We all have a little anxiety in our lives. It’s a normal part of life. If you amplify that anxiety and then imagine that it comes frequently, often multiple times per day, then you can understand what it is like to have an anxiety disorder. It’s not an easy thing to live with, and it often changes the way we do things as we try to avoid triggering our anxiety further or having a panic attack.
This post will share with you some strategies for how to deal with anxiety and panic attacks, and towards the end I will share with you the strategy that helped me to overcome my anxiety to the point where it no longer rules my life and I no longer need medication.
Signs Of Anxiety
There are many symptoms of anxiety and sometimes it presents in different ways for different people. Some of the common signs of anxiety include:
A feeling of nervousness
A feeling of helplessness
Having a sense of impending doom or disaster or panic
Increased sweating
Shaking
Increased heart rate
Difficulty breathing or hyperventilation
Often, we live in fear of these symptoms and live our lives in a way that avoids potentially triggering situations. It is a horrible way to live, and I lived like that for many years myself.
Fortunately, there are ways to fight back against the constant state of fear and take your life back. It is possible to live a near normal life despite having anxiety and I am living proof of that.
Ways To Deal With Anxiety
You can definitely reduce your anxiety levels and reduce your chances of having a panic attack by using the following strategies.
Exercise is a great way to reduce your anxiety levels. Research has proven that exercise can definitely help to reduce your stress levels and anxiety levels. You don’t need to get too serious with it, just a brisk walk for 30 minutes each day will be plenty to give you a mood boosting and anxiety reducing effect. By exercising daily, you will also notice improvements to your energy levels, brain function and sleep.
CBT or cognitive behavior therapy, is a great way for dealing with anxiety. Using CBT you will be able to challenge your thoughts more effectively. If we let our anxious thoughts run free, we end up in a constant state of high anxiety. This is why we need to break that pattern by challenging our thoughts. CBT will help you to identify the thought or situation that is causing you anxiety, challenge your thinking, and then replace that thinking with a healthier way of thinking and processing the situation. That may not be the best explanation you have ever read, but trust me when I say that with a little bit of practice CBT definitely works to reduce anxiety and improve mental health.
Breathing techniques definitely help to calm us during times of high anxiety. My advice is to keep it simple, because trying to remember a lot of different breathing strategies when you are highly anxious will be difficult to do. My preferred method involves inhaling deeply for a count of 4, holding it for 4 seconds, exhaling slowly through your mouth for another 4 seconds, holding it for 4 seconds and then repeating the process several times. You will find that the slow breathing will help to slow your heart rate and racing thoughts, as well as take your focus off the anxiety by focusing on your breathing instead.
Write down what is making you anxious. This is a great strategy for getting the thoughts from your mind and onto paper. This will help turn your attention away from feeling the anxiety to just recognizing and identifying it and what is causing it. You can also look at attacking these thoughts using CBT when you are feeling a little calmer and able to use your rational thinking more effectively.
Avoid alcohol. Often people will turn to alcohol to try to help control their anxiety. I’ve done this plenty of times myself. While there may be some level of short term relief by doing this, in the long run it only increases your anxiety. This can then lead to drinking too much or too often, which is bad for you in so many ways. So avoid alcohol as much as possible knowing that it is only going to make your anxiety worse.
You can find other ways to calm anxiety in a previous post by clicking here. You can also use the 3-3-3 technique for anxiety, which basically involves finding 3 things you can touch, 3 things you can hear and 3 things you can see. It is a way of using your senses to have you feeling more present and it can distract you from your anxiety.
How To Deal With Panic Attacks
All panic attacks are driven by fear. Whether that is a fear of a certain event happening or a fear of your own thoughts, fear is the key driver. When the fear gets so intense, your body goes into fight or flight mode believing that there is impending danger. When this happens, the sympathetic nervous system kicks in and usually produces physical symptoms like increased heartrate, sweating and trembling.
It is important to remember that none of these symptoms will harm you and it is your bodies way of preparing you for a fight or flight response. Even if you do nothing to address these symptoms, eventually your parasympathetic nervous system will kick into action and begin to calm you.
While you are having a panic attack, try to remember that it will not harm you and it will pass on its own. It’s hard to avoid being focused on the physical symptoms you may be feeling, so try to keep your coping strategies simple and easy to remember. The breathing strategy mentioned above is ideal for this and will help you to get through the panic attack faster and more effectively.
Coping Skills For Anxiety And Panic Attacks
As mentioned above, anxiety and panic attacks are driven by fear. What if I told you there was a way to allow that fear in without it controlling you, and that you would never be scared of a panic attack again? In fact, given the right resources, you would actually welcome that fear and have complete control over it, essentially laughing in its face.
When I first found out this was possible, I thought it was a little far fetched to be true. It didn’t even make sense to me. Why would you invite the fear and panic in and how could that possibly help?
Well, the good news is that it does work. I spent many years fighting against anxiety and panic attacks until I started dealing with it in a different way. I learned how to do this through a system called Panic Away. It was so effective that just by reading through it I actively put myself in an anxiety and panic triggering situation, simply because I knew for a fact that I could now handle it easily.
Panic Away comes with a 60 day money back guarantee so there is nothing to lose, but I’m quite sure that you will never need to claim a refund once you see how effective it is at treating panic attacks and reducing anxiety levels. I only promote two products on my website, and that is because I only promote things that actually work and have worked for me. You can learn more about Panic Away through the link below.
Click here to learn more about Panic Away
Please note – the product links on this page are affiliate links, meaning I receive a commission if you make a purchase through that link. It doesn’t cost you anything extra and helps me to keep the website running.
