What To Do If Someone Is Having An Anxiety Attack

There Are Effective Treatments For Anxiety

Treatment is tailored to the diagnosis. Effective options include:

• Lifestyle changes, such as skipping caffeine, exercising regularly, and avoiding medicines or substances that might cause anxiety symptoms.
• Mind-body approaches, such as deep breathing, meditation, mindfulness, and techniques to ease muscle tension and promote calm.
• Psychotherapy, such as cognitive behavioral therapy and exposure therapy. CBT teaches people to challenge and reframe distorted or unhelpful anxious thinking, because thoughts influence feelings and actions. Exposure therapy helps people tolerate and calm anxiety by gradually exposing a person to feared situations or objects under guidance from a therapist.
• Medicines, such as short-acting drugs called benzodiazepines, which are taken as needed when anxiety spikes. Low doses of some antidepressants, particularly selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors , help relieve anxiety when taken daily.

Often, a combination of approaches is best. Relieving anxiety with medicine while using CBT or exposure therapy to strengthen coping skills and help retrain the brain can do much to make anxiety manageable.

About the Author

Francesca Coltrera, Editor, Harvard Health Blog

Causes Of Panic Attacks

The real cause of panic attacks has not readily been identified. However, several contributing factors such as stress, genetics and a persons individual temperament may play a role in making someone more susceptible to a panic attack.

Some evidence suggests that panic attacks could be triggered by certain situations. It is best for the individual to monitor their own symptoms and behaviour to better understand which circumstances could potentially be a precursor to a panic attack.

There is some evidence to indicate that panic attacks may be caused by abnormal activations in the amygdala which is responsible for the control of emotions like fear.

How To Prevent Nighttime Panic Attacks

Nighttime panic attacks, or night terrors, can be especially frightening. They have the same symptoms as regular panic attacks, but they also wake you up and can make it difficult to fall back asleep. Even though night terrors are fairly common, experts dont really know why they happen.

If you find that your panic attacks strike at night, make sure youre following a good sleep hygiene routine:

• Create a relaxing bedtime ritual, such as reading, journaling, or meditation.
• Avoid caffeine, alcohol, and other substances before going to bed.
• Eat your last meal of the day at least three hours before bedtime.
• Making sure your bedroom is cool, dark, and well ventilated.
• Take a hot shower or bath before going to bed.

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Behavioral Health Treatment Services Locator

This online resource, provided by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration , helps you locate mental health treatment facilities and programs. Find a facility in your state by searching SAMHSAs online Behavioral Health Treatment Services Locator. For additional resources, visit NIMHs Help for Mental Illnesses webpage.

How To Tell If Its A Panic Attack

Before you can help a person who is having a panic attack, you need to know if its because of fear or anxiety theyre experiencing or if theres a physical explanation.

Here are 10 symptoms of panic attacks to look for:

IMPORTANT NOTE: Do these symptoms look familiar? Theyre also signs of cardiac distress. Its difficult to know if a person is experiencing a panic attack or a heart attack.

The best thing to do is ask if the person has had a panic attack before. If they havent and they dont think theyre having one now, call 9-1-1 and follow physical first aid protocol. If the person loses consciousness, call an ambulance, check for breathing and pulse and apply physical first aid principles. You can also check for a medical alert bracelet or necklace for more information.

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Dont Ask Them To Calm Down

Asking a highly anxious person to calm down or relax, when they are clearly not in a state to calm down, is very counterproductive. You have to keep in mind that an anxious persons brain is not letting them calm down due to a perceived threat. Their brain goes into fight-or-flight mode because of it. So asking them to relax when they cant will just be more aggravating, Panneer explained. Instead, you can talk to them in a soothing tone and reassure them that you are there to help them.

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Treatment Options For Patients With Anxiety

There are two primary treatments for individuals with anxiety:

• Cognitive behavioral therapy , which involves learning how to lower anxiety and face distressing situations.
• Medication management with antidepressants, which works well on its own but even better when coupled with CBT.

During therapy, continue to show your support by:

• Asking your loved one what you can do to help them.
• Asking if you can attend a therapy session to learn some skills to better support them.
• Making time for your own life and interests to sustain your energy.
• Encouraging your loved one to try another therapist if the first one isnt a good fit.

