Tips on How to Control Panic Attacks

While the thought of dealing with panic and anxiety may elicit fear in those who experience the worst symptoms, panic is not beyond your control. Here we discuss the symptoms of panic attacks so you can learn how to take control of your symptoms once and for all.

While we all have dealt with some amount of stress in our lives, there are some that live with the constant fear of when their next panic attack may occur. Even if the sufferer has experienced the occasional symptoms of a panic attack, the symptoms may have been so intense that they may have made drastic changes to their life in order to prevent another attack from ever occurring. Those who suffer from panic attacks can experience symptoms at any time during the day, even when sleeping. The symptoms of a panic attack can include, but are not limited to the following:

• Experiencing an unusually fast heartbeat for no particular reason
• Feeling a pressure on the chest
• Having difficulty breathing
• Experiencing a fear of getting stuck in traffic or in another location
• Having anxious thoughts that just won’t go away
• Feeling weak, faint, or dizzy
• Experiencing sweating or chilling spells
• Experiencing a numbness or tingling in the hands and fingers
• Having inexplicable feelings of deep discomfort or embarrassment in normal scenarios in life like work, interviews, giving a speech, parties and get-togethers, sitting at restaurants/cafes, public transportation, air travel, supermarkets, gym, the hairdresser or any other fear inducing situation
• Having a fear of dying, often because the extremely high heartbeat rate leads to the impression that sufferer is having a heart attack

Even if the sufferer knows that the bad experience has subconsciously been blown out of proportion and may not even be related to the situation they are currently in, the sheer terror that they experience while in the moment is real for them. This is why these experiences should never be dismissed by others as imagination or exaggeration since it can only make the symptoms of a panic attack that much worse for the sufferer.

The symptoms of a panic attack may last less than 10 minutes, but when the first attack occurs, the person will face an increased possibility of having another attack in the future, which can make living life that much more difficult. When the symptoms instead happen on a more frequent basis, the panic attack become a panic disorder which affects 2.5 and 3 million people in the United States with women having a higher chance of developing the disorder than men.

While the causes for panic attacks may not be entirely clear, the symptoms of the disorder can be quite difficult to bear. Whether it is a life changing event, or other life stressor, the sufferer needs to identify the trigger for their attacks if they have any chance of overcoming the symptoms of a panic attack. As soon as the cycle of panic is set, the sufferer will begin to naturally avoid any situations that could potentially cause an attack. There are even cases where the panic can turn into a phobia where even the thought of being placed in a similar situation can cause the symptoms of a panic attack to appear. In the worst case, panic attack sufferers may choose to not even leave their home for fear that they will come across another situation which will elicit another attack. If left untreated, panic attacks can turn into agoraphobia which can change the way the sufferer chooses to even live their life.

In order to finally take control of your symptoms of a panic attack you need to first seek treatment for dealing with this disorder. While panic may elicit a fight or flight response in the sufferer’s body, its best to attack your symptoms head on as opposed to running away from them which tends to only make the symptoms worse. Once you learn how to accept your body’s responses to particular situations, you can prepare for them and move with them which will make your symptoms of a panic attack seem less scary than you may have originally thought. When you change the way that you react to your symptoms, you change the way that the panic affects you and that is the first step to learning how to take control of your panic for good.

copyright Patricia Adams