- Hey everybody.
Today, we're gonna talk about panic attacks
and the seven ways that we can stop them from happening.
But before we jump into that,
I want to make sure that we all understand
what panic attacks are and are not.
I know people tend to misuse mental health terms
to describe how they feel, like,
"Oh, that was so stressful, I had a panic attack."
So here is a quick breakdown of what a panic attack is.
According to the DSM, which is the Diagnostic
and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,
I know it's not the end all be all,
but it's the best we've got.
So according to it,
panic attacks are an abrupt surge of intense fear
or intense discomfort that reaches a peak within minutes.
During that time,
you experience four or more of the following symptoms:
pounding heart, sweating, shaking,
shortness of breath, feeling like you're choking,
chest pain, nausea, dizziness, chills or heat sensations,
numbness, derealization,
fear of losing control or going crazy, and fear of dying.
I know, that's a lot,
but you have to experience four or more of those.
Panic attacks themselves are not a diagnosis.
However, panic disorder is,
and it also includes us worrying about having a panic attack
and doing things to avoid any situation
that we think could be cause them.
Okay, now that we know what panic attacks are,
let's get into ways that we can better manage them
and possibly prevent them from happening altogether.
My first tip is to get better acquainted
with our anxiety symptoms.
Everyone is going to experience their panics differently.
And as you just heard,
there are a ton of different symptoms.
So it's best to start tracking what it is you feel.
When your anxiety begins, where does it start?
Is it in our breath?
What happens next?
Do your thoughts and heart start to race?
And then your palms begin to sweat?
Are there certain times of day
or any patterns around when our anxiety ramps up?
The more that we know about our anxiety,
the more quickly we can recognize that it's happening
and do something to calm ourselves back down.
And I know that anxiety
can feel like it comes out of nowhere,
and I'm not asking you to figure out why it started
or what brought it on,
rather how it feels when your panic or anxiety
is just beginning, or we feel it building up.
That gives us more time to use our coping skills
before we have a full blown attack.
Which moves us nicely into my second tip
and that is figuring out what coping skills
calm us down best.
And we're gonna have to make time to do this
when we feel calm and okay.
If we're already anxious or feeling our anxiety build,
we aren't gonna be able to think clearly
or come up with anything.
The time to work on this is when we feel good.
And I know a lot of professionals and people out there
say to try breathing exercises
'cause they're best and that's what's gonna help you.
But to be honest, in my experience, they don't work at all
and they can even make the anxiety worse.
And the only reason I bring that up
is so that you don't feel any pressure to use coping skills
that don't work for you
just because someone says that they should.
It's better that we just try out some,
see which ones make us feel better.
And these can be things like stretching,
using a fidget toy or silly putty,
coloring, talking to a friend, journaling,
putting together a new playlist, and so much more.
I have an older video where I offer 24 coping skills.
Some are a distraction-based skills,
and others are there to help us process
through what we're thinking, feeling,
and the comments are filled with so many other ideas.
So check that video out,
it can really help you start your own coping skill list.
I also want to mention that it's important for us
to have some coping skills that we can use
no matter what time of day it is.
For example, we can't always call a friend
or text someone at three in the morning.
They might just not be available
'cause they're probably sleeping.
So we're gonna have to have other things
that we can do instead.
So just keep that in mind when you're creating your list
and make sure you have five or so things that you can do
during the day and another five that you can do
in the middle of the night, if needed.
It's also helpful to use our five senses
when coming up with these things.
Sometimes a scent like lavender or bergamot,
someone in our community told me
that that is supposed to be a grounding sense,
so maybe get your hands on that.
But those can help calm us down,
or a cinnamon candy can pull our focus to its spiciness
and away from maybe the worry thoughts.
Or taking a warm bath,
looking at kittens online, or petting an animal.
Consider some of the ways
you can incorporate all five senses
into your coping skill list.
My next tip is to get extra support.
Fighting against our anxiety
or trying to keep a panic attack at bay can be difficult,
and at times feel impossible.
Having people in our life
who understand what we're going through
and can offer support and reassurance when we need it
can be a total game changer.
This could be a professional, like a therapist,
a psychologist or psychiatrist,
but it can also be friends and family.
And I know many of us aren't comfortable
telling people about our anxiety,
but we're going to have to pick at least one person
that we know would seek to understand us
and will be open to helping.
Maybe this is a good friend from work or a sister,
a cousin, or someone at church,
whoever it is, we need to reach out
and start talking little by little.
Remember, from past videos,
hopefully you know, we don't want to overwhelm people
with a ton of information all at once
but we can start a conversation and share as we need to.
