How to manage an anxiety attack

Managing Intense Anxiety and Panic

Intense anxiety, sometimes experienced as a panic attack, can feel overwhelming and frightening. It often involves strong physical symptoms and the sense that you are losing control. Many people try to avoid or escape situations that trigger this anxiety, or attempt to control the uncomfortable thoughts and feelings. However, efforts to control or eliminate anxiety symptoms often don’t work in the long term and can paradoxically make things worse or restrict your life.

A different approach is to change your relationship with your internal experiences rather than fighting or trying to eliminate them. This involves cultivating acceptance and willingness to experience discomfort. You can learn to allow your thoughts and feelings to be present without trying to push them away.

Key strategies for managing intense anxiety and panic include:

• Acceptance: Be open and willing to have your internal experiences, including unwanted emotions, sensations, and thoughts, exactly as they are. This is an active process, not passive resignation.
• Mindfulness and Awareness: Pay attention to your experience in the present moment without judgment. This can involve noticing physical sensations, emotions, or thoughts as they arise. It helps you step back from being consumed by anxious thinking.
• Breathing Techniques: Practicing slow, deep breathing can help regulate your nervous system, especially when anxiety causes rapid, shallow breathing. Breathing slowly, inhaling into the belly and exhaling gently, can send a signal to the brain to calm down. It’s important to practice this regularly, not just when panic strikes.
• Relaxation: Engaging in relaxation practices can counter the stress response. Techniques like muscle relaxation can be helpful.
• Defusion: Learn to see your thoughts as just thoughts – mental events or language – rather than literal truths. You can label anxious thoughts (e.g., “I’m having the thought that…”) to create distance from them.
• Experiential Exposure: Deliberately putting yourself in situations that trigger anxiety, or intentionally eliciting feared sensations, is a way to teach your brain that these experiences are not dangerous and can be tolerated. This is done gradually and systematically. The goal is to stay in the situation and allow the anxiety to be there until it naturally decreases, rather than escaping.
• Committed Action: Take steps that are aligned with what is important and meaningful to you, even when anxiety is present. This often means doing what matters to you despite the anxiety.
• Identifying and Questioning Thoughts/Beliefs: Notice the thoughts and interpretations that arise when you feel anxious. Questioning the workability of these thoughts or the old control strategies can be helpful. Instead of trying to convince yourself you are okay, focus on allowing the experience.
• Compassion: Be kind and understanding towards yourself for experiencing anxiety. Recognize that anxiety is a common human experience and not a sign of personal failure.
• Focusing Outward: Instead of directing all your attention inward onto your symptoms, shift your focus to the external environment or the task at hand. Distraction can provide temporary relief.
• Push Pause: During difficult interactions, creating a brief space or “pause” can allow you to regain composure before re-engaging.

Understanding that panic attacks are uncomfortable but not dangerous is crucial. They are temporary and will pass. Your reaction to the anxiety is more important than the feeling itself. By practicing new ways of responding, you can learn to manage anxiety more effectively.

Summary:  How to manage an anxiety attack Managing intense anxiety and panic involves shifting from trying to control or eliminate the experience to accepting and allowing it. Key strategies include practicing acceptance, mindfulness, breathing and relaxation techniques, taking action aligned with your values despite anxiety, questioning unhelpful thoughts and beliefs, being compassionate towards yourself, and focusing attention outwards. Experiential exposure, or facing feared situations, is also a core component to teach the brain that these experiences are not dangerous. Ultimately, the goal is to change your relationship with anxiety and learn to function effectively even when it is present.