How do paper bags help with panic attacks?

A common side effect (not sure if that's the right word to use) of panic attacks is hyperventilation. Your breathing becomes very rapid, you may begin to sweat or become dizzy. When you hyperventilate, you breathe out lots of carbon dioxide. Too much. It can make you feel lightheaded or strange. By breathing into a paper bag, you are catching all of the released carbon dioxide from your own lungs and breathing it back in at a normal rate, preventing you from hyperventilating and maybe putting a halt to your panic attack.

They calm your breathing down. By that your heart comes down to a normal relaxed rate causing you to become calmer.

paper bags help you to breathe calmly. cause when you focus on the paper bag and calm yourself as you breathe steadily lowering your blood pressure leading a steady thinking mind.

When we have panic attacks, our levels of carbon dioxide drop. By breathing into a paper bag we are trapping the carbon dioxide and therefore breathing it back in.

Breathing into a paper bag forces you to breathe slowly, which helps you to calm down.

Breathing into a paper bag while having a panic attack reminds you to take deep breathes as the bag inflates and deflates.

In the process of a panic attack, the breathing on a regular basis is leveled, but in a panic attack we feel we're short of breath, so in many cases we hyperventilate... this causes that our leveled breath (the equilibrium of O2 and CO2) suffers an alteration, our body takes too much oxygen but not enough dioxide. Paper bags help to breathe CO2 because we're breathing the same air and because it's our exhale is full of CO2 and not oxygen and this helps to stop the feeling of nausea, cramps, etc. This symptoms are caused by a disorder called respiratory alkalosis, and it's a vicious cycle, this leads to more anxiety and that makes you hyperventilate and hyperventilation leads to more respiratory alkalosis and it's pretty dangerous. Hope this was helpful for you

When you're having a panic attack, you can't keep your breathe in. Paper bags slow your breathing, and you can breathe some oxygen in.

Here is a scientific explanation Copied form the web: When people get anxiety attacks they 'over-breathe'. This lowers the level of carbon dioxide in the blood and that makes them feel worse! Breathing into a paper bag for half a dozen or so breaths, builds up the carbon dioxide in your body again, so you should immediately start feeling better.

They can help regulate and control breathing, which a)prevents hyperventilating, b)can help the person having a panic attack calm down faster.