How it feels:
“It was dark, I could barely breathe. It felt like I was losing everything I had, I had no one to blame, and my mother kept asking me what had happened to me..of course, it was not common to shiver and sweat in December in a city like Chandigarh. I felt helpless and doomed, all I could think of was my death and what would happen if I lost my sanity. My father kept rubbing my cold feet, my body was otherwise sweating, the day was when I failed my NEET exam for the third time.”
Understanding Panic attack
Panic Attack could be understood as a sudden feeling of discomfort and tension, experienced mentally and physically. These could be out of nowhere and can involve actual or arbitrary triggers to be manifested in an anxiety attack. Every individual can have different types of symptoms. Some might have one initially, and others can experience a cluster of them.
Symptoms of Panic Attack
Some of the symptoms are characterized by the following:
Causes of Panic Attack
Panic attacks could be caused because of various psychological and physiological reasons:
As per surveys based on the last ten years, there have been 2.7% of the cases reported for anxiety attacks every year. The numbers have experienced a significant hike since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, the reasons could be the level of uncertainty, grief, and loneliness that came along with the pandemic.
Did you know there is something called as nocturnal panic attacks? It majorly involve waking from sleep in a state of panic. Sometimes, the haunting dreams or overthinking patterns can lead to nocturnal panic attack .
What triggers Panic Attack?
Usual triggers for the panic attacks:
Effective tips to cure a Panic Attack
Here’s how you can cure a panic attack :
Identify 3 objects
Identify 3 sounds
Move 3 body parts The 3 3 3 rule is based on the principle of getting one distracted from the thoughts and feelings of panic attacks . Its one of the effective mindfulness based techniques. It consists of three following steps:
The person is asked to identify three objects in their surroundings and observe them with minor details, such as their texture, color, shape, etc.
In the second step, the person is asked to identify and describe three sounds in their surroundings, e.g. birds chirping, trees rustling, water burbling, the sound of a fan, children passing by, etc. In the last step, the person identifies body parts, such as fingers, toes, shoulders, and eyes, in detail and describes them.
Surround yourself with someone close and comforting. This will help you gain a sense of belongingness and adjust well. Talk to them. Keep judgments away. Its okay to cry it out. Practice breathing exercises and yoga regularly. Engage in alom-vylom daily. Take a stroll in the open air. Dwell yourself in self-soothing exercises such as lighting a scented candle, holding onto something warm and heavy like a blanket, or your pet, getting a body massage, etc. Additional strategies to cure panic attack:
Seek Online Counselling from a professional How will online counseling help you? Online counselling will help you understand your triggers and psychological cues for having a panic attack. Understanding those could be one of the preventive strategies. It will also help you in identifying your strengths and weaknesses A Therapist can guide you towards building resilience and grit to handle yourself better in the instance of a panic attack Help in supervised guided discovery and behavior training to regulate our physiological response to stressors better. A collaborative and safe environment helps you to enhance your overall well-being while you can talk about your emotional problems freely.
Thought Restructuring and Distress tolerance skills equipped by counselors will help in better management of the triggers that usually end up in a panic attack.
Online counselors can provide you emotional support and strategies to create social support for self. FAQs:
How can I cure my panic attacks naturally? My therapist helped me learn some mindfulness-based techniques and self-compassion skills, which has substantially decreased the frequency of my panic attacks. I am regularly indulging in breathing exercises and understanding my psychological triggers. In order to help those triggers several preventive strategies are being taught to me by my therapist. Are panic attacks normal? Panic attacks are a common reaction to stressors, experienced by a diverse range of individuals. However, they might not be normal and require medical and psychological attention towards them. How do I stop panic attacks forever? Thought restructuring and mindful breathing can prevent panic attacks in the long run. Panic attacks can be a dreadful experience, however, they require to be handled gently. The idea is to work on the cues and preventive strategies at the basic.
How long do panic attacks last? This is very subjective. There’s no time duration of how long these panic attacks last. Every individual has his/her triggers. Symptoms and their duration can also vary.
Can I recover from panic attacks? Yes, one can recover from anxiety attacks after employing psychologically healthy behavior.