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What Is The Distinction Between Anxiety And Panic Attacks

Anxiety is typically associated with something believed to be stressful or threatening. The symptoms might range from minor to severe. Whereas a panic attack is characterized by a rapid, acute bout of fear or anxiety that is accompanied by at least four of the following symptoms:

• Palpitations or a beating heart
• Sweating, shortness of breath, or choking sensations
• Vertigo, trembling or shaking.
• The feeling of numbness or tingling
• Bursts of heat and cold
• Dread of death or loss of control
• Nausea or stomach ache
• Disconnection from oneself and ones surroundings

An incident or a stressor can trigger anxiety attacks, or they might occur for no apparent reason. They have significant symptoms that interfere with what youre doing at the time.

Why Is This Blog About What To Say To Someone With Anxiety Attack Important

As we have discussed, it is normal to not know what to say when someone is having an anxiety attack or panic attack.

This is a sensitive topic for most people and anything you can say can have a positive or negative impact on the person you are trying to help.

In terms of what you could say, we mentioned a simple lets do this together, Ill be here if you need me, I am here if you need to talk or Take your time would be extremely helpful when helping someone go through an anxiety or panic attack.

However, we also mentioned some of the things we should be aware of such as asking Are you OK? or assuming we know what is best for them giving our advice on their condition without really knowing or being judgemental by saying why arent you being treated for this?.

We need to be careful but dont be too hard on yourself at first, you are allowed to make mistakes.

Please feel free to leave any comments or thoughts about the content of this article!

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Anxiety: What It Is What To Do

While anxiety symptoms vary widely, odds are good that at some point youve experienced occasional physical and emotional distress signals such as panicky breathing, your heart pounding in your chest, trouble sleeping, feelings of dread, or even loops of worry. Thats normal.

Experiencing anxiety is normal, says Dr. Gene Beresin, executive director of the Clay Center for Healthy Young Minds at Massachusetts General Hospital. A certain amount of anxiety can even be helpful. The problem is that sometimes the systems underlying our anxiety responses get dysregulated, so that we overreact or react to the wrong situations.

Why Do Anxiety Attacks Cause These Physical Symptoms

One of the most common reasons that anxiety attacks are such a frightening experience is because they cause physical symptoms that mimic more serious diseases. This causes many people to become incredibly fearful for their health, believing that there is no way something like anxiety can lead to such a physical response.

But anxiety causes a host of different physical reactions that can explain most of the anxiety symptoms, and the most common cause is hyperventilation.

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Please Dont Bring Up Their Anxiety All The Time

Avoid bringing up the persons fear or asking inquiries about it when youre with them or chatting to them on the phone. Instead, keep the conversation going and let them discuss it if they like. That way, they wont feel awkward or compelled to disclose their nervousness when they dont want to.

Give them space and time to open up. Its not easy to accept flaws, and the person having anxiety feels low on motivation and will start feeling bad about themselves. To ease them, just let them be themself and try to make them comfortable with your acts and words.

What Would You Like Me To Do To Help

Instead of assuming you know the right thing to say or do, ask your friend or relative, ask what you can do to help. He or she may want to help by talking about something else to help keep their mind occupied or may want you to find something to do, unrelated to the situation causing anxiety. Before pushing your ideas, ask what will best help.

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The Donts Of Assisting Someone Having An Anxiety Attack

It is essential to understand the situation of the person suffering from an anxiety attack. You have to be very cautious around them. Avoid saying things that could trigger them in any way. You have to be careful because a few words from your mouth can cause significant damage to your mental health. Weve listed a few donts to give you an idea of what you should not say to someone suffering from anxiety.

Introduction To Anxiety Attacks/panic Attacks

Anxiety attacks are not a psychological term, so their definition can vary a bit depending on the speaker. But anxiety attacks are often used either synonymously with the term “panic attacks” .

Panic attacks are short term moments of anxiety so severe, it can feel like you are about to die. During an anxiety attack, you’ll often experience a host of physical and mental symptoms that can leave you severely frightened and incredibly drained once they pass. These include:

• Head pressure or headache.

It’s not uncommon to experience other unusual symptoms during an anxiety attack that all contribute to further fear. Anxiety attacks tend to peak around 10 minutes in and then slowly fade over the course of a few hours, often leaving the individual drained and anxious, and in some cases wondering what went wrong.

These panic attacks are rarely just feelings of nervousness or worry. They are very physical and mental events. Those that have never had a panic attack before dont always realize that they had an anxiety attack. Some people have first-time anxiety attacks so severe that they call the hospital because they think something is going horribly wrong.

