I’m sure you are familiar with the feeling of the walls closing on you, your breath getting heavy, and everything feeling overwhelming, these are a few of the symptoms of a panic attack, an experience that more than 300 million people have in their lives.

Why it’s happening

Panic attack is a confusing topic so I will do some order in things:

First of all, panic is not the same thing as fear, fear is an effect from something that is happening, and anxiety on the other hand is the fear that something will happen in the future.

If there was a tiger in front of you you would fear.

If you imagined a tiger and feared it, this is anxiety.

Got it?

So panic attack is the body and mind fearing something that is not even happening, you are starting to get scared and your body reacting to this with the nervous system.

The role of the nervous system

The nervous system is a complicated system of the body so I will explain what is relevant to panic attacks:

There are 2 systems in the regular nervous system-

• the parasympathetic nervous system: we will call it the stressing system.

• the sympathetic nervous system: we will call it the calming system.

There is a control game between both of those systems and it goes like this; when your mind thinks you are a threat the stress system takes control, when the threat goes away the calming system takes over to calm done the body from the stress.

In anxiety attacks your stressing system thinks there is a threat when you are safe, the system prepares your body for the imaginary danger; moving more blood to the legs for a quick escape which causes nausea, letting your instincts (brain stem) take control which causes lower IQ for the moment and so on.

Now the important part is how to switch to the calming system while having a panic attack so here is the trick: your systems change while you... breathe, yep it is that simple, when you inhale your stressing system is in control, when you exhale your calming system controls the business.

pretty complicated I know, lots of info so let's see how to use it

How to calm down an anxiety attack

Ok, so we know we need to exhale and control our breathing somehow but it's not the only thing we need to do.

Another important thing to do while experiencing an anxiety attack is to remind yourself it is harmless, yea it's annoying and scary and you hate it, but in the end, it's only your body that is trying to protect you.

Also, it is helpful to remind yourself that the panic has an end, it doesn't last forever.

And the last thing is what we talked about Breathing

How to breathe properly to calm down

There are a few breathing technics to help you calm down your anxiety so let's walk you one by one

Box breathing

How:

1. Exhale all air from your lungs

2. Inhale for 4 seconds

3. Hold for 4 seconds

4. Exhale for 4 seconds

5. Hold for 4 seconds

Repeat until you feel calm.

It is my favorite technique because it's so simple and works so well.

4-7-8 breathing

How:

1. Exhale all air from your lungs

2. Inhale for 4 seconds

3. Hold for 7 seconds

4. exhale for 8 seconds

Repeat until you feel calm.

This is a hard breathing for starters but it's maybe the most effective one.

1-2 breathing

How:

1. Exhale all air from your lungs

2. Inhale for 1 second

3. Exhale for 2 seconds

This is the easiest but most effective one, after all, you are exhaling more than you are inhaling which activates your calming system.

To summarize

Anxiety attacks are no joke but they are things that your body does because he wants to protect you, and the best thing? you have your plan for the next panic attack:

1. Remind yourself it is harmless

2. Remind yourself it doesn't last forever

3. try one of the breathing methods

Hope you all learned something helpful, have a happy and amazing day.

I’m sure you are familiar with the feeling of the walls closing on you, breath getting heavy, and everything feels overwhelming, this is few of the symptoms of panic attack, an exepirence that more than 300 million people have in their life.