How To Overcome
Anxiety & Panic Attacks
By Robert Fuller

Anxiety and panic attacks can be one of the most acutely uncomfortable feelings that you are ever likely to experience and the knowledge that they may happen again without warning can leave you fearful, hopeless and helpless.

You may draw some comfort that you are not alone; in America over 5% of the population suffer from some form of anxiety disorder. Having said that, this is probably of little comfort when you are experiencing one of the attacks. There are different levels of severity and frequency of attacks, from someone who finds it difficult to speak in front of an audience to those that the attacks happen so often they are unable to leave their home.

So what can you do? The first thing is to have belief that you can learn to deal with the attacks. You may even be able to eliminate them altogether or make them so insignificant that they don’t actually bother you anymore. There are many coping strategies that you can use, some will work better than others, but try them all and see which one works best for you. There are 5 main strategies you should try:

1. Visualization Exercises
The aim of these is to enable you to quickly clear mental stress, tension, and anxious thoughts. Like any exercise, the more you try these, the better you become, and to be effective you must carry out this exercise for longer than 10 minutes in order to achieve maximum benefit. There are many books on the market that go into great length as to how you can use visualization to ease away anxious and toxic thoughts. It’s really about training the mind to let go of stress and anxiety, but it’s important you practice this every day and, over time, you can quickly de-stress within minutes of starting.

2. Practice Deep Relaxation
Making time to relax is good for everyone, and even better for those who feel anxious. A good way to relax is to concentrate on your breathing by ensuring it is slow and consistent. One of the initial stages of a panic attack is difficulty with breathing; so by focusing your attention on this is important and helps to slow down your heart rate as well. Again, there are many books available that explain in more detail how to achieve a relaxed state.

3. Develop A Regular Exercise Regime
This is one of the best ways to combat anxiety and there are many benefits to a good program, such as: production of endorphins which increase your sense of well-being; better digestion; reduces anxiety and stress; improves blood circulation; helps sleeping patterns; can decrease depression; speeds up metabolism of excess adrenaline in the bloodstream. Caution: If you are over 35 or in poor physical condition, please see your doctor before you start any exercise program. NOTE: There are lots of different exercise programs available, so find one that you like and will produce the results you are looking for and stick to it.

4. Reduce Or Eliminate Stimulants From Your Diet
It is known that certain foods and stimulants can create stress and anxiety. The first thing you should avoid is caffeine, it is famous for starting panic attacks, whether it’s in coffee, tea, chocolate or soft drinks. Caffeine increases the levels of neurotransmitters in the brain that make you alert and awake. Nicotine is a very strong stimulant and most smokers believe it helps to calm their nerves, whereas the opposite is true. Nicotine speeds up the heart rate and can lead to more anxiety and panic attacks and disrupts sleep patterns. Sugar is required by the body to survive, it’s our energy and fuel. However, it is the naturally occurring sugar called glucose that is needed, not the refined sugar we find in soft drinks, cereals, sweets, sauces, etc. Too much sugar can lead to diabetes and too little blood sugar can cause hypoglycemia, the symptoms of which can resemble a panic attack. Eating more fruit and complex carbohydrates, such as whole grain bread, brown rice, pasta and vegetables will help increase your resilience to stress and anxiety.

5. Replace Negative Self-Talk With Positive Thinking
When you worry or are anxious, you overestimate the odds of something bad happening and underestimate your ability to deal with a negative event, should it actually happen. Practical common sense problem solving that identifies, challenges and replaces unhelpful thoughts with helpful ones can be learned and used to negate the feelings of anxiety. For example, the thought “I’ll make a fool of myself giving this presentation” would be replaced with “It’s okay if I am a bit nervous, everyone gets this when speaking to an audience”. Another example could be “I’ve handled this before okay and I’ll handle it again okay this time”. This is by no means an overnight process, it takes time to identify the negative self-talk and to replace it with more helpful and realistic thoughts, but with practice, this is a powerful tool against panic and anxiety attacks.

Don’t forget, help is always at hand.

EDITORIAL NOTE: Please, Do Not self-diagnose; symptoms can fit a wide range of issues. Contact your healthcare practitioner with any concerns or symptoms.