What To Do For Panic Attacks
Am I Having a Panic Attack?
Once you've had a few panic attacks you will know the symptoms well. Usually there's a cluster of symptoms that are highly physical: increased heart rate, temperature fluctuations like sweating or chills, digestive symptoms like cramps or nausea, chest or head pain, tingling or numb sensations, and possibly dizziness. For most people, panic attacks peak within minutes (not hours), and they usually come on without much or any warning.
The first time you have a panic attack, you're entirely normal if you end up in the emergency department of your local hospital, wondering if you're dying. Panic attacks are rough like that.
What to Do During a Panic Attack
First of all: name it. Say to yourself, “This is a panic attack.” Your symptoms may be mimicking something you should go to the hospital for but once you know how a panic attack feels for you and can recognize it, just start by naming it. This is a panic attack.
Then, add to that, the additional statement of “This too shall pass.” You're accepting that you will survive the panic attack and that you can wait it out. This is a panic attack, and this too shall pass.
Shift your focus to external things. Pick an object to pay attention to, or look up and around to name several things each that you can see and hear. Turning your focus to the world around you helps you regain awareness that you are in a safe place.
Shift your attention by drinking cold water or eating sour candy – those strong sensory inputs early in a panic attack help some people shift their attention off the symptoms they're experiencing. Some people carry a couple reserve warheads candy pieces around with them in case they have a panic attack for just this reason! The extreme sourness of a warhead candy can shift some people’s nervous system away from fight-or-flight mode.
Similarly, you can alter your sensations by putting cold water on your face. If you can get to a bathroom and turn on the faucet, generously splash cold water (not warm or hot) on your face. This can help stimulate a calmer feeling in your body, moving you away from the fight-or-flight mode you're in during a panic attack.
Try a glass of ice-cold water during a panic attack
Panic Attack vs. Anxiety Attack
Sometimes people use these two terms interchangeably, particularly since “anxiety attack” is not an official diagnosis with diagnostic criteria like panic attack disorder is. But there are some widely accepted differences between the two:
A panic attack tends to come on suddenly and then diminish within minutes (not hours or days). It has a lot of physically-focused symptoms, and it may or may not have a lot of cognitive fear and worry involved.
An anxiety attack, on the other hand, can be very cognitive in focus. You may experience some physical sensations like muscle tension, but it is primarily identified by cognitive things like worry, irritability, and brain fog. An anxiety attack may come on with a lot more lead-up and warning, but it also can linger for days.
Therapy is a place to both learning in-the-moment tools for panic, and a place to dig down to the roots of panic attacks
How Does Therapy Help?
A simplified way to talk about anxiety, is to think about whether it primarily resides in the brain or in the body. Panic attacks are a very physical, body-focused experience while anxiety attacks can be a very cognitive, brain-focused experience. Either way, therapy can help!
If you are spooling up for anxiety attacks through your thought patterns, a cognitive-based approach like exposure therapy or cognitive-behavioral therapy can be really helpful. We'll start writing down your chains of thought and then figure out how you could think differently about situations that are winding you up.
If you experience a more body-based anxiety (like many people's panic attacks) that comes out of the blue and isn't spooled up by ruminations and fretting, then we might start from a more nervous-system based approach. We'll look at what kind of experiences have led to a body that turns to panic so readily, and we'll start bringing more regulation into your system with a lot of somatic support tools. As your overall internal agitation decreases, your threshold for panic can shift and reduce the frequency of panic attacks.
I believe that therapy should center what you need as an individual, so that you can get better. People aren't one-size-fits-all, and your treatment plan shouldn't be, either. So in therapy we'll take the time to figure out what's going on for you, and go from there.
Reach out today to schedule a free consultation. Find relief from panic attacks.
Elizabeth Peters, LMSW is a licensed therapist seeing clients in person in Wichita and online across Kansas. She provides EMDR and somatic therapy for adults who are overwhelmed by anxiety, trauma, painful relationships or spiritual harm.