How To Stop The Physical Symptoms of Anxiety Attacks
The physical symptoms of anxiety attacks can be extremely varied from one person to the next, but there are a handful of very common symptoms that almost everyone with panic and anxiety experience.
Learning a bit more about these common symptoms is a great way to take the fear factor away from them, and learning more about them is enough to stop them altogether, in some cases.
So what follows is a very brief look at arguably the 2 most common anxiety-based physical symptoms.
First of all, headaches. This is one of the most common symptoms people with anxiety experience. And it can be a scary one too, since so many people with anxiety fear things like brain tumours. But here’s the good news: headaches are almost always caused by excess stress, which turns into muscle stiffness, travelling up through the back and neck and into the head.
Okay, the second symptom is palpitations. This is another very common one. And as with the headaches, it can be scary. It’s easy to assume you have something wrong with your heart, and this is why so many people end up in the ER after their first panic attacks.
But also as with headaches, palpitations are rarely a sign of anything wrong. They happen simply because of excess adrenaline in your system, which causes your heart to beat faster and harder than it normally would.
Simply by knowing more about what causes the physical symptoms of anxiety attacks you will fear them less, and possible even experience them less. So finding out as much as you can about the specific symptoms you experience can only help your situation.
Anxiety Attack Cure - New Habits Can Be Your Answer
When you’re looking for an anxiety attack cure, one of the best things you can do is learn how to start and keep new habits. The only way to improve your quality of life in any area, anxiety and panic included, is to make changes to the way you live, and making and keeping new habits is vital in achieving that.
But starting habits is very hard, and sticking to them for the long haul is even harder. The good news is, though, there are some simple things you can do to give yourself a much better chance of sticking to the new habits you create for yourself.
Here’s a quick 3 step plan for you to follow, to guarantee yourself the best chance of not slipping up with your new habits.
1. First, make a list of all the things you know you could change about your life that could play an important part in your own anxiety attack cure. Now pick the one from that list that you think could make the biggest difference. It’s much easier to stick to one new habit at a time, so this is why you’ll focus on just one for now.
2. Next, get yourself a calendar or a journal, and mark the next 21 days with something that will remind you of your new habit that you’d like to stick to.
3. Now, each day for the next 3 weeks, use every bit of your will power to stick to your chosen habit each day. Each day that you do, check that day off in your calendar or journal.
When you begin doing something new in your life, you will naturally start off by resisting it, as most people do with all forms of change. This resistance increases every day for about a week or a week and a half.
But then the resistance begins to fade, and by the end of the third week you’ll be in a place where the habit will become a part of your daily routine. That’s why it’s so important to use a journal or calendar, to countdown those 21 days. Once you reach that point the habit will be far more likely to stick, and far more likely to become an important piece of your very own anxiety attack cure.
Stop Anxiety Attack In Three Steps
If you’re living with severe panic and anxiety, and you’d like to know exactly what you can do the next time you need to stop an anxiety attack, I’ve put together a quick 3 step plan that you can use.
These ideas are basic, and yet they are sadly overlooked by many people who are experiencing panic and anxiety attacks. The ideas that follow really do work, so I hope you’ll give them a shot when and if you need them.
1. When you feel an anxiety attack approaching, do something physical if your situation permits it. Take the trash out, vacuum the carpet, or even walk up and down the stairs a couple of times.
Getting active like this achieves two things - first, it distracts you from the way you’re feeling, and two, it gets your heart, lungs, muscles and your mind working slightly harder -all of which can decrease anxiety and prevent a full-blown attack.
2. If your anxiety attack happens, despite your best efforts, make use of all sensory distractions. The worst attacks are so bad because your mind becomes transfixed on the sensations and the thoughts linked to the attack. Sensory distractions deprive the attack of its fuel and will make it go away much faster.
Great sensory distractions are turning on the TV with the volume higher than normal, turning on some music (often, unfamiliar music is effective), and believe it or not, even eating something very bitter. Anything that requires your senses to process some information will help ease an attack.
3. When you have an attack, do something immediately afterwards. Anything. The important thing is, once it’s over and you’re free to do something else, do something else.
The longer you leave it to get back on your feet, the longer it will take for the effects of the attack to disappear. I’ve also found that some attacks can cause further attacks, almost like earthquake aftershocks. The chances of these happening are greatly reduced if you get busy with something else as soon as you can.
These 3 tips are powerful. They will help you stop an anxiety attack from happening, or they will make it stop much faster if it happens, and they will reduce the chances of further “aftershock” attacks occurring. Start using these tips today, anytime you need them.
Stop Panic Attacks Starting Right Now
Filed under: Anxiety & Panic Resources, Articles, Random Thoughts
After living with anxiety and panic for 17 years, I know what it’s like when you desperately want to stop panic attacks. And I’d like to share a quick idea with you that I discovered a couple of years back. It’s something I used as part of my efforts to get over my severe anxiety, and if it worked for me, perhaps it can work for you too.
It’s all about focusing your attention on other people who have the same goal - to stop panic attacks.
I found great inspiration to see other people winning their own battles with these kinds of problems, and I’m sure it played a part in my eventual recovery.
One of the best ways I found for doing this was to find videos on the various video sharing sites. Quite a few people who suffer with panic attacks and severe anxiety seem to like to make little video diaries, or video blogs, where they talk about their own experiences, the progress they’re making, and the approaches they’ve taken that have worked.
Another great thing about these video sharing sites is that you can leave comments under the video, or in some cases even contact the creator of the video directly. I met a couple of people this way who turned into good friends, and we all learned a lot from each other about our various panic disorders.
So if this is something you haven’t tried, why not visit a couple of video sharing sites, take a look around, watch some videos, and see what it inspires in you? If it proves to be even half as effective as it was for me, you might just find that it plays a big part in helping to stop panic attacks completely.
