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Tips and Remedies to Help Reduce and Prevent Panic Attacks
How to Cope with Panic Attacks
Have you experienced a panic attack? Let’s take a look at some of the symptoms that you may have experienced:
- Sudden fear
- Racing heartbeat
- Shortness of breath
- Feeling shaky
- Dizziness
- Sweating
- Fear of dying
- Fear that you are about to “lose your mind”
These are all common symptoms that could be associated with a panic attack. These symptoms can come on very intense, at times, causing some to feel as though they are having a heart attack. This is why so many visits to the emergency room include those who suffer from panic attacks. Some reports show that 17 to 32 percent of individuals who go to the emergency room have a panic disorder.
Why Do I Have Panic Attacks?
After learning that I was suffering from panic attacks, my next thoughts were – why? Well, after doing research, I learned that there are several different reasons why this happens to people. It could be a lack of vitamins and minerals in the body, too much stress, a chemical imbalance, poor eating habits, family history, and the list can go on and on.
My anxiety was related to stress and being highly deficient in vitamins and nutrients. To find out, what may be causing your attacks, you may want to talk to a trusted physician. Once you know what is causing it, you can begin eliminating the root problem instead of only treating symptoms.
In the meantime, you can also work to prevent panic attacks from fully coming on. Here are some tricks that I have learned.
How to Prevent Panic Attack “Triggers”
Don’t Feed on Negative Thoughts
Having an attack often brings fear of having another attack in connection with a situation. For example, a person may have an attack while dining at a certain restaurant. Well, if the attack was intense enough, the person may link or associate having a panic attack with that particular restaurant. They may fear that if they go back, the same thing will occur again, therefore, they try to avoid the place.
This is something that I would do until I discovered that it wasn’t healthy nor was it truly beneficial for me. Why? Well, negative thinking is a trigger of anxiety which can lead to panic. Negative thinking is like “junk food” being fed directly to the brain. If I constantly feed my brain negative thoughts, then I will begin to believe those thoughts and act upon those thoughts. When you associate fear or negative thoughts with a particular place (or whatever it maybe) then you will forever allow yourself to be in that negative state of mind. To overcome a panic attack, you have to get rid of negative thinking and feed your brain, positive healthy thoughts.
Reduce Your Stress
This was one area I had to learn the hard way about. Sometimes it seems, no matter how much we hear that stress “kills”, we still tend to allow ourselves to become overly stressed about things on a daily basis. Whatever our problems may be, stressing ourselves out about it doesn’t benefit our health. Stress leads to anxiety. Anxiety leads to panic.
It can be difficult for some to take time to relax, but it can be done. Even if it is just taking 15 minutes out of the day to just do nothing, you help your body to calm down and reduce unwanted stress.
Avoid Negative People
Sometimes we really have to avoid having certain people in our life. Having individuals around often, who are negative or like to keep drama, can cause us to become stressed and irritable. This in turn will lead to having an eventual panic attack. It may not be a sudden attack, but one that builds up overtime because of the frequent association with negative people. Their negativity will slowly began to plague you and increase your anxiety. Therefore, you may want to limit or if possible eliminate your contact with these types of individuals.
Panic Attacks and Watching Movies
Have you ever felt that panic wave rising while you were watching a particular movie or television show? If so, you may want to ask yourself: Was the movie or show violent, scary, or full of hatred and drama? All these types of movies have one thing in common, they are negative. They do not produce happy or positive feelings.
If you watch these kinds of movies, they may well trigger a panic attack. When you watch a movie or television program, you are in a sense feeding your mind whatever it is that you are viewing. Therefore, if it is something that is negative it will increase your stress and anxiety levels.
Natural Remedies for Panic and Anxiety Disorders
Lavender is great for is calming effects on the mind and body. Diffusing or using it on the body can help with relaxation.
Niacin has shown to help reduce anxiety and depression. It’s a vitamin B and can be found in many multivitamins as well as vitamin B complex supplements. I’ve tried Garden of Life B complex and really liked it.
Hydrotherapy involves taking a cold shower to help relax the body. You would normally start the water off at a warm temperature and then gradually move it down to about 68 degrees.
Good nutritious diet plays a major role in our overall health. If you aren’t eating right, then your body won’t function right.
Rhodiola is a natural supplement that has been used to help treat anxiety and depression.
O-Mega 3 Fatty Acids are beneficial for aiding with good mental health.