3 Simple Ways to Prevent Anxiety Attacks Ruining Your Life
By: John Cielo
Submitted: 2011-08-04 04:47:49 | Word Count: 663
Anxiety / panic attacks regularly come 'out of the blue' which is why they are so scary. And they can last up to 20 minutes or so. But by employing some simple techniques you can prevent attacks developing too far, or even stop one in its tracks. Here you'll discover 3 simple ways to prevent anxiety attacks that you can try.
First though, before we discuss the ways to reduce anxiety attacks, let's quickly go over what starts an anxiety attack off. It occurs when your total anxiety / stress levels shoots up to such a height that your body's 'fight or flight' response is triggered. This is you body's natural defense in dangerous situations. When the human body 'senses' danger it triggers this response which sets off major changes around the body. These physical and mental changes give you the best chance of survival.
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But an anxiety attack happens out of the blue, and nothing to do with you being in danger. All that's happened here is that your body has misinterpreted your very high stress / anxiety as a sign that you're in danger. Therefore, all that an attack is, is you experiencing symptoms that are a direct result of all the changes happening because of your body's fight or flight response.
Now this leads us to the most important fact you can take away. And that is that an anxiety attack cannot harm you. This is a medical fact. When you reach this understanding you are more than half way to preventing anxiety attacks in the future.
All right, here are the 3 simple ways to prevent anxiety attacks that I promised:-
(1) Remember That Anxiety / Panic Attacks Are Harmless
Because you now know that the symptoms of panic attacks are just your body's natural reaction to a 'misconception,' you definitely realize that you aren't in any danger. By this very realization the fear that you normally have during an attack can be stripped out. This in turn helps to reduce the severity of the other symptoms and the time that the attack will last.
(2) Control Your Breathing
One of the most frightening aspects of a panic attack is hyperventilation, i.e. short, rapid breathing. When this happens your body's normal oxygen v carbon dioxide ratio is upset. You need to get this back on track. One way is to breath into / out of a paper bag; as you may have seen people do on TV or on films. Without a bag you can also start to breath more deeply and regularly, ensuring that you use both your diaphragm and your upper chest.
(3) Concentrate Your Mind Externally
One of the worst things you can do is to analyze your symptoms. By doing this you will only get more scared and this will make the symptoms even worse. Get your head up and start concentrating on the things around you. But remember, all the while you should be repeating to yourself that you know that this attack won't harm you and will soon pass.
I have found these 3 tips to be effective ways to control anxiety attacks. But on their own they aren't sufficient to actually stop anxiety attacks occurring in the first place. This is because the actual fear of an attack can help to trigger the next one.
And, in addition, an anxiety attack usually occurs when the victim already has high levels of general anxiety. This all leads to a vicious cycle that needs to be broken, in order to permanently prevent anxiety attacks and cure the general anxiety.
