Panic attacks cause feelings of fear, dread and panic and cause serious physical effects such as heart palpitations, sweating, problems breathing, nausea, dizziness and fainting. These attacks can completely debilitate you and negatively affect your personal and professional life. This problem can even become so severe that you may not want to ever leave the house, or you may choose to avoid many situations that cause you to panic. Panic attacks are a serious mental and physical disorder, but there are many ways to cope with them and lead a healthy and normal lifestyle.

The first and most important step to learning to cope with your panic attacks is to recognize that you have a problem. Panic attacks can be caused by many factors and affect over 6 million people in the United States. Recognizing that you may have an anxiety disorder that controls your life if a lot easier if you know that you are not alone. Once you recognize the problem the second step to get some help to learn to deal with it. With treatment it is completely possible to live a normal and panic attack free life. The sooner you seek help the better off you will be.

Psychotherapy and cognitive behavior therapies can be extremely useful in learning how to recognize the triggers for your anxiety and learning appropriate ways to deal with them. There are also many types of medications available if a doctor feels they are right for your specific symptoms. Support from family, friends, a church or even support groups is very important as well. You need to know that you are not alone.
Coping with panic attacks means you should learn about what triggers your fear and how you respond to these triggers. Learning to separate real risks and problems from ones that exist in your mind, telling yourself the differences between the two will help you feel calm in stressed situations. Learn to deal with the things you can change and accept the things that cannot be changed. Take steps to relax; yoga, meditation and aromatherapy may help.

Reduce your daily caffeine intake, exercise daily, get plenty of sleep, eat a balanced diet and work every day to reduce your negative thoughts and stress levels. With some hard work, you can control your anxiety levels and live a life without panic attacks.

Panic attacks can be so overwhelming and life changing, it’s easy to think that you will never overcome them. However, the fact of the matter is that hundreds of people who feel the exact same way are cured of their panic attacks every day, so don’t despair. With the proper guidance and a step-by-step plan of action provided by programs like Panic Away, you can eliminate panic attacks from your life for good.

Today I would like to share some quick tips that can bring immediate relief:

1. Breath Deeply and Slowly
   One of the first things that happen with most people during a panic attack is that they breath faster and shallower, which causes an imbalance of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the body. This brings on various other physical sensations that just makes you even more anxious. You will be amazed at what a difference it makes when you just focus on taking slow, deep breaths during a panic attack or when you feel that an attack is eminent.
2. Exercise to Get Rid of Excess Adrenaline
   One of the effects of a panic attacks is a general anxiety disorder that is always present, because your body produces excess amounts of adrenaline in order to continuously prepare for the “fight of flight” response. Physical exercise helps a lot to reduce the excess adrenaline and remove anxiety sensations and it also helps you to focus your thoughts on something positive. Just playing a sport or going out for a walk can really make a big difference when you feel some of those anxiety sensations coming on.
3. Don’t Fight The Sensations
   One of the key steps in getting rid of panic attacks is to learn to not be afraid of the sensations you experience. A panic attack normally starts with a negative thought, followed by one or more physical sensations. These sensations scare you, because you are worried that a panic attack is on its way. This just causes the sensations to intensify and before you know it you experience a full blown panic attack. In order to get rid of panic attacks you need to learn to stop fighting the sensations and break this cycle of fear by not allowing yourself to be afraid of them. The One Move Technique from the Panic Away program is one very effective way of achieving this and I definitely recommend that you try it out yourself.

In addition to the above points it is also very important to educate yourself and learn more about how panic attacks work, what the reasons are for the common sensations you experience during a panic attack and what the common methods are for treating panic attacks. See my Top 5 Panic Attack Programs page for more information.