How to Treat Panic Attacks: 6 Exercises and Techniques (2023)

Panic attacks seem as difficult to treat as they are to control.

However, with a systematic approach and following some simple techniques, panic attacks can become manageable.

This article will give you a practical understanding of what triggers a panic attack and how to approach treatment for your client. You will learn about clinical treatment options, as well as exercises and techniques your client can use to manage their panic attacks during an attack and in their daily life to reduce the likelihood of an attack.

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What triggers a panic attack?

Regardless of who happens or how it manifests,panic attacksit doesn't happen in a vacuum. While panic attacks are often unpredictable and spontaneous, there are risk factors that act as possible triggers for a panic attack.

Negative mood is a situational factor that helps increase the likelihood of having a panic attack. Rather, a person's general level of anxiety is a less specific factor that can work in the background and increase the likelihood of panic attacks, regardless of situational factors.

In other words, it can be helpful to think of anything that triggers a negative mood as a trigger (e.g., stressful events, stress, medications with depressant effects), while generalized anxiety can be viewed as a magnifying glass that looks harmless. Events in potential triggers.

These common triggers are helpful in understanding the psychological origins of a panic attack. However, they can miss some of the spontaneity and confusion of how panic attacks manifest themselves in everyday life, where triggers can be harder to pinpoint and the timeline of a panic attack doesn't necessarily follow a beginning, middle. and clear end. 🇧🇷

One person interviewed by Woodgate, Tennent, Barriage, and Legras (2020) described the onset of her panic attack:

„I was walking down the street and then these guys passed me and said, "What's up?" And I started to panic.”

Panic attacks have specific triggers, but the approach to identifying and understanding these triggers must be flexible and open to your client's unique characteristics and experiences.

Treatment options for your clients

Treatment options are suitable for patients with clinically significant mental illness, such as B. a panic disorder, suffering from panic attacks.

The first point of contact for these customers should beCognitive Behavioral Therapy(TCC). CBT is a multifaceted therapy that can involve any combination of a variety of therapeutic interventions united by the goal of helping your client to reassess and "reprogram" their beliefs.usual connectionsbetween their beliefs and behaviors.

As the name suggests, themental health interventionsinvolved in CBT can be categorized as either cognitive or behavioral.

cognitive therapiesIt is about identifying and changing the beliefs that cause the negative mood or anxiety that triggers panic attacks and educating patients to understand their panic attacks and create psychological distance between them and their experience.

behavioral therapiesmay containrelaxation techniques, practicing how to navigate potentially triggering situations, and exposure therapy, in which a client is guided safely through a direct or visualized experience of a potentially triggering situation.

Regardless of which combination of interventions works best for your client, CBT has proven to be a successful therapy in most cases and works well in treating panic attacks where they trigger connections between beliefs (e.g., negative mood) and behaviors ( for example, the psychosomatic panic reaction). it's crucial.

Some clients, such as those with social anxiety or panic attack triggers related to agoraphobia, may consider thisOnline Managed TCC.

This form of therapy is largely self-directed, although the focus is on education and self-performed exercises.combined careThe approach is facilitated by regular contact with a therapist. Although not as proven as regular CBT, there is promising evidence for the success of this treatment (Carlbring, Ekselius & Andersson, 2003).

Grounding techniques and breathing exercises

Grounding techniques are tools your client can use to control their thoughts, while breathing exercises can help control their physical state.

grounding techniques

When a client feels the onset of a panic attack spiral, grounding techniques can help the client to take control of his thoughts and create a psychological distance between himself and what he is experiencing.

Grounding is simply the action ofaffirm positivelywhat is known, constant, and real about a situation draws a clear line in the sand around the unknown, ephemeral, and imagined. This mental boundary prevents the individual from feeling overwhelmed and effectively limits the impact of a panic attack within that boundary.

Grounding techniques can be sensory, physical, cognitive, or emotional. Sensory grounding techniques involve the client asking what he knows for sure about his senses; for example, naming what they can see, what they can touch, what they can taste or smell, etc.

Cognitive grounding techniques also involve identifying what information is known with certainty, such as: B. stating the date, time or location or indicating that they are in a safe and controlled environment.

Emotional grounding techniques are sometimes called "emotional tagging" and involve the client viewing their feelings from a distanced perspective and describing themselves in detail about how they are feeling, just as they might describe the weather.

breathing techniques

Rather, breathing exercises are a tool that allows the client to control their mental state by controlling their physical state.

Breathing is one of the most basic behaviors we engage in. It is an influential methodFeedback from the body to the brainIt helps determine how we should feel or act at a given moment.

As a panic attack control exercise, the idea is to use this connection between the brain and the body for therapeutic purposes. By consciously employing breathing patterns that mimic states of relaxation and rest, we use our bodies to communicate that our minds should enter a similar state of rest.

Even when we are in a situation that we find stressful, we can take advantage of the fact that there are parts of our brain that don't know the difference and will relax when we provide them with the right information.

There are many breathing exercises your client might consider doing. Controlled breathing usually involves less than 10 breaths per minute, and most exercises involve slow breathing of up to 5 breaths per minute, with conscious inhalation through the nose and exhalation through the mouth.

Some more extreme controlled breathing exercises only require breathing twice a minute, but your client shouldn't try to do this alone. These breathing exercises have approximately the same therapeutic effect, and the focus should be on finding one that your client finds comfortable and that achieves the desired feeling of conscious relaxation.

These exercises are tools you can use when your client feels like it, whether during the onset, experience, or after a panic attack, or when they feel their anxiety levels rising and want to calm down and reduce the chances of a panic attack. . 🇧🇷 trigger a panic attack.

Deal with Panic Attacks with Meditation

A more advanced exercise your clients can practice is meditation.

Like the other exercises discussed in this article, meditation comes in different varieties. Each variant has its own approach and way of describing the process, which may be more or less accessible to your client, depending on the goals of therapy and your personal or spiritual beliefs.

These differences need careful consideration, but all forms of meditation share the same basic function as a relaxation system through "embodied thinking."

Integrated thinking is a concept that we haven't explicitly mentioned yet, but it's actually a combination of the exercises described above. It takes the ideas behind controlled breathing and the different types of grounding and applies them to a single exercise.

When meditating, your client assumes a comfortable sitting position and usually begins to close their eyes and breathe in a controlled manner. This creates a state of relaxation, but more importantly, it also creates a state of focus through sensory grounding as your client becomes aware of the rhythm and feel of their breathing.

This state is maintained for a period of time, usually around 15 minutes, and when your client comes out of the meditative state, he should feel more relaxed and in control of his mind. This should directly benefit their therapeutic efforts to reduce negative mood and anxiety levels that can predispose them to panic attacks.

However, juggling the various meditation practices is not easy, and doing just one of these practices successfully is something your client should be proud of. Meditation should only be something to try if you are comfortable with these practices and want to supplement the daily practices you use to manage your anxiety with the more focused mental “training” that meditation offers.

What can customers do during an attack?

The exercises described above are essential tools for reducing the likelihood of having a panic attack, recovering from its effects, and promoting better mental well-being. However, they can also be used during a panic attack to reduce its severity and duration.

As soon as your client feels the onset of a panic attack, you must begin to ground yourself, recognize that you are having a panic attack, immediately create some psychological distance, and identify a panic attack as something that is happening to you. Once you have done this, your attention should be directed towards managing the intense physical pain and anxiety you will feel.

This is a herculean task, and your client needs to realize that success is not about making the panic attack go away, but about being able to control it a bit more.

They must use their controlled breathing exercises to calm the brain, dampen the alarm signals the body is sending, and reduce the spiraling sensation of a panic attack. They need to confirm that they are safe and that the panic attack will pass, and to name their emotions as calmly as possible in order to increase the psychological distance initially created.

The 3 best exercises to relieve anxiety

The exercises discussed above are useful tools your client can use to prevent and manage a panic attack.

They may also find it helpful to learn techniques for dealing with the generalized anxiety that may be present in the broader context of their panic attacks.

As you've already learned, anxiety can act as a trigger, making a panic attack more likely to occur. In general, your client may find it easier to engage with their therapy and maintain a positive attitude if they feel safe monitoring their mental health on a daily basis.

1. HEPAS

When your client thinks about alleviating anxiety, the first thing they might think about is HEPAS: healthy eating, physical activity, and sleep.

The pillars of anxiety relief are eliminating the negative physiological states that can cause it, such as fatigue, hunger and lack of nutrition, and adopting positive physiological states that improve our mood, such as heat and cool air after exercise, cool and cool to improve our physical health.

2. Guided Imagery

Another simple exercise is to visualize orguided images🇧🇷 In this exercise, your client actively imagines a relaxing environment, distracting himself from anxious thoughts arising from his current situation and replacing them with pleasant thoughts arising from the imagined environment.

