In this blog post I'm going to discuss some of my relievers I use successfully and unsuccessfully to attempt to curb my panic attacks or a build up to a panic attack. I am not a psychologist or a doctor so these techniques may not work for you and some of them are really not good things for you to do at all. I just want you to get a general picture of what I do.
I typically have two types of panic attacks, one where I zone out and cannot move, increased heart beat but its almost like I cannot make myself move and the other which is the most well known panic attack, which involves loss of breath, increased heart beat, butterflies and a feeling of being faint as well as sometimes actually fainting.
I deal with these panic attacks in very different ways. When I zone out I really don't know what to do and I generally increase my panicking state my mistake because I worry even more. I try and make myself move or tell my body to do something and I just can't. It's almost like I'm locked in my body and then that makes me panic further, these attacks can last for hours, I tend to get myself stuck in a sort of rut with it and make myself worse. If anyone has any coping mechanisms that has helped them with this sort of panic attack, let me know! I would love to see if there's anything I should try to do which I haven't been.
With my other type of panic attack the relievers or coping mechanisms are very different. One way I can tell if I'm feeling a bit anxious or one is on it's way is that I pull out single strands of my hair on my parting. I will feel for shorter hair or hair that doesn't quite feel right and I will pull it out. This usually doesn't make me feel better though. I have employed the hair band trick a few times to try and calm me down, with this one you simply put a hair band on your wrist and you flick it, this one doesn't always work but sometimes it can do.
One thing I rarely do is I scratch at my skin, this is a new one that's developed over the past year or so. If I'm in the middle of a panic attack and I don't know what else to do I sometimes will scratch at my hands. This doesn't sound too bad but believe me it is, it's technically a form of self harm. I don't call it one of my self harming tendencies because to me the scratching is related to anxiety rather than trying to actually harm. The first time I did it was in Freshers week at UWTSD, I had a panic attack on the bus and I scratched the skin off my fingers. Almost all of my fingers had barely any skin on them from the knuckle to the first joint. This is something I would seriously advice against. It was not a healthy thing to do at all. The pain with this was ridiculous, it wasn't like a usual self harm scar, this was the worst thing ever. It almost felt like a really bad burn, I think it's because it cut through less layers of skin and the surface area was much bigger. I had huge scabs and it would make writing or even just moving my hands so difficult and painful. They clear up after maybe two or three weeks but it's not something I would ever recommend for someone to try and do to curb a panic attack. If anything it made me panic that the pain and the scabs would never go away and I was worried the whole time about how bad my scars from it would be. NOT something I would recommend at all.
Another way I try to deal with my panic attacks is through nursery rhymes. This is a weird one and I'm not sure if it would help anyone else but a while ago my mum told me that when she was giving birth to my brothers and I, if she was going through a really bad contraction she would sing nursery rhymes in her head and it would help her take her mind off the pain. This is something that really works for me when trying to calm myself down. It stops me from focussing on only the panic and fear and makes a sort of effort to try and calm myself. It can work with other songs as well, I just find nursery rhymes soothing and comforting.
One massive and important technique that you can use is to simply focus on your breathing. Quite a lot of the time with panic attacks you can't breath as well and you get a shortness of breath which can then make you feel faint. I have fainted several times due to the feeling of not being able to breath. With breathing it's important to try and breath in and out slowly and calmly.
If I'm with someone when I'm panicking I either like them to step away from me and give me space to breath and focus on myself or I like them to just stroke my hair and shush me a little.
So yeah, that's just a few of the things I do to attempt to relieve my panic attacks or prevent them. I'll leave a few links at the end of this blog in case you feel like your suffering from panic attacks and don't know what to do or you want a better understanding of the subject. I hope this has given you a better understanding of how I deal with my panic attacks and some of the methods that I use. Until next time.
Stay awesome.
http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/pages/coping-with-panic-attacks.aspx
http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/pages/understanding-panic-attacks.aspx
http://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/anxiety-and-panic-attacks/panic-attacks/#.VurV8pyLTIU
With my other type of panic attack the relievers or coping mechanisms are very different. One way I can tell if I'm feeling a bit anxious or one is on it's way is that I pull out single strands of my hair on my parting. I will feel for shorter hair or hair that doesn't quite feel right and I will pull it out. This usually doesn't make me feel better though. I have employed the hair band trick a few times to try and calm me down, with this one you simply put a hair band on your wrist and you flick it, this one doesn't always work but sometimes it can do.
One thing I rarely do is I scratch at my skin, this is a new one that's developed over the past year or so. If I'm in the middle of a panic attack and I don't know what else to do I sometimes will scratch at my hands. This doesn't sound too bad but believe me it is, it's technically a form of self harm. I don't call it one of my self harming tendencies because to me the scratching is related to anxiety rather than trying to actually harm. The first time I did it was in Freshers week at UWTSD, I had a panic attack on the bus and I scratched the skin off my fingers. Almost all of my fingers had barely any skin on them from the knuckle to the first joint. This is something I would seriously advice against. It was not a healthy thing to do at all. The pain with this was ridiculous, it wasn't like a usual self harm scar, this was the worst thing ever. It almost felt like a really bad burn, I think it's because it cut through less layers of skin and the surface area was much bigger. I had huge scabs and it would make writing or even just moving my hands so difficult and painful. They clear up after maybe two or three weeks but it's not something I would ever recommend for someone to try and do to curb a panic attack. If anything it made me panic that the pain and the scabs would never go away and I was worried the whole time about how bad my scars from it would be. NOT something I would recommend at all.
Another way I try to deal with my panic attacks is through nursery rhymes. This is a weird one and I'm not sure if it would help anyone else but a while ago my mum told me that when she was giving birth to my brothers and I, if she was going through a really bad contraction she would sing nursery rhymes in her head and it would help her take her mind off the pain. This is something that really works for me when trying to calm myself down. It stops me from focussing on only the panic and fear and makes a sort of effort to try and calm myself. It can work with other songs as well, I just find nursery rhymes soothing and comforting.
One massive and important technique that you can use is to simply focus on your breathing. Quite a lot of the time with panic attacks you can't breath as well and you get a shortness of breath which can then make you feel faint. I have fainted several times due to the feeling of not being able to breath. With breathing it's important to try and breath in and out slowly and calmly.
If I'm with someone when I'm panicking I either like them to step away from me and give me space to breath and focus on myself or I like them to just stroke my hair and shush me a little.
So yeah, that's just a few of the things I do to attempt to relieve my panic attacks or prevent them. I'll leave a few links at the end of this blog in case you feel like your suffering from panic attacks and don't know what to do or you want a better understanding of the subject. I hope this has given you a better understanding of how I deal with my panic attacks and some of the methods that I use. Until next time.
Stay awesome.
http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/pages/coping-with-panic-attacks.aspx
http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/pages/understanding-panic-attacks.aspx
http://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/anxiety-and-panic-attacks/panic-attacks/#.VurV8pyLTIU
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