Stop Panic Attacks From Happening At Once

To stop panic attacks you need to know how they happen. They begin when the part of the brain that is known as amygdala wrongly matches a safe situation to one of danger, causing the brain body to respond inappropriately to what is happening, instigated the natural flight or fight reaction in humans. Symptoms of these attacks will occur because usually in these situations, the body remains inactive, so the built up adrenaline that is coursing through the body is not used up. This causes people to panic, sweat, hyperventilate etc. In fact, around 60% of all anxiety attacks see involve acute hyperventilation, while around 30% of sufferers suffer from chronic hyperventilation.

To stop panic attacks you need to stop the hyperventilation. Follow these steps and you should be able to prevent the worst symptoms of anxiety attacks.

1. Use a paper bag to breathe in and out of. This means you are inhaling carbon dioxide that you have just exhaled. This is a quick method of restoring your blood's regular pH level.
2. Try and hold your breath for as to think you can without discomfort. This should prevent carbon dioxide dissipation and calm your body down. Hold your breath for around 15 seconds, rest and then repeat. Do this a few times.
3. Exercise vigorously - Do this while breathing in and out of your nose. Such exercise as running, jogging, going up and down the stairs or even just brisk walking will help.
4. There is a special technique you can try, a simple yet highly effective breathing technique that is very easy to perform.

This new technique works almost immediately to stop panic attacks and is performed like this:

- Inhale while counting to seven
- Exhale while counting to eleven

There is a reason why we breathe out for longer during this exercise. This is because it has been demonstrated that inhalation is a main trigger for the sympathetic nervous system in humans, which contributes to your panic, while exhalation is able to stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system, which is also known as the relaxation response, a key factor in being able to stop panic attacks.

Breathing out slower than you inhale strengthens the relaxation response in preference over the arousal response. Note that for someone who is already hyperventilating, you cannot go straight into the this technique to stop panic attacks. Instead, you should start at a comfortable rate, maybe a inhaling count of 3 or 4 seconds and then exhaling for around 5 or 6 seconds. After a while you can build up gradually to a ratio of 5/8, then 6/10 and finally 7/11. Just remember that above all else, the exhalation time must be longer than the breathing in time. Do this correctly and you will be able to stop virtually all panic attacks before they start.

By: Oliver Tambo

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Learn more about panic attacks by visting the1waytostoppanicattacks