A panic attack (in non-Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders terms) is when your body essentially physically acts out your anxiety.
It can present as sweating all over, your heart feeling like it is going to beat out of your chest (heart palpitations), shaking, feeling like you’re choking, chest pain, chills or hot flashes, shallow and quick breathing which can lead to hyperventilating, dizziness, disoriented-ness, and you essentially feeling like you are going to die (plus a few more fun symptoms).
My senior year of college, I had panic attacks on the regular. I ended up returning to counseling becasue of anxiety, and I had a panic attack in my counselor’s office. I grew up by the beach in Virginia, and I’ve had the lovely experience of a wave crashing on me and pulling me under for a few moments. That’s how I experience panic attacks. Like this tidal wave of chaos, fear, and terror is knocking me down and drowning me. And that’s what I told my counselor. It helped. The attacks stopped. But it wasn’t just that.
First, the knowledge that a panic attack won’t kill me, and that they’re a bit of a self-fulfilling prophesy. My body clenches and my chest tightens, and my breath becomes shallow and fast, and then I realize I can’t breathe, then my brain flips out and exclaims to my body, “YOU CAN’T BREATHE.” And in that moment, it’s hard to rationally explain to your brain that we can’t breathe because we’re having a panic attack and we’re hyperventilating. But that panic leads to more panic about how panicked we are. Quite a vicious cycle.
Breathing is how you survive a panic attack. And yes, it seems dumb simple for good reason: it is. I know you know how to breathe, and I know you’re likely doing it unconsciously right now. But in a panic attack, your body is trying to take over your brain. You breathing with intention and purpose puts your brain back in control and it translates to calming your body-reminding it that you aren’t drowning or being attacked by a large animal.
Breathing through a panic attack is not like breathing in your every day life. In your daily life, your breathing is likely stable and easy to maintain. During a panic attack, your body is experiencing a fight or flight reaction like you are in physical danger. Breathing takes practice and intention for you to override your body’s natural defense mechanisms that are simply trying to protect you.
Inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth.
Now, don’t just try it twice and tell me it doesn’t work. Focusing on this simple thing during a panic attack will very likely help you get out of your future-oriented and fear-based emotions. In that moment, breathing is reminding your body that it can’t freak out about whatever thing is happening due to the fact that you feel like you’re doing to die right now. Priorities.
Inhale through your nose and fill your lungs to the very top, then you exhale all of it out. This will be tricky at first, due to the fact that your oxygen to carbon dioxide ratio can be jacked up and your thoughts are likely racing.
Persistence over perfection. Keep doing it. That’s why “focus on your breath” is a common mantra. It’s because you should and it actually helps.
In through your nose and out through your mouth. In through your nose and out through your mouth. Repeat until you feel safe again.