Anxiety Attack – What to Do if You Have One

Have you experienced an overwhelming fear that comes out of the blue? Do you experience pounding heart and difficulty in breathing as this happens? If yes, then you most likely have experienced anxiety attack. Having an anxiety attack can get scarey as you may feel like dying or losing your mind at the same time.

The anxiety attack starts with the brain identifying the threat, thus activating the flight-or-fight response. The adrenaline is heightened and a person can experience the symptoms of panic attack. However, if there is no actual threat or danger, that is when anxiety attack happens.

Anxiety attack usually happens if you are in a good deal of stress. The first time you experience an anxiety attack may happen completely out of the blue and may follow the same pattern on future anxiety attack instances.

What Can Be Done?

Once an anxiety attack takes place, it can be quite difficult to stop it given that the physical effects are already taking place. Instead of trying to stop it, you can make the symptoms less severe and prevent it from reaching its peak.

Understand Your Triggers

If you understand your triggers and why your anxiety attacks happen, you will be able to understand how your body reacts with stress and what it does to your body. In doing this, you would be able to control your mind and body’s reaction to the stressor.

Fear is one of the main reasons why anxiety attacks take place. Being able to train your mind to response on a perceived threat can help you take control of the situation and avoid these attacks. The sooner that you are able to calm yourself, the sooner the intensity goes down.

Distractions Help

The best way to cope when you are feeling shaky or panicky is to move around. This encourages blood flow and increase carbon dioxide levels, hence preventing you from hyperventilating.

Also, focussing on another stimulus can keep your mind busy and veer away from the anxiety triggers.

Release the Tension

Being able to combat stress thru controlled breathing is one of the easiest ways to minimise anxiety attacks. Not only it calms the body but also the mind. Breathing from the diaphragm is the recommended way of breathing. This method can be practised anywhere the anxiety attack takes place.

Yoga and stretching are also some recommended ways of relieving tension in the body. Reading books and listening to music can also help reduce stress by more than two-thirds, as reported by Medical News Today.

Modify Your Lifestyle

It is important to eat well-balanced meals and not skip any. Make sure your snacks are energy-boosting and not junk food. Refrain from alcohol or caffeine as these trigger anxiety attacks.

Most importantly, get regular exercise to make you feel good and for your brain to release endorphins. When you are stressed your body will also signal you to get some additional sleep and rest.

Researchers have been long studying anxiety and what causes other mental disorders. While addressing mental health is an art, these mental health conditions are brought about by the changes in the brain and environmental stress. It would be best to consult a mental health professional for guidance to manage your anxiety better, along with the behavioural and lifestyle changes we recommend.

 

Need help in dealing with Anxiety? The team at Ubuntu Medical Stafford can help you. Call us today on (07) 3857 3777.

At Ubuntu Medical, we also offer Anxiety Therapy