4 Simple Steps to End a Panic Attack

Panic Attacks Are Common

When I first became certified as a Hypnotherapist in 1990, I was surprised by the number of people who came to me with anxiety and panic attacks. Many people experience panic attacks frequently and live their lives avoiding situations that frighten them, in many cases irrationally. This simple technique for ending a panic attack was part of my hypnotherapy training and has been used successfully by many of my clients since then. Using the four easy steps below, you can learn to end a panic attack in as little as three minutes.

What Is A Panic Attack?

A panic attack is a condition of adrenaline being released into your bloodstream. A message of fear sends a signal to the adrenal glands that there is an emergency.

The adrenal glands are pea-sized organs that sit on top of your kidneys. They are filled with adrenaline that, when released into your body, gives you heightened abilities to respond to emergency situations. This emergency response causes physical symptoms that many people misinterpret as a heart attack or other serious physical conditions. Misinterpreting these symptoms can cause the fear response to continue.

Here's How It Works

Adrenaline causes the heart to pump extra blood. This extra blood gets pumped into your major muscles to increase your ability to run fast and to increase the strength in your arms. Extra blood also goes into your brain to give you heightened abilities to respond to the emergency.

It takes three minutes from the time that your brain sends the emergency signal until your body is fully adrenalated with extra blood in your large arm and leg muscles and in your brain. In that three minute period you experience your heart pumping hard and extra blood flowing throughout your body. As long as your adrenal glands keep getting an emergency message, they continue to produce and release additional adrenaline. Once your brain stops signaling an emergency, your adrenal glands hold the adrenaline instead of releasing it.

It Only Takes Three Minutes To Stop A Panic Attack

It takes three minutes for your adrenal glands to fill your body with the adrenaline response. It also only takes three minutes for your body to stop the adrenaline reaction. If you stop a panic attack as soon as it starts, the reaction only has to last for three minutes.

It's Very Simple

Stopping a panic attack is very simple. All you have to do is stop the emergency message from being sent to your adrenal glands. Learn these four simple steps and your panic attack will only last for three minutes. Once you understand how this works, you never have to have a panic attack again.

Learn These Four Simple Steps

If panic attacks have been a recurring problem, write the four basic steps on a little card, with a list of sample Coping Statements on the back. Mark the card with bright stripes to make it easy to find in your wallet, and keep it with you everywhere you go until you memorize the steps and know them thoroughly. Study these steps and learn them in advance. If you have a panic attack, get out your card immediately and follow it exactly. Once you learn these steps you won't need the card.

Full Resolution

If you experience panic attacks more often than occasionally I strongly suggest that you work with a practitioner to resolve the cause of your anxiety. You owe it to yourself to be free of anxiety. Permanently resolving issues of anxiety is one of my areas of specialty.

The Four Steps:

1. Relax.
2. Stop Negative Thinking.
3. Use Coping Statements.
4. Accept Your Feelings.

Here's How:

Step 1. Relax.

Relax by taking slow, deep, complete breaths. Calm yourself by remembering that you are only having a panic attack and that nothing more serious is happening to you. Continue to take slow, deep, complete breaths. Slow, deep, complete breaths will relax your body, which is the first step to reversing the release of adrenaline.

Step 2. Stop Negative Thinking.

Stop negative thinking by shouting the word "STOP!!!" really loud inside your head. By shouting the word "STOP" you are interrupting the emergency message that your brain is sending to your adrenal glands. Often people having a panic attack get into an endless loop repeating the same catastrophic thoughts over and over in their head. Interrupting this endless loop gives you the opportunity to replace the scary message with a calming one.

Step 3. Use Coping Statements.

A coping statement is a positive statement that is at least as strong as the catastrophic statement that you have been scaring yourself with. Replace the negative thought with a positive one. Choose a statement that addresses the negative thought.

For example, if you think that you are having a heart attack (a common fear during a panic attack) then you might be saying something in your head like, "Oh my God, I'm having a heart attack" or, "I'm gonna die, oh my God, I'm gonna die!" After you shout the word "STOP!" immediately replace the fear thought with a positive statement that helps you to cope with the situation, such as "I'm only having a panic attack and it will be over in three minutes if I relax" or, "My fear is making my heart pound harder, my heart is fine."

If you feel afraid hearing footsteps behind you on the street you might say, "I've walked down this street hundreds of times" or, "I walk alone on the street every night when I come home from work; what I hear behind me is someone else who is walking home from work."

Other coping statements might be, "I've gotten through this situation many times before and I can get through it again" or, "I am fine, everything is fine."

Brainstorm the kinds of fearful thoughts that bring on panic for you and then make a long list of coping statements that you can look at when you need to rather than trying to think of coping statements in the middle of a panic attack.

Note: If your fear is in response to a real danger I suggest that you consider making new choices that address those fears. If you are concerned about your health consult with your doctor.

Step 4. Accept Your Feelings.

