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Useful Breathing Techniques for Calming Down During a Panic Attack

January 28th, 2008 by Lyle Richards Subscribe To Our Feed

Someone experiencing a panic attack will face a sudden onset of extreme fear and dread, along with things other symptoms such as dizziness, racing heart, trembling, shortness of breath, sweating and detachment from their surroundings and reality. In extreme cases, people may also experience a heart attack, but this is very rare. Despite the seemingly severe symptoms, people can learn breathing techniques for claming down during a panic attack. In this article, we will focus on learning the different phases of breathing techniques for claming down during a panic attack.

The Fundamental Phase
Panic attack can be disabling and sometimes very hard to treat. In fact, administration of medications may actually end up with several adverse side effects such as withdrawal, relapse, and other psychosomatic conditions such as irritation, agitation, insomnia, and many others. Although recent advancement in the area of bio-psychological research suggests different options including medications, all of them agree about the extensive contribution of slow, abdominal breathing technique for calming down anxiety during a panic attack. However, for an individual suffering from panic disorder may need to put a great effort in learning breathing technique.

The majority of people with panic attack experience difficulty in breathing as they simply lack the understanding of how to breathe deeply with their diaphragm. Most of them are very good in chest breathing, but they are simply incapable of breathing deeply and require a great deal of breathing technique training. However, once they become capacitated and learn how to breathe using their diaphragm; they have all the chances to come out from their panic disorder problem.

The Advanced Phase
In the advanced stages of deep breathing technique, the individual gradually becomes facilitated with the training of hyperventilation by opening their mouth and taking deep breathe for 1-2 minutes. In this way they gradually learn that the seemingly imminent death symptoms are not actually harmful stimuli at all. By practicing deep breathing technique this way for calming down during a panic attack really helps. A more advanced stage includes systematic desensitization during which a professional put her best effort to expose the individual with panic attack to different fear-evoking stimuli ordered from least feared to most fear.

While hyperventilation and systematic desensitization can aid in reducing panic, it may come back as a relapse if the individual experience extreme stress. However, the individual may quickly regain equilibrium at the initial stage of triggering stressor by practicing breathing technique for calming down during a panic attack, preventing the possibility of relapse. Although you can try normal breathing practices as described in the following paragraph, you need a professional help for hyperventilation and systematic desensitization.

Tips of Breathing Technique
Start the process by lying on your back. Put one hand over your chest and the other on your stomach, right between your naval and ribs. Next, focus on having you belly rise smoothly when you inhale and fall as you exhale. Concentrate on breathing with your belly or diaphragm, not with your chest. Try to breath like this for at least 6 minutes. This is suppose to be a slow, relaxing process. Don’t force yourself to breath while you practice this. This is how breathing techniques for claming down during a panic attack is done.

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