Therapist Tips to Stop Panic Attacks & Anxiety Attacks #mentalhealth #anxiety #panic #panicattack

so my last video we talked about the differences between panic attacks and anxiety attacks and as promised in this video we're going to talk about the best coping skills that I provide with my clients and other people on social media that have been proven to actually help reduce the intensity duration and frequency of a panic attack I want to remind you that when we have panic attacks our prefrontal cortex is shut off this means that the logical thinking engaging learning and skill based part of your brain is no longer active which is why it's so difficult to remember your coping skills or it's so difficult to understand people when they're talking to you about something your that part of your brain is simply not active this is why most of the tips that I provide include nervous system regulation things that you don't really have to think about things that automatically shock your body and regulate your nervous system as quickly as possible and then help re-engage that pre frontal cortex tip number one is ice so there are various ways that you can use ice to help regulate your nervous system one of the best tools is to dunk your face in an ice cold bowl of water with ice in it and the reason this works is because we have something called the mammalian reflex otherwise known as the diving reflex which basically slows down our nervous system reduces our heart rate and because we're holding our breath it slows down our breathing when our face is submerged in water cold water so one of the things that you can do at home is to get a bowl of ice water have somebody in your family know that when you have a panic attack that's what you need fill up the bowl with ice water and then dunk your face in it and take it back out make sure to hold your nose you don't want to breathe underwater and repeat that the longest I've been able to keep my face submerged in ice water has been like five seconds and so I repeat it a couple of times until I realized that my nervous system is coming down another thing you can do is take an ice cold shower so I know the shower sometimes doesn't get as cold as dunking your face in ice cold water but the cold water from a shower can be just as effective especially if your panic attack is not as intense tip number two reorient yourself to your environment so when you're having a panic attack you dissociate most of the time your brain doesn't recognize where it's at it goes into fight or flight you feel like you are under threat so a lot of disorientation happens one of the things that you can do to reorient yourself is to apply pressure or weight to your body you can do this simply by pushing against the wall as hard as you can almost like you're trying to knock it over knowing that you can't knock it over so make sure you're doing it against like a surface that's not going to fall over and push as hard as you can for as long as you can before stopping and trying to reorient with your mind to the surroundings another thing that you can do is hold weights in your hands if you have weights around you you can hold weights and that weight on your body or holding that weight can also help bring your brain back and Orient it back to where you are in the here and now and reduces that disorientation feeling a lot of people do like weighted blankets but the reason that I'm gonna kind of put this out there as it may or may not work is because some people might feel that the weight of the weighted blanket on their body causes them to feel like they're suffocating a little bit more which is already happening with a panic attack but for some people it really works well so you have to try for yourself and see if that works for you I say weighted blankets are good at the beginning of when you first start to notice the panic attack not when you're like fully at the height or peak of the panic attack tip number three is using sour candy sour candy is popular and it's so helpful for panic attacks for various reasons reason number one is that it shocks you if it's like extremely sour it shocks you and to like not being able to focus on anything else on any other body sensation which is really what gets that panic attack to climb and climb and climb so it shocks your nervous system it shocks you and you're able to kind of just shift Focus for a moment second reason is that when we are in a panic attack mode we are in fight or flight like I mentioned earlier when we are in fight or flight our digestive system shuts down because we don't need that during that moment our body's trying to get us to flee a threat or fight or threat so digestion shuts off which is why we have so many gastrointestinal issues so when we eat something specifically something that generates a lot of saliva like sour candy it re-engages our salivary glands creates more saliva which re-engages our digestive system and sends the signal to our nervous system and our mind that we are not actually under threat the act of swallowing also engages engages further your your digestive system and it activates your veg biggest nerve and your vagus nerve is the nerve that's attached to your parasympathetic nervous system which is responsible for our relaxation States the next tip is for when you're out in public whether you're out in school or driving or at work or just in a location where you don't have access to all these things because that's one of the questions I get all the time what do I do when I'm having a panic attack out in public here are my favorite tools for that fill a thermos full of ice one of those thermos don't put water in it just fill it up to the top with ice and take it around with you if you start to notice that you're having a panic attack you can simply take some of the ice cubes out and hold them in your hand extra points if you can put them around your neck and on your chest if you're in a public place and you don't have a thermos full of ice you can take yourself to the bathroom and splash cold water in your face or ask for a glass of cold water if you're in a restaurant for instance the sour candy and salt packets are amazing for this so you can use those at home but you can also always have them on you one of the things I tell most of my clients is to have a like panic attack pouch so get like a little makeup pouch or a little bag and just put things in there that can help soothe your panic attack like sour candy salt packets spicy things gum spearmint anything that has that really intense strong flavor and maybe if you can fit like a thermos full of ice in it make sure that you always leave the house with that one of the most common ones specifically at restaurants because restaurants are a common place people have panic attacks specifically because there's so many people and it's so loud and it's over stimulating ask for a plate of lemons or let your friends know that you might need lemons so they can order for you if you start to Pat Panic put them on the table and as soon as you feel that heightened anxiety and you're like oh this might be a panic attack coming on take a bite into that lemon that's sour and it helps you know shock your nervous system like the sour candies and it re-engages your digestive system as well like we talked about earlier if you're at the grocery store and you have a panic attack walk yourself over to the freezer section grab some of the frozen foods and just hold them there pretend you're looking at them no one will know and finally if you are experiencing a lot of panic attacks or you're experiencing panic disorder which I'll talk about in a future video professional help might be a good idea sometimes if you are having panic attacks to the point of La you're not able to function you're not able to go to work you're not able to leave your house and it's turning into agoraphobia these tips might be a little bit difficult for you absolutely Implement them see if they help you in the moment but you probably want to go and discuss what's happening underneath the surface why your panic attacks started in the first place what led them to becoming panic disorder and get professional help because you can't actually heal from this you don't have to be subjected to having panic attacks for the rest of your life and of course medication is always an option as well so maybe talk to your doctor if you don't have access to a psychiatrist and let them know that you're having panic attacks and maybe the medication can help ease you for the time being while you find a therapist there is no shame in needing therapy or medication or anything that helps your mental health the most important thing is that you do have the resources and tools and are able to live a fulfilling life I really hope that this video was helpful to you let me know in the comments what have been the tips that have helped you is there anything that I didn't mention in this video that can help somebody else if you put it in the comments below you really don't know who you could be helping and maybe I can take some of your tips and apply them to my clients and maybe make more videos about this to help more people please like And subscribe if you want if you want more content like this and as always I'll see you in the next video

Channel: Micheline Maalouf

Views: 4,090

Keywords: panic attack, anxiety attack, how to stop a panic attack, mental health, panic attack symptoms, anxiety attack vs panic attack, anxiety attacks vs panic attacks, panic attacks, panic disorder, anxiety attacks, anxiety attack relief, panic attack relief, therapist tips, stop panic attacks now, stop anxiety, grocery store panic attack, restaurant panic, panic attack in public, agoraphobia, micheline maalouf

Id: ORzLYhuXmNE

Length: 8min 46sec (526 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 08 2023