Panic Attack Treatment | The First of Many

As this blog on panic attack treatment is based on personal experience, I thought I’d write about my first panic attack which I hope will highlight how easy it can be to confuse the symptoms for something completely different.

I have had asthma since I was in my mid-teens.  Most times, I would be able to control an attack with my medication (inhalers), but on a few occasions, I would need to go to hospital if the attack was more severe than I was able to handle myself.

When I was 18, I was out for the evening with some friends.  This was back in the days when people could smoke anywhere and the atmosphere in the club we were in was pretty congested and smoky.  Usually, this didn’t bother me too much, as I always had my inhaler with me which helped if I started to feel a little wheezy.

During this particular evening though, my chest began to feel constricted and I was wheezing quite a bit.

What concerned me even more was that, after a while, my inhaler had stopped bringing any relief to my symptoms and by the time I got home, I was literally fighting for my breath.

Panic Attack Treatment | Confusing Symptoms

One of my friends called an ambulance – in the ten minutes it took for it to arrive, I was wet through with perspiration, I had started to have palpitations, I was hyperventilating, my hands had gone completely numb, I felt like I was going to pass out and most frightening of all, my vision had become so impaired that all I could see were blurry shapes in front of me.  I had no idea what was happening – I’d never had an asthma attack like this before.

I was absolutely terrified, but all I could do was concentrate all my efforts on slowing my breathing down.  This sounds easy enough, but it’s a really vicious circle – when you can’t breathe you panic and when you panic, it’s not easy to breathe slowly!!

Anyway, to cut a long story short, the ambulance arrived and to the relief of both myself and my very concerned friends, the crew took over and very soon had me hooked up to an oxygen tank and had given me a shot of something to calm me down.  In view of my symptoms, I was whisked off to hospital and wired up to monitor and for next couple of hours, various medics came and stood around the bed, asked me questions, took blood samples and generally prodded me.

After a little while, my sight became clearer and my breathing returned to normal.  The feeling in my hands came back and the palpitations stopped.

Panic Attack Treatment | Diagnosis Positive!

Eventually, a doctor came and told me although I may well have experienced a mild asthma attack earlier in the evening, this was probably the trigger for what I had experienced later on, which showed all the signs of being a full-blown panic attack.  (It became clear then why my inhaler hadn’t helped – whilst it’s fantastic for relieving asthma, it’s pretty ineffective as a panic attack treatment).

The symptoms I had experienced were due to a reduction in the level of carbon dioxide in my blood.  This had been caused because I was breathing out carbon dioxide at such a rapid rate – far more than my body was producing.

This news was both shocking and a relief.  Shocking, because I’d never had a panic attack before and a relief, because the symptoms I’d had were so frightening, it was a weight off my mind to have my fears allayed.

Although I didn’t recognize my first panic attack for what it was, since that night, the reason for every subsequent attack I’ve had has been clear to me.

For example, when I was working extremely long hours in a very stressful job, I’d feel a panic attack coming on and although I couldn’t stop it, I was able to recognize it for what it was and have some control over it.

Or when I was in a relationship that was causing me some considerable stress, but I was outwardly pretending that everything was OK.  Eventually, that manifested in a pretty major episode!

Thankfully, these days, my panic attacks are fewer and more far between.

Whilst I think that’s got a lot to do with being older and a lot more relaxed about life in general, I have no doubt that the panic attack treatment program I followed helped me enormously.  It took a while, but eventually, I began to become much more able to deal with my panic attacks.

Panic Attack Treatment | Breathe It Out!

Something else which really helped was learning how to breathe a completely different way to how I’d been used to. By this, I mean that I learned how to breathe from my diaphragm instead of from my chest.

What this actually means is that when you breathe from your diaphragm, it becomes easier to control your breathing rate and therefore, easier to achieve a relaxed state. Breathing from your chest can sometimes result in a quicker, more erratic breathing rate which, if not brought under control, can cause hyperventilation.

An easy way to tell if you are breathing from your chest or your diaphragm is as follows;

• Sit up straight or lie down on your back. Whichever position is more comfortable for you is fine. Close your eyes if it makes it easier for you to concentrate.

• Place one of your hands flat on your chest and the other on your abdomen.

• Now breathe normally and see which of your hands rises up when you breathe in.

If the hand on your chest rises up, you are breathing from your chest and if the hand on your abdomen rises up, you are breathing from your diaphragm.

