Panic Attacks And How To Deal With Them

Panic attacks are more common that you may think, with most if not all people having suffered one at some point in their lives.

What Causes Panic Attack?

Many different situations can trigger a panic attack and some suffer with them more than others, when we are faced with a situation we are afraid or feeling nervous about the body releases adrenalin, which in turn triggers our instinctive fight or flight mode.

This instinct goes back to a time where we has to think and act fast to avoid dangerous environments. Now a days we don’t need this instinct as much as we did in the very early days of mankind, but we still have this inner instinct to try and protect us from anything we perceive as a danger to ourselves.

Panic attacks can be triggered by stress and fear of a situation we are faced with, causing us to try and distance ourselves from the situation. And yes this instinct is needed to help us recognise dangerous situations, though many times it is triggered by small things that most people who suffer with panic attacks can over think causing the adrenalin to run longer than necessary or even for the smallest of fears.

Most people that suffer from panic attacks will go over the scenario in their mind over and over again with the fear something bad is about to happen. It Is this obsessive thinking that keeps the adrenalin going leading to faster breathing, shaking and other physical symptoms. The issue with this is that once the psychical symptoms start kicking in caused by the increase in adrenalin people start to panic more thinking there is something wrong, creating a spiral of panicked thoughts and thinking.

How To Deal with Panic Attack?

While it is easy for another who is not experiencing this scenario to say “Calm down” or “Try to take deep breaths” it is not that easy for the person suffering this type of panic attack to simply just calm down!

A lot of people visit their GP for advice and help and I would always encourage this as they are the best people to help you when you’re suffering in this way for a very long time. It can be a very hard thing to live with and is not a very nice situation to be in.

Sometimes just talking can help calm someone down as most people just need to be reassured nothing bad is about to happen to them and things will be ok.

Panic attacks vary on how long the can persist for and just having someone to talk about how your feeling can help a lot.

Here at Agony Aunt we can help you sort through what is causing your panic and what is on your mind that might be triggering the panic attack. While we are not medical professionals and I would advise everyone suffering in this way to get advice from your GP, just having someone to help you through can really help.

Panic attacks do not mean you’re going out of your mind or that there is something wrong with you, they are simply a reaction to stress and fear often of things you might not even know your worried about. 

Download our iPhone app to live chat with one of our agony aunts if you suffer from panic attacks. You can also live chat with us directly from this website as well.