3 Things That Have Helped Me With Anxiety and Panic Attacks
Stop The Vicious Cycle
**PLEASE MAKE SURE TO READ AT LEAST 30 SECONDS OF THE ARTICLE AS WELL AS CLAP! IT HELPS ME OUT TREMENDOUSLY!**
Anxiety sucks. Panic attacks are even worse. If you are like me, you have been through some hellish moments when deep in a moment (or extended period of time) of extreme stress. Jello legs, thumping heart, hyperventilation, feeling faint. Yeah, I’ve been there and too many times to count.
There are countless numbers of things you can do to calm down your nervous system, but by far these are what work best for me. Some may come across as little cliché, but they are for a reason: they work.
- BREATHE
Easy, right? Not always. Have you ever been deep in a moment of panic and you miraculously forget how to breathe? For some odd reason, your breath either picks up to incredible speed and you build up way more carbon dioxide in your system than you should or you stop breathing entirely, lacking yourself of vital oxygen.
Now, its very difficult sometimes due to your mind being deep in thought about the panic or being utterly confused. Strong sympathetic activation. But I implore you to focus as long as you can on your breath and “hijack” it.
There are dozens of different breathing methods: box, alternate nostril, and Wim Hof, just to name a few. But want I want to emphasize is the most important concept of breathing to calm yourself: exhaling longer than your inhale.
For instance, take a long inhale of five to six seconds. You can hold it for several seconds at the top of that inhale if you would like, but it’s not necessary (Box breathing has you hold it at the top). Now when you exhale, focus on a longer exhale of seven or eight seconds.
For those who haven’t put much thought into their breath may be wondering why this is important. I’ll explain.
Our breath and heart rate are controlled by your autonomic nervous system and that autonomic nervous system is divided into two categories: sympathetic (fight or flight) and parasympathetic (rest and digest).
When we breathe in our heart rate picks up as a result of sympathetic activation. When we exhale our heart rate drops due to parasympathetic activation. Although there is much more that goes into this, the phenomena is known as “heart rate variability”.
That’s a whole topic for another day, but what’s most important is that when wanting to calm yourself down, the focus on the exhale will activation the parasympathetic nervous system and tell your brain to relax. Try this out some time!
2. FIND A QUIET SPACE
Besides focusing on breath, this is absolutely the most beneficial for me. When overwhelmed panic, I find absolute solace in secluding myself and finding a quiet space. This allows me time to focus on my thoughts, my breath, listen to calming music or guided meditations, and maybe even some rest.
This is probably preaching to the choir, but when there is too much external stimuli (a crowd of people talking, stuck in a traffic jam, in line at Costco) you can get overwhelmed easily. From there it builds on each other; you get anxious about being stuck in traffic which leads to getting anxious about being anxious. The snowballing effect then takes over and before you know it, you are having a panic attack.
When you can, find a quiet place just to yourself. It does wonders.
Tip: Get outside in nature and on a sunny day. Get some of that good vitamin D!
3. CHAMOMILE TEA
I can remember it like it was yesterday. The floral sweetness of herbal tea and the warm and comforting feeling as it hit my bloodstream.
I was in Australia and I was incredibly hungover. So much so that I had the dreaded “hanxiety”. The sun had already gone down and I still felt terrible. I had been in bed all day, battling the trifecta of a headache, nausea, and anxiety.
By the evening the headache and the queasy stomach had calmed, but my anxiety was absolutely through the roof. I couldn’t calm down. GABA and serotonin must have been drained and glutamate was releasing adrenaline nonstop. I had an extreme chemical imbalance.
Seeing that I was still in agony, my roommates recommended that I drink some chamomile tea with tablespoon of honey and a squeeze of lemon. I had never had it before and really hadn’t been a tea drinker. I had some green tea from time to time and some licorice heavy stuff that made me throw up (on an empty stomach).
But I am now forever grateful to their suggestion. It was like the weight of a thousand pounds was lifted off my back. The stress and panic that was flowing so freely and strongly through my body was now being released. I had never felt the pure bliss before that the small little flower gave me.
There are dozens, if not hundreds of different herbal teas that are perfect for calming, but chamomile really is the standard. I recommend Celestial Seasonings or Bigelow (not sponsored).
I hope that these three tricks can help you in finding inner peace and tranquility. I will be back to post more tips and tricks that I have learned throughout the years for both anxiety as well as cervical vertigo.
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Read my cervical vertigo story here.
“Nothing is permanent in this wicked world — not even our troubles.”-Charlie Chaplin