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What To Say When Someone Is Having An Anxiety Attack

Suppose a friend or family member suffers from anxiety. You want to be supportive, you have learned how anxiety impacts their life, but you still dont know what to say or do when an anxiety attack strikes. Here are some suggestions on what you can say to help. Remember, understanding and listening, without judgment, is the first step to helping someone through an anxiety or panic attack.

The Real Reason For Travel Anxiety

The renowned neuroscientist Stephen Porges has found the parasympathetic nervous system is activated by signals we receive unconsciously from a persons face, voice, and touch if they are no threat to us physically or emotionally. Activation of the parasympathetic nervous system stimulates the vagus nerve which slows the heart rate, the breathing rate, and relaxes the body.

You can use what Porges has discovered to train your unconscious procedural to automatically activate your parasympathetic nervous system. The following steps are adapted from Panic Free, the book Dr. Porges and I wrote to make this information widely available to panic suffers and to therapists who treat panic.

• Pretend you see your friend walk in.
• Imagine hearing your friend greet you
• Fantasize that your friend coming over to give you a huge hug .

Through repetition of these steps, your unconscious procedural memory will learn to activate your parasympathetic nervous system for you.

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Youre Going To Get Through This

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Signs Of An Anxiety Attack

These are some of the more common mental and physical symptoms of anxiety:

• feelings of danger, panic, or dread
• nervousness or restlessness

• numbness or tingling in your extremities
• feeling hot or cold

If you notice that quick tips havent been working, you may want to consider seeing a professional for help. Especially if you believe you have GAD and its interfering with routine activities and causing physical symptoms.

A mental health professional can help with streamlining the process of identifying your triggers, maintaining long-term strategies through behavioral therapy, medications, and more.

Anxiety may always be a part of your life, but it shouldnt overtake your day-to-day. Even the most extreme anxiety disorders can be treated so that the symptoms arent overwhelming.

Once you find what treatment works best for you, life should be a lot more enjoyable and a lot less daunting.

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Always Seek Professional Advice

Always seek medical advice if you are not sure whether your symptoms, or another persons symptoms, indicate a panic attack. In an emergency, dial triple zero for an ambulance. Its important to see your doctor for a check-up to make sure that any recurring physical panic-like symptoms are not due to illnesses, including:

How Do You Ground Someone Having An Anxiety Attack

Luckily these physical grounding techniques can help: Run cool or warm water over your hands and face. Grab onto a chair or pillow as tightly as you can. Touch different objects around you. Focus on your body. If youve ever heard of shaking out your nerves, this technique is similar. Focus on your breathing.

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Panic Attack Symptoms: How To Recognize One

Have you ever had an overwhelming, intense surge of fear and anxiety, which caused you to have feelings of chest pain, shortness of breath, palpitations, and or numbness? If so, you may have had a panic attack and if you did, trust me, you are not alone. Today, were going to talk about panic attack symptoms and how to know when its time to seek treatment.

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What Can Trigger Anxiety Attacks

There can be personal reasons why people get triggered and have an anxiety attack. But it can also happen when the person is going through a long stressful period, or if they are going through a traumatic experience.

When a person has too much caffeine, it can also make it easier to have an anxiety attack. If they are going through an illness, or are in a new environment it can also be easier to get an anxiety attack.

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What Is Hyperventilation

Even though your body needs oxygen to survive, and turns that oxygen into carbon dioxide when its been used up within the bloodstream, your body also expects a healthy amount of carbon dioxide in your circulatory system as well. Hyperventilation is the act of breathing either too quickly or incorrectly in such a way that youre taking in too much oxygen while breathing out too much carbon dioxide.

Interestingly, during this time it may feel as though youre not getting enough air, and your instinct may be to take deeper breaths. But by responding to that sensation by trying to take in more air, youre actually making your hyperventilation worse, which is why those that try to get deeper breaths often feel their symptoms getting worse, causing further panic.

When there isnt enough carbon dioxide in your blood, you experience the symptoms of an anxiety attack, including:

• Lightheadedness
• Shortness of breath
• Dizziness and more

Notice how each of these symptoms are the same as when youre suffering from severe anxiety, which is why it often feels like an attack and why the symptoms feel so physical. They build on each other to create an experience that feels like something is terribly wrong.

The most likely cause of hyperventilation is breathing too quickly, which is a common response to anxiety. But its not the only cause either. You may also hyperventilate because: