About this article
I am writing this article in a hope to reach out to those who know they suffer from panic attacks, those who think they might suffer and also for anyone who knows someone who they believe might be suffering, as it isn’t always as easy as simply asking him/her if they are suffering and getting a yes or no answer!
What I intend to cover, and educate you on, in this relatively short article is, what exactly is a panic attack, a few statistics on them and the best way to prevent panic one.
What exactly is a panic attack
So most of us probably have this idea in our heads that a panic attack is this big obvious horrible moment that goes on forever and the person experiencing it is almost stricken to the ground in helpless defence. If this is how you imagine a panic attack then there’s a good chance you watch too much TV.
Don’t get me wrong, a panic attack is a horrible moment, but not always as obvious as we might think in our heads. A person could be having one right beside you on the bus or train and you mightn’t even notice. Does that make the situation any better for the person experiencing the attack, you bet not. The point I am trying to make is that, while not always extremely obvious, a panic attack is always a pretty frightening and upsetting experience for the sufferer.
Wikipedia tells us that panic attacks are, “periods of intense fear or apprehension that are of sudden onset and of relatively brief duration”. If you find yourself reading this and indeed you are a sufferer this won’t be anything new to you. However if you are reading this in a bid to do some research on the matter than this could be news to you. If that is you the best thing you can do in a case of someone experiencing a panic attack is attempt to calm and reassure the person. Simple, but the most effective.
Stats on panic attacks
If indeed you do find you suffer from panic attacks then just know it’s not the end of the world. Here I want to share with you some of the hard facts I have researched on the subject. I hope that it will help you to get an overall view of the disorder.
• 1 in every 113 Americans suffer from it
• That’s an estimated 2.4million people in the US
• Every year an estimated 1.7%, or 1 in 58, adult Americans between the ages of 18 to 54 experience a panic attack
• It is estimated that up to 15% of Americans are very likely to suffer from a panic attack at some stage in their lives
• Women have double the chance of suffering from panic attacks
• The recurrence rate in women, after treatment, is double than in men
• You are more like to experience a panic disorder in early adulthood or mid-teens
• People aged between 25 and 44 are at maximum risk of experiencing a panic attack
• Research shows that well-educated, married people with a steady job and families are less likely to develop panic disorders than those with minimal or no education
Best way to prevent
There is no great scientific way of preventing panic attacks. You can see from the statistics above that they are more common than you might have previously thought. Now I’m sure if some scientist had come up with a magical potion to completely prevent panic attacks we would all know about it and indeed the stats above would be much different. However, to the best of my knowledge, no such potion exists.
So instead what I have done for the purpose of this article is, I have went out and researched a few practical methods that you can use pretty much as soon as you finish reading this and the other articles on my website.
Will they prevent an attack 100%? No. Will they help you dramatically reduce the chance of experiencing a an attack? Greatly, from what I have gathered in my research.
#1, Breathing – Research shows that conscious breathing will actually relax the mind, in turn relaxing the whole body. Why do you think meditation is so popular worldwide! What you want to do is find somewhere where you know you wont be disturbed. Turn everything off, TV, iPod etc. Inhale nice and slow, counting to 7 whilst inhaling the whole time. As you exhale you do the same, count to 7 exhaling the whole time. You should aim to do 7 repetitions. That is just over 1 minutes of conscious breathing and trust me you will feel completely relaxed and in total control after it.
#2, Concentrate on A word – my second simple but really effective method is just as I said. Here when you begin to get feelings of worry and might feel an attack coming on you will want to switch your thought to a really positive word/s and literately repeat it over and over in your head until this word totally takes over your mind.
Two things happen here. First you release positive emotions because the positive word you are thinking of. Second, you become so overcome by this word and emotion attached the feelings of fear and worry subside almost by default as you can’t be repeating something that makes you happy and feel sad at the same time.
Choose your word wisely. This word/s will be different for everyone as different things will make different people happy. My word is ‘warm beach’. I can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t feel good when repeating the words warm beach over and over! I can almost feel the heat as I relax as I say it over and over in my head.
#3, Learn about panic attacks – Unknown to yourself you have already began with this method simply by reading this article! Education puts life’s mysteries in prospective.
Simply put, knowing more about panic can indeed go a long way towards relieving your distress. Read and research as much as you can. You don’t have to become a complete fanatic of researching panic but perhaps read 3 or 4 different pieces, like this one, a week. A quick search on Google for terms such as ‘anxiety‘, ‘panic attacks’ and ‘Natural cures for panic’ will yield you more information than you could ever need.
In time you will learn that the sensations and feelings you have when you experience an attack aren’t that abnormal and that NO, your not going crazy!
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