What Are Anxiety Attacks?
Anxiety attacks are intensified feelings of fear and anxiety that can come out of nowhere. Anxiety attacks can be associated with one or more physical symptoms, which include: fast breathing, rapid heart beat, shaking, pins and needles in the arm and or face and general dizzy and light headed feelings.
The sufferer of an anxiety attack may feel like they are going to pass out or even die, typically however symptoms only last for 10 to 30 minutes. You will never die from an anxiety attack.
Although an anxiety attack is not physically harmful, they do make quite an impact on the emotional psyche of a person. An element of fear is associated with the event which causes the anxiety attack, which creates a loop or habit which is very hard to break.
There has been recent evidence also that suffering from anxiety attacks weaken the immune system. Specifically in those who suffer also from insomnia. For this reason anxiety attack treatment has also become a health issue.
In my view medication only serves to cover up the anxiety attack symptoms. There are 2 main techniques which help you stop an anxiety attack: breathing exercises and cognitive stress reduction techniques (essentially convincing yourself that you do not suffer from anxiety attacks). Ideally a combination of these 2 approaches will produce the best results.
There is a wealth of breathing exercise information available online, however a good technique I use is to lie flat on the ground (not your bed) and focus on each individual part of your body. Count backwards from 100 on each breath out.
Too much oxygen can make someone hyperventilate. This is why slow deep breathing is the first crucial step to take in overcoming an anxiety attack.
Cognitive stress reduction techniques are essentially activities which re-train your mind to react differently to a situation. A great way to begin this technique is to keep a log of each time you felt an anxiety attack set in, and what actions you took. The minute a negative thought enters your head regarding your anxiety attack, replace it with a positive thought.
For example, I used to suffer from acute insomnia, and as a result anxiety attacks. Each time I felt an anxiety attack coming on, I would focus on the fact that even if I did not sleep, I would function the next day- as I had all week. This then became a case of focusing on the fact that I slept perfectly the night before and so on..
Another really useful technique I use to overcome anxiety attack is called "Useful Questions, Positive Answers". Essentially you need to be calm and sitting down, then you ask yourself the following questions:
What does it feel like to be completely relaxed and calm?
What would it feel like if I was on that amazing tropical Island in Hawaii, with not a care in the world?
How would it feel to be... right now? (Fill in the blank with someone you look up to, who may have a very calm persona).
Ask these above questions over and again, making sure you pause between the question and answer. This will help to ingrain a new attitude towards your anxiety attack.
Conclusion
An anxiety attack can fell like your world is ending, trust me I have been there. Hopefully this article has given you some basic techniques which should point you in the right direction to overcoming your anxiety attacks?
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