Tips to Stop Panic Attacks and Anxiety
Millions
of people struggle with anxiety every day. Overcoming anxiety is
something that takes serious commitment. Most people want to stop panic
attacks and anxiety overnight, but your anxiety has been forged
through years of experiences, biology, and your own personality. You
can't simply turn that off on a whim. But that doesn't mean there aren't
tools that can control your anxiety considerably, and in some cases
you may find that these techniques make your anxiety far more
manageable.
The following are three simple but important things to try
to fight anxiety. Stop Managing Anxiety and CURE It
There is no quick fix for anxiety. It's become part of your
personality. But if you're ready to cure it forever, there are
techniques that have proven to be effective.
Start the test here.
Never Accept Failure It's important to remember that everyone can
control anxiety.
There are very few one size fits all approaches to combating your anxiety symptoms. Commit to a method that you're willing
to try, and if it doesn't work, move on to the next one. By choosing a
symptoms-based treatment that looks at the specific anxiety problem
you experience and recommends a follow up treatment, you'll increase
your chances of success. My
anxiety test is the best place
to start.
Quick Methods of Fighting Anxiety Remember, very few people
can cure anxiety in a day. Curing anxiety is a process, and one that
you shouldn't expect to reach for a long time, even with the best
anxiety treatment. But there are strategies you can try that may speed
up the process or reduce your anxiety considerable.
They include:
1.
Start Running Priority number one is that you start running or jogging
regularly. As long as you're healthy enough for physical activity,
regular, daily jogging should be your number one treatment choice. It
may sound silly, but the reality is that your physical energy
contributes to anxiety in a host of ways:
- Unused energy can become anxiety and actually create anxious thoughts.
- Unused muscles may become tense and cause more anxiety symptoms.
- Those that don't exercise are more prone to hormonal fluctuations and poor nutrition.
There
is a high correlation between those that don't exercise and those that
experience anxiety. In addition, beyond the health components of
jogging and exercise, there are additional benefits as well. These
include:
- Endorphins – During exercise the
body releases neurotransmitters that are designed to make exercise
easier and less painful, like endorphins. Endorphins also play a
significant role in relaxation. By exercising, your mind and body will
have a much easier time relaxing.
- Cortisol –
Cortisol is a hormone released during times of stress, and it's
responsible for many of the symptoms associated with anxiety. Running
burns away excess cortisol, causing fewer anxiety symptoms and less long
term damage from cortisol release.
- Overall Health
– Running also improves every component of overall health. It teaches
your heart and lungs to breathe more efficiently. It regulates hormones
and improves muscle strength. It keeps your body a type of health that
prevents excess stress.
Some studies have shown that
regular jogging may be as powerful or more powerful than some of the
world's most well-known anxiety medications, all without any side
effects. It's something you should already be doing regularly for your
own health, and is an absolute must if you suffer from anxiety. 2.
Retrain Breathing Another issue that often contributes to both anxiety
and panic attacks is poor breathing. Many people with anxiety suffer
from hyperventilation problems.
Anxiety and stress cause the body to
breathe a little bit faster. They also cause you to focus too much on
your breathing, and try to bring it more air than you need.
Hyperventilation is when you breathe out too much carbon dioxide
because of these poor breathing habits, and breathe in too much oxygen.
Hyperventilation is also interesting because it makes you feel like
you're not getting enough oxygen, causing you to breathe in more
deeply. Unfortunately, this only makes the anxiety and panic attack
symptoms worse. That's why you should go through a breathing
re-training. You can do this through deep breathing exercises, like
those learned during yoga. The goal is to slow down your breathing
considerably.
One method includes:
- Breathe in through your nose for 5 seconds.
- Hold for 2 seconds.
- Breathe out through your mouth for 7 seconds.
There
are other types of breathing exercises you can try as well if you'd
prefer something more interesting. Performing these exercises for 15 to
30 minutes every day can re-train your body to breathe in a way that
prevents hyperventilation, and thus reduces some of the symptoms of
anxiety. 3. Check Your Diet Diet can affect your anxiety levels,
although not as much as many people believe. Cutting out oils, trans
fats, alcohol and heavy amounts of caffeine
are
all important.
All of these make anxiety symptoms much worse, and the
healthier you eat the more likely you'll experience fewer anxiety
symptoms. The healthier you are, the better for all of your mental
health needs. But your diet rarely causes anxiety on its own, unless
you're low on some very important vitamins and minerals. Check your
diet to see if you could be lacking in any of the following vitamins:
- Magnesium
- Vitamin B12
- Vitamin B1
- Vitamin D
A
deficiency in all of these vitamins may cause anxiety symptoms.
Magnesium, for example, is lacking in mover 25% of the diets in the
United States right now. Adding magnesium supplements or foods can be
extremely advantageous. You should also make sure that you're drinking
enough water. Dehydration can cause significant anxiety and lead to
worse anxiety symptoms. While most people's diets don't cause anxiety,
they can easily contribute to it. Make sure that you're eating foods
that are rich in the vitamins and minerals you need, and your anxiety
may become far more manageable.
How I Calmed My Anxiety in One
Evening It sounds too good to be true, but anxiety really is something
that can be reduced very quickly. While you cannot CURE your anxiety in
one day, you can CALM it to a degree that it stops affecting you as
much. With the right tools and tricks, you can successfully calm your
anxiety in as little as one evening, and potentially leverage those
improvements towards fighting your anxiety permanently once and for
all. How to Cure Anxiety Anxiety disorders are all
different, but with the right approach you can successfully prevent
your anxiety from affecting you.
Find out how with my free 7 minute
anxiety test.
Take the test here. Attacking Anxiety Based
on Symptoms Symptom relief is the key to attacking anxiety. By placing
individual symptoms into buckets or groups, you can control anxiety
separately in a way that will allow you to permanently prevent anxiety
from controlling your life.
Take my anxiety test now to
learn more. But let's say you have to reduce your anxiety in one
evening. Is it possible? The answer is absolutely yes. In fact, there
are many strategies that help control anxiety that can take place in as
little as a single day.
Step 1: Exercise Before you do anything else,
go for a jog. Jogging is quite literally as effective as anxiety
medications, with none of the side effects. Studies have compared
jogging (and most intense exercise) to medications and found that
jogging reports results that are just as strong, with none of the side
effect risk. You've always thought that jogging was important to your
physical health, but by taking up jogging you can immediately see
results for your mental health. Jogging releases endorphins
(neurotransmitters that improve mood), relaxes muscles, burns away the
stress hormone cortisol, improves sleep, and provides mental
distractions. Some people find that jogging alone literally cures them
of their anxiety disorder. Make sure the first thing you do is jog.
Step 2: Breathing Training If you're suffering from anxiety this very
moment, see how you're breathing. Often you'll either feel like you're
not getting a deep breath or you'll be breathing too quickly. These
create hyperventilation, and hyperventilation is one of the main causes
of most physical anxiety symptoms. So start breathing better. There is
a method of relaxation known as deep breathing that can be effective,
but it can take a while to practice. For now (since we only have one
evening), simply slow down your breathing to 15 seconds minimum, and do
your best to fight any urge to take a deep breath or cough. This will
help you regain the carbon dioxide you lost when you hyperventilated,
and improve blood flow to your brain.
Step 3: Sensory Stimulation
Generally, technology actually creates more anxiety. Staring at bright
moving lights, watching stressful things on TV, playing around with
your iPhone - all of these have been known to increase anxiety. But
technology isn't always a bad thing. Anxiety can actually decrease as a
result of sensory stimulation. The more you surround yourself with
mental distractions, the less your mind is able to focus on anxiety.
When you have anxiety, your mind is your own worst enemy.
The best type
of sensory stimulation is one that involves doing healthy activities
with your friends, like hiking. But assuming you're in your own home
and your friends are not available, turning on humorous and
non-stressful TV shows, listening to happy and/or relaxing music, and
working on a puzzle or talking on the phone with someone you love are
all effective ways to make it much harder to think about your anxiety.
Anxiety is self-sustaining. It causes thoughts that increase anxiety.
Overwhelming your senses is a powerful way to decrease the amount of
thinking and internalizing you do. Make sure that every piece of
technology you choose though is always focused on happiness and
relaxation. No dramas, no horror shows, no loud and angry rock music, no
reality TV shows.
It doesn't matter if these things relax you - they
stimulate anxiety at a subconscious level, and are thus not effective
ways to promote relaxation.
Step 4: Journaling It may sound like
something only children do, but writing out your thoughts is incredibly
therapeutic. In fact, all thoughts - even those that aren't inherently
stressful - can cause anxiety. Your mind has a tendency to feel stress
when it's trying to remember things, and when it focuses on negative
things. So keep a notebook by you and start writing out the thoughts
that come into your head, no matter what they are. This activity will
put those thoughts on paper so that your mind doesn't feel it needs to
focus on them anymore, and this will reduce your anxiety.
Step 5:
Accepting Anxiety You also need to be okay with your anxiety symptoms
and not try to fight them. Ironically, the act of trying to fight
anxiety creates anxiety, because you essentially are pushing yourself
and stressing yourself to rid yourself of that same stress. Fighting
anxiety isn't possible. Anxiety is an incredibly curable condition, and
nearly everyone that seeks treatment can eventually find relief. But
fighting it simply doesn't work. Be okay with your anxiety, and know
that it's not something that will affect you forever so that you can
face it head on and not be ashamed of it or mad at yourself.
Other
Methods of Overnight Anxiety Control If you integrate just these five
things into your life right now, your anxiety will decrease overnight.
But let's assume you have more time. You can also do all of the
following:
- Drink Water - Dehydration is
extremely common in today's society, and studies have shown that it
makes anxiety symptoms worse. Even if you don't feel thirsty, drink
more water and you may find that your anxiety decreases right away.
- Take Magnesium
- Magnesium is a mineral that studies have shown often provides
anxiety relief. In addition, as many as 50% of the country is magnesium
deficient due to modern food processing practices. Talk to your doctor
about taking magnesium for your anxiety.
- Herbal Supplements
- Like magnesium, many herbal supplements have been shown to help with
anxiety. Talk to your doctor about taking kava, which is considered one
of the most effective herbal supplements out there and non-addictive.
Taking
a long bath or shower may also have some benefit, as can lovemaking
with your partner. Combine all of these strategies and your anxiety may
be drastically reduced quite literally overnight. I've also helped
thousands of people with their long term anxiety reduction starting
with my free 7 minute anxiety test. The test is available online, takes
nearly no time to complete, and will provide you with recommendations
about treating your anxiety and keeping it away.
7 Simple Tips to
Ease Anxiety Anxiety isn't something that disappears right away.
It's
something that requires gradual changes – changes that take time to
work effectively. But anxiety is something you need to treat. Every day
you live with anxiety is a day that you spend without as much
happiness and contentment as you deserve. Addressing anxiety requires
long term changes, and a comprehensive treatment plan is preferable.
But there are simple ways to at least ease anxiety until ultimately
you're ready to commit to something better. In this article, we'll list
seven simple and easy ways to ease anxiety so at least you can find
some relief from your anxiety symptoms.
Don't Just
Relieve Anxiety – CURE It Yes, you can reduce anxiety in small doses.
But anxiety needs a complete cure. I've developed one that works based
off your anxiety symptoms. Take
my free anxiety test and see tailored results specifically designed to cure your anxiety forever.
Click here to begin.
Easing vs. Curing Anxiety It's important to note the difference between
easing anxiety and curing anxiety. Easing anxiety is when you use
tools and strategies to simply reduce the amount of anxiety you
experience every day. Curing anxiety is when you not only reduce your
overall anxiety – you prevent it from coming back. Curing anxiety
requires an understanding of what types of anxiety you're experiencing,
your symptoms, and so on. That's why you need to take my
free anxiety test now to get started.
