Shyness and Social Anxiety: How to Stop a Panic Attack in its Tracks

A panic attack can be a very frightening experience. Usually those who experience a panic attack will at first feel some anxiety which could manifest itself as a queasy stomach or just an overall sense of unease. Then, that anxiety will grow, however, until within minutes their heart will be racing, their mouth dry, and a nervous tension will have spread throughout their entire body. A person in the throes of a panic attack often feels completely out of control, and fears that their heart is beating so fast they are going to have a heart attack.

How to Stop a Panic Attack

They begin to genuinely fear death and may have to stop doing whatever they are doing. Then, as quickly as it came, the panic attack may be gone. Because these are such debilitating events, we wrote this article to help you learn how to stop a panic attack in it's tracks.

Tip #1: Practice deep breathing techniques

The key first step for stopping a panic attack is learning how to relax your body. The first symptoms of a panic attack often are physical, thus learning how to soothe those physical symptoms is usually necessary to stopping an attack. When your body begins to experience a panic attack, your "fight or flight" system kicks in and causes you to feel as if you're in danger. This is the same system that puts you into a state of awareness that might allow you to move out of the way of an oncoming car. Therefore, it really does aid us in our survival. In the case of panic attacks, however, it's working overtime and causing us to sense danger when there really is none. A key how to stop at panic attack in it's tracks is to learn better control over your body and its "fight or flight" response. Deep breathing techniques allow you to do this. When we become panicked, we breathe quickly and our chest moves rapidly up and down. This is a further signal to your body that you should be fearful. Slowing down your breathing, on the other hand, tells your body you should be calm. To practice deep breathing, breathe in calmly and try to fill your belly with air. Watch your belly expand, but try not to move your chest too much. Hold the breath in for a short interval, then release. You may want to slowly count to five with each breath. This will calm your body down and take it out of "fight or flight" mode.

Tip #2: Be sure you will come out of the panic attack unharmed

Panic attacks hold their power over people because when you are in the throes of one you may feel that you truly are going to die. Just remember that you are not alone, millions of people experience panic attacks every day. No one, however, dies from them. Panic attacks in and of themselves are not harmful, they just have a way of convincing you that they are. Try to give in to the panic attack. Accept that it is a very frightening experience. Don't try to minimize it, but remember that you will walk away from it unscathed, probably within minutes. This can take some of the power away from panic attacks.

Tip #3: Don't avoid your panic attacks

This seems like unusual advice, but one of the key elements to overcoming panic attacks is to not try to prevent their onset. Thus, you shouldn't alter your daily routine because something you do seems to cause panic attacks. Instead, you should welcome attacks as an opportunity to practice the methods above. Ironically, the more you fight against the prospect of having a panic attack, the greater the chances they will occur. Only when you have completely accepted the possibility of an attack, and increased your confidence in your ability to handle one, will you begin to get control over your panic attacks. Panic attacks are truly frightening to go through. Those who have never experienced one have a difficult time understanding the sheer terror that can grip you during a panic attack. Thus, it's all the more important to learn some ways for how to stop a panic attack in it's tracks. By practicing some of the above methods, you may be able to get a better handle on your panic attacks.