Dealing with an anxiety attack: helping yourself and others

What is an anxiety attack?

I will describe an anxiety attack in my own words. An anxiety attack is a reaction of your body when it gets overwhelmed with the emotions that you are having or with the situation in which you are in. They also come from worry, stress, or fear from a situation that is about to happen. They tend to come often from emotional stressors including the fear of losing control of the situation you are in. Anxiety attacks come with the physical reaction of the body such as an increased heart rate, trembling, nausea, headaches, and feeling dizzy or short of breath. The symptoms may vary from person to person but that is what generally happens.

How does it feel for each person?

The different causes of an anxiety attack can lead to different feelings or thoughts. The ones I and people I know tend to experience are The feeling that you are going to die, heartbreak, loss, the feeling of losing control, feeling like you can’t get a grip on life, extreme confusion, putting everything on extremes, getting the wrong idea of what is happening. Others might be: feeling helpless, feeling like the anxiety attack is never going to end, feeling extreme guilt, or the feeling of missing a part of yourself.

Different ways to cope

1. Breathing Exercises/ Meditation

Even though you should do this to prevent getting an anxiety attack or to simply get yourself in the zone every day doing it during an anxiety attack might be helpful. Especially the breathing exercises. There are a lot of guided meditations and guided breathing exercises online that can help you get through the toughest part of the attack. 

2. Distractions

Once you are a lot calmer from the breathing exercises but you are still overthinking or stressed distracting yourself is the best way to go. Maybe don’t see people right away if you don’t feel like it but put some music on or get on youtube or Netflix to watch something you like that will soothe you down.

3. Journal

When your thoughts don’t seem like they are going away anytime soon try writing about them in your journal. You might search for a prompt that resonates with you or simply spill your thoughts out. It can be harsh but it serves as a nice way to go over your thoughts.

4. Create a little ritual

Something that I do often when I see an anxiety attack coming up is that I start my ritual. A ritual like this for me is sort of a routine that I do everythime that I start feeling anxious. Since it is something that I am used to doing it gives me stability. Your ritual can consist of anything from washing your face with cold water and writing on your journal with music in th background. To something more intricate like doing yoga and lighting up candles. 

5. See other people

You don’t necessarily have to talk about it with the people that accompany you throughout these tough moments. But it is nice to have someone that cares about you and can distract you from your thoughts and hopefully make you happy. Going to a therapist now and then can help you get to the source of your anxiety attacks and eliminate them gradually.

How can you help someone having an anxiety attack?

The first step is recognizing the symptoms that have been stated above. Don’t assume the person is going through something because that will make them more conscious of it and further alter them. Instead, ask how are they feeling and try to start an easy conversation. But if you see the person starts to get agitated stop. It is best to ask them what they need from you. Ask them if they want you to comfort them or leave them alone and do as told. Don’t keep asking them if they’re okay that never works it gets people more stressed out. Go along with their flow and the most important thing is trying to maintain yourself calm since this will calm the other person.