But perhaps you're not ready to commit to a permanent treatment. There
are still ways you can manage your anxiety every day. The following
are the most common and simplest anxiety reduction strategies to
implement into your daily routine.
- Exercise Regularly
– Time and time again, the value of exercise on mental health is
forgotten. Every single person with anxiety needs to exercise more.
Movement and activity promote blood flow, improve neurotransmitter
production and regulation, calm anxiety symptoms and much more. It can
be as powerful as any medication, and while it's not a permanent cure
on its own, you'll experience considerable relief if you exercise every
day.
- Learn Relaxation Techniques – There are
many relaxation strategies that are also effective at reducing stress.
Most people are aware of these strategies but find them unfulfilling
and stop using them. But the reality is that relaxation strategies do
not work right away. They only work when you have completed them enough
that they become boring and second nature. In the beginning, when you
just start out, you're thinking too much about everything you need to
do, and your anxiety will stay the same. Only after you've practiced
them a lot will you get the relief you need. Examples of these
strategies include:
- Visualization
- Progressive Muscle Relaxation
- Meditation
- Sleep
– If you're someone that skips sleep, then you're someone that
increases their anxiety symptoms. Sleep is designed specifically to
help control stress – both physical and mental – so if you're not
sleeping, get to bed earlier. Sleep is absolutely necessary for those
with anxiety, and something you should never skip on purpose.
- Systematic Desensitization
– You can also work on desensitizing yourself to your fears and
worries. For example, if you have a fear of being embarrassed, go out
in public dressed as something ridiculous and make weird noises. Feel
embarrassed on purpose. Eventually you'll get used to the feeling of
embarrassment and it won't be as stressful. You can do this for all
sorts of fears and anxieties. You can even do this for many of the
symptoms and triggers of panic attacks.
- Turn Things Fun
– Life isn't something that should be taken too seriously. So any
opportunity you have to turn something more fun you should take. For
example, if your work causes you anxiety, try to find ways to make work
fun, like inventing little games for yourself that you can do without
impacting your work ability. Be responsible, of course, but also don't
let places or people that cause you stress be something that you fear.
Instead, let it be something you try to change.
- Find Healthy Distractions
– Distractions are a great tool for controlling anxiety. Healthy
distractions – like listening to upbeat music, watching funny shows on
TV, playing baseball with friends – are all great ways to avoid
anxiety. Anxiety tends to control your thoughts. Spend less time
sitting back and thinking and spend more time making it hard on
yourself to worry, because you're too busy doing other things.
- Create Art
– Art is also a powerful tool for reducing anxiety. Art allows you to
express yourself in ways that are therapeutic, while also giving you an
activity to do that serves as a great distraction from your mind.
Also, once you complete an art piece, you'll get the joy of
accomplishment. While it may seem silly, accomplishment can be a
powerful anxiety reduction tool.
It's absolutely possible to
ease your anxiety, and someday you'll be able to cure it forever.
Until then, the above coping tools should help you decrease the degree
to which anxiety affects you, and hopefully make your life more
manageable. The more manageable your anxiety is, the easier it is to
cure in the future. Finally, when you're ready to commit to a longer
term treatment, there are plenty of options. Cognitive behavioral
therapy is very effective, as is exposure therapy for panic symptoms.
I've helped many people cure their anxiety in the past as well. It
starts by looking at your symptoms, so if you haven't yet,
click here to take my anxiety test.
The Biochemistry of Anxiety Anxiety may be a difficult disorder to
live with, but it's also a fascinating one. Anxiety can be caused by
life experiences, and it can be caused by the chemicals in your brain,
and it can be caused by both, and no matter what causes it, it can be
treated the same way. Even within your own biochemistry, there are
different neurotransmitters that can cause and be affected by anxiety.
In this article, we'll give an introduction to the biochemistry of
anxiety, and what that means for treatment.
