Anti-anxiety/panic attack techniques
Tip to help with an anxiety attack:
- Look around you.
- Find 5 things you can see, 4 things you can touch, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell and 1 thing you can taste.
This is called grounding. It can help when you feel like you have lost all control of your surroundings.
Alternate:
Find 5 things of different colors, name their five colors. Like: Brown chair, white table, green couch, red walls, blue box. Brown, white, green, red, blue. Repeat them in your head or say it out loud if you prefer.
There's also the option to sit on the edge of a chair (or any stable surface), then you put your hands on your knees while keeping your back straight. This will forces you to keep keep your balance, and feel more grounded to the world around you. At the same time, find the five colors and repeat it in your head.
Feel free to share any tips that you have as well!
I watched my daughter have what I think is her first anxiety attack tonight. It was startling because she has never displayed anything like this before. I've been a paramedic for 27 years, I know anxiety is real, I see it all the time. She is almost 14, intelligent, mature for her age (we never babied or sheltered any of our children) and had gotten her foot hurt in a soccer game. I had been talking to her about her foot and then another player was hurt so I went to check on that one. When I came back my daughter's hands were clinched and she was breathing about 30-40 breaths a minute. I knew right away from the pained expression on her face she was having a panic attack and hyperventilating. I was able to talk her down, this time. Anyhow, I saw a post about these techniques on Facebook I guess so I googled it and here I am. I have shared this page with her so maybe if she can learn coping techniques early on it will help her in the long term.
This is really good advice and it works.
There have been many times when people enter the chat rooms in full blown anxiety attack panic mode.
After I teach them Progressive Relaxation, they always thank me for easing their suffering.
However, it takes over the room for a while and often people are reluctant to go on YouTube to try it themselves.
Try a Progressive Relaxation YouTube video. they go into more detail than my little meme.
@Positron2
I love this exercise
Breathing exercises also help a lot, inhaling for 5 seconds, holding for 5 and exhaling for 5 helps you regulate your breathing and increases circulation, in turn oxygenating your brain and making you think more clearly.
Thank you so much for posting this! It's really hard once I start feeling bad. I end up barely wanting to feel better and I end up just wallowing in negativity, but grounding exercises help a lot.