If you’ve spent your whole life (as I had) breathing from your chest, it can take a while to change it. I should point out that there is absolutely nothing wrong if you breathe this way, but if you suffer from any condition which is improved by achieving a slower breathing rate, then you may like to practice breathing from your diaphragm.

You know, some people are embarrassed to admit that they suffer from panic attacks and they shy away from seeking help to overcome them.  All I can say about this is that, from personal experience, learning how to gain some control over the condition has dramatically improved my quality of life and I would highly recommend that anyone in a similar position do the same.

Whatever method of panic attack treatment you decide to choose, I really hope you will eventually conquer your panic attacks and that in time, they will become a thing of the past.

Panic Attack Treatment | What is a Panic Attack?

A panic attack is a sudden episode of anxiety or fear which can vary from mild to extreme. Very often, these attacks occur with no prior warning and for no apparent reason.

Some people may only ever experience one panic attack, whilst others can suffer from recurring attacks throughout their life.  In the case of the latter, it is often necessary to seek panic attack treatment.

Recurrences are usually triggered by a stressful, frightening or traumatic event or situation. Whilst panic attacks are not considered to be life-threatening, they can be the cause of extreme emotional, physical and psychological distress.

Panic Attack Treatment | What Causes Panic Attacks?

The short answer is that panic attacks are caused by high anxiety.

But what exactly is anxiety?

Panic Attack Treatment | Definition of Anxiety

Understanding how anxiety occurs will help to defeat panic attacks.

Anxiety is defined as a state of apprehension or fear which results from the anticipation of a real or imagined threat, event, or situation.

It is one of the most common human emotions experienced by people at some point in their lives.  However, most people who have never experienced a panic attack, or extreme anxiety, fail to realize the terrifying nature of the experience.

Dizziness, blurred vision, pins and needles, breathlessness and a racing heart are just some of the symptoms which can occur. When these sensations occur and people do not understand why, they it can make them feel as if they are losing a hold of their body and their senses.

The threat of losing complete control seems very real, and naturally very terrifying.

Panic Attack Treatment | Putting Panic Attacks Into Perspective

It may comfort you to know that it extremely unlikely that panic attacks cause any physical harm.

Your mind may make the sensations continue for longer than the body intended, but eventually everything will return to a state of balance and it is this balance that our body continually strives for.  Our body is not alarmed by these symptoms. Why should it be? It knows its own capability.

Rather, it is our thinking minds that panic and overreact.  We tend to fear the worst and exaggerate our own sensations. For example, it is our over-active mind that can convince us that a quickened heart beat could become a heart attack or that a dizzy spell is really a pre-cursor to something more sinister.

That said, if you have any concerns, you should discuss them with your doctor in order that your mind can be put at rest and if necessary, a panic attack treatment plan can be put in place.

Panic Attack Treatment | Respiratory Effects

One of the scariest symptoms of a panic attack is the fear of suffocating or smothering.

It is very common during a panic attack to feel tightness in the chest and throat.  In fact, the fear of losing control of your breathing and anxiety grows from the fear that your breathing itself would cease and you would be unable to recover.

A panic attack is associated with an increase in the speed and depth of breathing.  Importantly, a side-effect of increased breathing, (especially if no actual activity occurs) is that the blood supply to the head is actually decreased. While such a decrease is only a small amount and is not at all dangerous, it produces a variety of unpleasant, but harmless, symptoms that include dizziness, blurred vision, confusion, sense of unreality, and hot flushes.

Panic Attack Treatment | Other Physical Symptoms of Panic Attack

There are a number of other physical symptoms which may be experienced during and/or after a panic attack.

For example;

• The pupils widen to let in more light, which may result in blurred vision, or “seeing” stars, etc.
• There is generally a decrease in salivation, resulting in a dry mouth.
• Decreased activity in the digestive system may also be experienced, which often produces nausea, a heavy feeling in the stomach, and even constipation.
• Finally, many of the muscle groups tense up in preparation for “fight or flight” and this results in subjective feelings of tension, sometimes extending to actual aches and pains, as well as trembling and shaking.

In short, a panic attack can result in the activation of the whole bodily metabolism, a consequence of which is that one often feels hot and flushed and, because this process takes a lot of energy, also tired, lethargic and physically exhausted.

The first step in overcoming panic attacks is to acknowledge them and recognize their symptoms.

The next step is to seek panic attack help by way of a panic attack treatment which will help to control them.

Panic Attack Treatment