The goal here is not escapism or denial. Rather, the goal is for your client to move away from anxious thoughts when they feel them building and to direct their mind in a more positive and relaxing direction.

3. Progressive muscle relaxation

Finally, your customer can also try usingProgressive Muscle Relaxation, where you distract yourself from anxious thoughts by consciously focusing your attention on your body. This exercise is a fusion of the ideas behind the grounding and breathing exercises discussed earlier in this article, using the body as a focus to distract and calm the mind.

In progressive muscle relaxation, your client assumes a comfortable position where their body is not subjected to physical stress and all muscle groups are at rest. Then they systematically tighten and relax the body's muscles step by step, starting with the feet, working up to the face and head before moving up the arms to the fingertips.

Each body part should be contracted and held briefly, usually about 10 seconds, then released before continuing and repeating the process for the next body part.

Panic Attack Assessment: 3 Tests and Quizzes

Here are some tools your client can use to explore their panic attacks and relevant aspects of their mental health:

• The Panic Attack QuizIt is the most widely used clinical tool for assessing the severity and characteristics of panic attacks and can help you and your client better understand their unique experience.
• The Generalized Anxiety Disorder QuestionnaireIt is used as part of a diagnosis for a variety of anxiety disorders, including panic disorders, and can be helpful in investigating whether your client's panic attacks are isolated or part of a broader mental health issue.
• The British National Health Service organizes aSelf-assessment questionnaire for depression and anxiety.This can be a useful tool for patients of any nationality to assess their overall mental health, which can provide useful information about general triggers for their panic attacks.

6 useful tips and applications

The following tips and applications may also help the customer.

tips

• Remember the acronym HEPAS: Healthy Eating, Physical Activity, and Sleep? This doesn't mean your client should rethink their diet or run marathons; Rather, the point is to emphasize that your mental well-being starts with taking care of your body.
• When practicing grounding or guided imagery, it helps to have an automatic reference that your client always uses. For example, they can focus on how their feet hit the ground or on a specific place or situation they are imagining.
• Panic attacks, by definition, are very difficult to control and rationalize. Your client is not superhuman and she shouldn't feel like she's failing if these exercises don't make her panic attacks go away. Instead, they should feel successful when they can gain a little more calm and control each time.

forms

• for helpMeditationCheck out popular guided meditation apps likefree spaceÖCalm.
• for helpgrounding, check diary apps e.g.Daily, which will help your client practice a distanced and introspective approach to their emotions.

Useful tools from PositivePsychology.com

On our website, you'll find a range of mindfulness-based tools to help your clients reduce anxiety and improve their foundation and focus.

For this purpose, we invite you to consult our freeMindfulness exercise pack🇧🇷 This package contains three of our best tools on thePositive Psychology Toolkit ©, which may help patients with anxiety and panic attacks as part of a broader mindfulness-based intervention.

Here is an overview of what is included:

• the wheel of consciousness
  This guided meditation invites clients to consciously shift their awareness from a center within themselves to the outside world, helping to increase their sense of connection and awareness. Specifically, the meditations guide the listener by allowing consciousness to settle into four facets of the present moment before turning consciousness inward to recognize its source.
• comes out in a creek
  This guided meditation is based on the principles of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to help clients create a psychological distance between themselves and their thoughts. By inviting clients to visualize their thoughts as leaves carried by a stream, clients discover the ability to detach from thinking and observe mental phenomena from a place of stillness and non-reactivity.
• Eye of the Hurricane Meditation
  This guided meditation helps clients find stillness and peace in a turbulent environment. Drawing on the still, still eye metaphor of a swirling hurricane, clients gain access to a safe space to consciously observe difficult thoughts and challenging circumstances.

Get access to all three exercises toDownload the practice packThis day.

17 positive psychology exercises

If you're looking for more science-backed ways to help others improve their well-being, this unique collection contains17 validated positive psychology tools for professionals🇧🇷 Use them to help others thrive.

A message to take

A panic attack can be an extremely painful and frightening experience for your client, but dealing with it shouldn't be intimidating.

With the help of some basic relaxation techniques, your client can reduce their anxiety and increase their sense of self-control.

That way, your panic attacks will be less frequent, less frightening, and treatable.

We really hope you enjoyed reading this article. do not forgetDownload our three free mindfulness exercises.