How do you help yourself during an anxiety attack? Share to show your Support!
I don’t know about any of you, but I know when I am going to have an anxiety attack. You start to feel like an elephant is sitting on your chest. It’s hard to breathe. A thousand thoughts per second racing through your head but you can’t seem to get yourself to articulate a single one. You panic. I have few tricks that work wonders. Hopefully, they’ll help someone else too.
Read more: How I Deal with Anxiety
- Remove yourself from where you are to a calmer, more familiar, comfortable environment if you can. A lot of my anxiety arises when I am somewhere with too many unfamiliar faces around me. Shopping at Walmart (which is my favorite place to shop, if I can go at 2:00 am when nobody else is there) can get difficult for me. However, going to the family bathroom (that way I’m alone and can take a few moments to calm down) is always a good idea.
- Feeling like you have no control is always an unpleasant feeling. Counting will help 1…2…3… Focus and acknowledge what you ARE in control of. Start with one, what is just one thing that you are undoubtedly controlling at this exact moment. Focus on that for a moment. Now two things… Three…. And so on and so forth. Normally, by 5, I’m feeling better.
- Doodles. When I “doodle” it’s never a picture of something. Those are usually shapes, blobs, and stripes. As long as there’s a pencil/pen and a surface to doodle on (napkins, outside of a pizza box, a receipt from the grocery store) I don’t care what it looks like. I redirect the stress from my mind on to paper. Paint is always fun if you have access to it.
- Now, I hate it when people say it to me, but breathing through it does help. I can’t say for anyone else, but I know for me that when I’m anxiety filled and hyperventilating, I’m not doing anything productive. If you dare to tell me that at that moment, you might get punched in the mouth. I almost always have to tell myself to stop. Breathe. And calm down. Then I can deal with whatever is going to come at me.
- Now, this one may only be me. Because children are the light in my life, nine times out of ten, they are my anti-anxiety medicine. If I can notice my attack before it hits, sitting on the floor with my son and his friends, with some blocks, or books, or anything it really brings me back down to reality.
Read more: How Spirituality Helped Me Overcome Anxiety
