How to Alleviate Panic Attacks : Breathing Exercises for Panic Attacks - Steps to overcome panic attacks

How to Alleviate Panic Attacks : Breathing Exercises for Panic Attacks




Hi. This is Ben Brennan from Austin, Texas.
I'm coming to you on behalf of Expert Village
and today we are going to be talking about
panic attacks. Alright, now let's talk about
breathing exercises and how learning these
can help you during a panic attack and also
help keep panic attacks from happening. Breathing
is something we should all be pretty good
at right? So why practice breathing? You've
been breathing the same way for decades and
you're still alive. Surely you can't be doing
anything wrong, right? Well, as it turns out,
learning to breathe abdominally, or with the
stomach, can help to ease or (according to
some experts) even end an anxiety attack.
Also remember that breathing is an autonomic
response. You really don't breathe as much
as you allow yourself to breathe. Like writing
with your non-dominant hand or speaking in
another language, breathing is one of the
things that it takes a long time to learn
how to do well. But if it will help alleviate
the terror and panic associated with anxiety
attacks, then I think we can all agree it
is worth the work. Most persons who have a
high level of anxiety or who are more prone
to having anxiety attacks, will tend to breathe
with their chest. This is problematic for
a couple of reasons. Not only is breathing
with the chest not as relaxing as breathing
with the abdomen or the diaphragm, this type
of breathing is more rapid. It involves more
energy and stress on the body and creates
the same chest-tightening that many individuals
with panic disorder associate with panic attacks.
Thus, making a person who has had a panic
attack before more anxious and more susceptible
to future panic attacks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdWKUY2oaEw


Steps to overcome panic attacks





When I have a panic attack,
it's like you
go into tunnel vision.
It seems like everything around
you gets black, and it
just kind of goes in.
Then you're-- for no reason,
like nothing caused it.
Well, in my cases, it would
get caused maybe by large
crowds if I'm dealing with them,
like at work, and maybe
the crowd is kind of rowdy,
but not really.
But they're depending on
me for whatever reason.
I can't breathe.
I have trouble breathing.
I feel like I want to
burst into tears.
I just want to run away
and just go cry.
You know what I mean?
I'm shaking.
And nothing around
me makes sense.

It's just terrible.
And then I feel inadequate.
I did all of this stuff before,
like I've considered
myself to be a strong person.
But here I am.
I can't even handle
a crowd of people.
Between the physical--
I'm going through all of this,
I can't breathe, rapid pulse,
the world caving in--
emotionally I feel like crap.
You know what I mean?
Like why am I doing this?
You know what I mean?
And I can't explain
it to anybody.
It's something where if
my back was injured,
you could see that.
If I can't walk, I'm limping,
you'd see that.
But it's hard to describe a
mental issue because it's
something that you can't
physically measure
or you can't see.
So I ended up going to the VA.
And that's when I realized
this is something that is
because of this.
I mean, I was already going.
But I didn't see
the importance.
I didn't know it was
as deep as it was.
And that's when I started to
realize, well, all of this
makes sense.
You know what I mean?
Because I just thought that--
I don't know--
I guess you don't want to admit
that there's something
wrong with you.
So that's when I realized it.
And since then, I
take it serious.
And I just try to get better.
I really just try to, when
that happens or before it
happens, really just
talk to someone.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7fI4e0cv90