That will set us up for success
as we work to overcome our panic attacks.
Oh, and when it comes to professional help,
a therapist is best
if you're looking for support,
only because psychiatrists,
they aren't always the warmest or most available people.
They're doctors,
and they can often try to focus solely on our medication
and how well we're tolerating it.
So finding a therapist who can offer tools and resources
for the time in between your sessions is key too.
They may even be able to refer you to a group therapy
for anxiety, which could be helpful as well.
Another tip for keeping our panic attacks at bay
is to recognize situations, or people,
who cause our anxiety to rise
and avoid them until we get better control
over the symptoms.
I'm not saying we should avoid these people forever,
only until we have more skills that work.
Remember, tip number two?
Then we can use some exposure therapy techniques
to allow us to reengage with them.
These skills can be things like journaling,
using the fidget toy, rubbing our hands together,
texting or calling a friend,
stepping out of the room for a second briefly,
like I'm gonna go to the bathroom real quick
or offering to put the jackets away, things like that.
We'll have to figure out what works best for us.
So feel free to try some different ones out
until you have five to 10 that work for you.
Also want to add to this tip
that if we do have some toxic relationships
that always leave us feeling anxious
and bad about ourselves,
I give you full permission to end those.
And even if we get better at managing our anxiety symptoms,
we don't have to re-engage with them.
And I just wanted to add that in
because bad relationships are bad relationships
and it will take two to make it better.
Us doing the work and getting better with our anxiety
isn't going to magically make things
that they're responsible for better too.
Just doesn't work that way.
Next is to find your safe or neutral place.
Once you have a better handle on your symptoms
and can feel when they're coming on,
we'll want to have our skills ready
and also a place that we can go to in our mind
that feels okay.
I used to always ask my patients
to come up with a safe place,
but recently I was talking with my good friend,
Dr. Alexa Altman, and she told me
that people with complex PTSD or any kind of PTSD symptoms
really can have a difficult time coming up with a safe place
because the word safe means vulnerable,
and that can be anxiety or fear inducing.
So a neutral place
like going through your morning routine of making coffee,
washing your face, brushing your teeth, et cetera,
or even folding laundry or running errands.
Anything that just feels kind of bluh
and neutral can really work.
Or if it feels okay to you,
you can find a safe or happy place
like a good memory or a cozy place that calms you down.
So just take some time and think of some options
and then try them out.
Visualize yourself in that place
and see if it's calming or not.
And if it's not, then let's try out another one.
My hypothesis about anxiety
is that its core reason for existing
in our lives is lack of self-confidence
and/or our ability to speak up for ourselves.
And that's why my sixth tip
is to start noticing what you say to yourself
and using your bridge statements like never before.
Did you know that over 90% of the thoughts you have each day
are thoughts that you've already had before?
Did you hear that?
We have had these thoughts before,
probably for days, weeks, or even years of our life.
Make sure the thoughts we're allowing
are more balanced and kind,
and bridge statements come into play
because we all know we can't just pretend
that we love ourselves and feel confident,
but we can be open to the thought
that maybe we don't have all the facts.
We could be making some assumptions
and it's possible that we could be perceived
as better than we thought.
Hmm, it's possible.
You see, bridge statements live in the possibilities,
the maybes, and the coulds.
They keep us open to new thoughts that are more balanced,
and fact-checked, and not so negative.
I know the work can feel tedious and annoying,
but trust me when I tell you that if we all just took a week
to check our most common thoughts,
check the facts to back those thoughts up,
and work to come up with some,
you know, maybe just a few bridge statements,
we would all feel so much calmer and less anxious.
And finally, my seventh tip is medication.
And I'm not a psychiatrist,
but medications like SSRIs, SNRIs,
otherwise known as antidepressants,
and benzodiazepines can be a life raft
when we feel like we're drowning
in the symptoms of our panic disorder.
This doesn't mean we have to stay on them forever,
but sometimes our symptoms just become unmanageable
and medication can help us feel a bit better
so that we can do the work that we need to do in therapy.
And if you feel like medication
could help you overcome your anxiety,
reach out to a psychiatrist in your area
for more information and options.
I hope you found that helpful.
Panic attacks are extremely common,
but I hope this video reminded you of all the ways
that we can prevent them from continuing to happen
because with the right support and therapeutic tools,
it can and will get better.
And as always, please share any other tips
that have helped you overcome your panic disorder.
Are they things you think that I left out?
Please let me know in those comments down below,
and I will see you next time, bye.
(soft upbeat music)