Curing
Anxiety Without Medicine Anxiety is an incredibly treatable disorder,
provided you're ready and willing to make the necessary changes to your
day to day life. Find out more about how you can treat anxiety without
medications with my free 7 minute anxiety test.
Start the test here.
Anxiety Affects Biochemistry and Vice Versa When we talk about the
biochemistry of anxiety, it can give the impression that your anxiety
isn't under your control. That could not be further from the truth.
Your life experience and your emotions can actually change your
neurotransmitter levels, just as your neurotransmitter levels can
affect your anxiety. Make sure you take
my anxiety test to
get a better idea of what this means. In fact, studies have shown that
even if you were born with low neurotransmitter levels, there is a
great deal of evidence that effective coping strategies can increase
those neurotransmitters even though the levels were created
biologically. It's the same reason that those whose life experience
caused anxiety can be treated with medications that affect
neurotransmitter levels.
The two combine and contribute to each other,
so even exploring the biochemistry of anxiety shouldn't cause you to
feel as though your anxiety is beyond your control. The Basics of
Anxiety Biochemistry The biochemistry of anxiety is complex and vast.
Studies have shown that nearly every type of neurotransmitter and
hormone can play some role in anxiety, as can anything that reduces
blood flow to the brain (like dehydration). Anxiety, in many ways, is
simply your body's reaction to brain stress.
When something causes any
changes to your brain, experiencing anxiety is often the result. But to
give you a basic example of how anxiety works, let's look at some of
the body's chemicals and how they seem to contribute to anxiety
disorders:
- Serotonin - Serotonin is the most
well-known anxiety related neurotransmitter. Low levels of serotonin
are linked to both anxiety and depression. Like most neurotransmitters,
low or unbalanced serotonin levels can occur genetically/naturally,
and can also be created by your emotions. Studies have shown that
therapy and mental health techniques increase natural serotonin levels.
Some medications specifically improve serotonin flow and find a
profound reduction in anxiety.
- Thyroid Hormone
- Hyperthyroid, which is an overproduction of thyroid hormone, has
been linked to the development of severe anxiety and panic attacks.
Thyroid hormone may be the only hormone that isn't affected by mental
health, but rather a condition known as hyperthyroidism. Generally
those that treat hypothyroidism find an improvement in their anxiety
almost instantly.
- GABA - GABA has shown a
strong association with the development of mood disorders, indicating
that GABA appears to have an effect on emotions. In fact, one of the
primary types of anxiety medications - benzodiazepines - bind with GABA
receptors and produce the anxiolytic effect. Higher levels of GABA
appear to have mood boosting qualities, and low levels of GABA may have
excitatory properties that put you on edge.
- Epinephrine/Norepinephrine
- Norepinephrine is responsible for many of the symptoms of anxiety.
They are the adrenaline and energy that is pumped through your body
when you're stressed or anxious, and cause changes like rapid
heartbeat, sweating, etc. In some cases these hormones can start
becoming overactive, often as a result of regular stress.
- Endorphins
- Endorphins themselves do not appear to be related to the creation of
anxiety, but how that anxiety is addressed. Endorphins are mood and
relaxation stabilizers. They're often the cause of "addictions" to
various coping mechanisms - for example, endorphins appear to be
released when people eat food they like, so eating food may become
someone's coping tool. Exercise is an example of a healthy way to
release endorphins.
- Dopamine - The role of
dopamine in anxiety is only recently getting explored. But studies have
shown that those with social anxiety seem to have problems with
dopamine receptors. There is evidence that improving dopamine levels
will reduce social anxiety, and possibly other anxiety disorders.
This
is just a basic introduction to the biochemistry of anxiety. But the
reality is that nearly every hormone and every neurotransmitter can
potentially cause anxiety, simply because anxiety is often a warning
sign that your brain gives you that something is wrong. What To Do
About Anxiety and Body Chemicals There are a few
hormones/neurotransmitters that would require some type of medical
attention. Thyroid hormone is the best example, as this hormone needs
to be regulated in order to prevent anxiety. But the vast majority of
neurotransmitters can be improved through basic mental health
treatments.