Accepting your feelings is very important. Minimizing this experience usually serves to perpetuate it.
Start by identifying what emotion you are feeling. Most panic attacks are caused by the emotion of fear or some variation of fear. Identify the emotion you are feeling and find the reason that you feel it.
Validate that feeling and the reason for it. If you are having a panic attack before giving a speech, you are afraid because it's scary. Stage fright is a common cause of fear and panic. If you're afraid that you're having a heart attack, it's certainly valid to be afraid of that. If you are afraid of footsteps behind you on the street it's reasonable to be afraid that something bad might happen to you.

In all of these cases take the appropriate precautions. Have a regular check up so that you know that your heart is healthy. Walk in a well-lit area and be aware of your surroundings on the street. Walk like a warrior and not like a victim. These are all important precautions to ensure your safety. Then, when you use a coping statement that reminds you that you had a check up recently and that your heart is fine, you can reassure yourself that it's okay to be afraid, knowing that you are safe.

Fear is a positive emotion that reminds you to take care of yourself. Listen to your feelings, take good care of yourself, and keep your emotions in proportion to the situation by keeping an appropriate perspective.
Many people have stopped having panic attacks after learning these steps. However, there is a deeper solution to permanently resolving panic and anxiety responses, fully giving you emotional freedom and happiness. Your mind has the power to significantly influence your negative responses in all situations. By working with hypnosis and NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming, a powerful way of changing or enhancing your thinking processes) we can achieve any goal, solve any problem and create the excellence you desire in all areas of your life.

You can become the person that you choose to be.

How to Stop Panic Attacks

Panic attacks are often common when we have sudden feelings of fear and anxiety. This happens due to the stimulation of the adrenal hormone by the adrenal glands. The released adrenalin helps the body prepare for a fight or flight situation.

This is usually for the good but sometimes it may cause trouble. Especially when it happens too frequently, it is difficult to manage them The problem with these attacks is that they appear out of nowhere. But you can handle it.

Steps

1. Breathe and relax. Put an end to a panic attack before it starts. When you begin to feel like you are going to have panic attack, relax your muscles by tensing all of your muscles up in one area of your body (e.g. face, left arm, etc) for a few seconds and then relaxing them. Do this with every muscle in your body. Be sure to focus on your breathing.
2. Change the atmosphere. Changing your surrounding or circumstances at the onslaught of a panic attack can sometimes prevent it from happening. When you feel a panic attack coming on, try drinking a cold glass of water, tell yourself a joke, sing your favorite song or whatever it takes to stop the negative thought process that can start the panic attack. When you find something that works, use it next time. This will help prevent the attack before it starts.
3. Make panic attack journals. Make a panic attack journal with strategies that have helped prevent attacks in the past written down. Have one for your home and one for your car. You may even need this same journal at work. Keep phone numbers for your local crisis line or doctor's office with this journal. If you feel yourself starting to have a panic attack, refer to the notebook. If the panic attack is more than you can handle, you may need to use the phone number to call the crisis line. You could also include the phone number for a close friend of family member that has helped in the past.

Manage the stress

1. Stress Management and Rest: Panic is due to excessive tension. The best cure for tension is rest. Get more sleep and enjoy your life. Go out on a vacation.

Use dietary intervention

1. Adjusting your diet: Reducing intake of caffeine, sugar and foods that are high in fat has been proven to help reduce the occurrence of panic attacks.

Go herbal

1. Herbal Remedies: Trying herbs is not a bad option. They have been found to be effective most of the time but not always. It is your brain that decides whether you should have a panic attack or not.

Try CBT

1. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy/One Move Technique: This therapy is also known as the One Move technique. Panic attacks are caused due to fear and the fear is due to the release of adrenalin. The release of adrenalin is directly linked to the adrenal corticotropic hormone (ACTH) stimulated by the pituary gland. So that is where you need to control. If you can control the stimulation of ACTH then you can certainly overcome panic attack.

Seek prescription remedies

1. Prescription medications: Popular classes of medications include tricyclic antidepressants, beta blockers, benzodiazepines, monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI’s). Drugs that have been approved by the FDA for the treatment of panic attacks have been shown in double-blind, placebo controlled studies to significantly lower the likelihood of panic attack episodes.

Try physical reactions

1. Put your arms straight up in the air. It works for some people.
2. Try hiding. Get under a favorite blanket or quilt. In public, pull down your hat and button up your jacket and slip into the shadows for a while.
3. Watch TV. It can take your mind off the rising panic and substitute other experiences.
4. Stick with someone you trust and feel safe around.

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Tips

• If you feel panic, then don’t react. Let it through. It will come to an end. Panic attacks are like a roller coaster. It will come to end.
• Don’t resist panic attacks. Accept it and let it flow through you. It will come to an end.
• Don’t feel afraid. Remember one thing: Fear increases fear. If you are afraid of panic then it will create more panic and you will face more trouble. So let it go through your body.
• If you let it flow through you, then you will lose your fear of panic. When that happens, you become less scared of panic attacks and more relaxed when you have a panic attack.
• Medication is a short term solution, find some good natural panic attacks treatments that treat the cause not the symptoms.
• Learn how to Stop Panic Attacks with these more detailed natural techniques.