Diet
Making healthy choices in food enhances the operations of the body, coupled with interestingly minimizing anxiety too. Make sure that you have a lot of fruits vegetables and whole grains in your meals. Avoid too much sugar and caffeine because they only push anxiety to the extremes.
Getting Regular Exercise
Exercise is one of the most powerful treatments when dealing with anxiety. Exercise creates endorphins in the brain which produces happy feelings. Be it sports, dancing, walking, or any other form of physical activity, it reduces anxiety and is necessary for one will remain healthy.
Prioritizing Good Sleep Hygiene
Proper sleep hygiene is also crucial to keep anxiety at bay. If possible, be consistent with your sleep hours making sure there is a soothing ritual before going to bed. Good sleep allows your body and mind to regenerate and it reinforces your mastery over anxiety.
Long-Term Techniques for Anxiety Management
Aside from the quick hits, it is also critical to have a long-range strategy, when you need to deal with anxiety.
Cognitive Behavioral Techniques
CBT or cognitive behavioral techniques entail first internalizing the ideas that play into the feeling of anxiety. Through doing so, you are likely to change these anxious thoughts and therefore better control your anxiety attacks.
Journaling Your Thoughts and Feelings
Recording thoughts and feelings is similarly a way for one to manage and cope with anxiety. Journaling makes you let go of thoughts that trouble you and write down emotions that you vary. It is an outlet where you can do this without judgment and identify some potential strategies to manage better.
Professional Therapy and Counseling
When dealing with anxiety, one additional thing to do would be to speak to a therapist or counselor who can assist you with extra coping mechanisms. Therapy is effective in knowing the reason behind anxiety and how it can be managed. A qualified person helps you in understanding your emotions and feelings through the use of skilled practice.
Common Practices Done During an Anxiety Attack and How to Avoid Them
There are very common practices that every person is likely to do during anxiety attacks. Being aware of what actions are ill-advised may enable one to manage one’s anxiety more effectively.
Recognizing Patronizing Internal Narratives
Negative self-talk, such as “I’m so incapable that things will never change,” only encourages more anxiety. Instead, try to identify such thoughts and substitute them with more positive and supportive language. Positive self-talk is empowering and provides a sense of control.
Stopping Caffeine and Sugars
Caffeine and sugary foods can be the worst stimulants when one is already on edge since they tend to stimulate the heart more. So when these things do not work, use them as less when you are anxious, and have nice calming herbal tea or just plain water.
Not Isolating Yourself
When a person suffers from anxiety, he or she tends to withdraw from any company. This yes although makes people who are anxious seek contact with people, it tends to be constructive in the sense of alleviating some anxiety. Also, being further away from people due to such feelings makes anxiety more severe so try to suppress your urge.