4 Tricks To Make Yourself Calm When You Are Having A Panic Attack
Panic attacks can be incredibly scary, especially if it’s the first time you’re experiencing them. When I had my first, aged just 13, I was terrified. I hadn’t got a clue what was happening to me and didn’t realise that I could have prevented it. When that first panic attack happened I went straight on the internet to my trusty friend, Google to find out everything I could.
A few years later and I feel like I’ve collected lots of tips and tricks to help calm your mind and body when you’re having a panic attack. These may not work for everyone as we’re all different but after 6 years of suffering, these are the techniques I use to calm down.
1) Name 5 things
This is fairly simple and pretty common, mainly because it works. Whatever room or area you’re in, look for 5 objects in that room and start to think about them. Think about how they were made, why they were made, what use the object has, will it break if you drop it from a height, things like that. The reason for doing this is once you give your brain something to concentrate on, the panic will start to subside. There’s lots of different variations of this techniques out there. You do whatever works for you.
2) Keep a calm reminder on your person
This can be anything: your favourite book, a piece of jewellery or a clothing item. The whole reason for this is when you start to feel the panic creeping in, get your calm reminder out and just focus on it. The main bulk of my panic attacks would happen at school, it was somewhere that I felt incredibly on edge. So to combat this, I made a recording on my phone of the general sounds of my house to listen to when I started to panic. Listening to the hustle and bustle of my house instantly calmed me down and made me feel like my family were there with me, even if I was on my own.
3) Count Your Breath
It’s a really obvious thing to do when you’re having a panic attack but sometimes the hardest to complete. Slowing your breathing down makes it impossible to hyperventilate, so you need to tackle that first. To slow my breathing I breathe in for 8 counts, hold it for 3 counts and let it out through my mouth for 5 counts. Keep repeating this until your breathing starts to slow.
4) Implement a coping statement
The start of a panic attack is normally brought on by a downward spiral of negative thoughts. Every time I’ve had a panic attack its started with me innocently wandering ‘what if…’ and then my brain goes into hyperdrive. It starts asking itself irrational questions, which leads to me getting incredibly worked up and then I start to hyperventilate.
To stop this before you get to the hyperventilation stage, think of a coping statement to shut the ‘what if’ down immediately. For example, if you’re worried about ordering something at a restaurant start saying in your head ‘I can do this, I can order this food. I’ll order it and nothing will happen’ or something along those lines. You’d be amazed how quickly this works.
Those are the tricks I like to use when I’m feeling anxious or panicky. Have you used any before? What do you do to calm yourself? Let Psych2Go know in a comment below!
I was nervous for a performance &I kept telling myself “I will play my song, it will be fine” &I kept breathing, but my heart was beating so hard & relatively fast. I did it, but when I was performing, my adhd brain wasn’t paying attention, so I played the seconds half without thinking even though I wasn’t planning on it &I messed that up, but I kept a calm smile & my legs were shaking. I survived.
Hi Dom,
It’s important to remember that even though it may seem incredibly scary at the time, you will feel better about it. You’re right in saying you survived. Often our brains will trick us into thinking something terrible will happen because we feel anxious or nervous but most of the time that isn’t true. I’m glad you were able to get through the performance and I hope you felt proud of yourself afterwards for finishing it!:)
I have an arrangement with my partner that, if I’m having a panic attack, I will phone him and he will go through with me a set script that we have worked out in advance to help me deal with the attack. For example, the very first question that he asks me is: “Do you want me to call you an ambulance?” That really makes me sit up and seriously consider whether it is so bad that I need the ambulance. So far, I have always answered “No” which helps me to understand that the attack is not life-threatening. I am sure that my partner dreads the day that my answer is “Yes” (lol).