6 Tips to Reduce Anxiety and Panic Attacks

m to be a lot of people who are suffering from anxiety these days, and with the additional stresses brought into our lives by the poor economic conditions of late, and redundancy worries on top of all those usual concerns about making ends meet and being breadwinners for our children, is it any wonder!

After hearing some stories about a friend who has been experiencing these attacks I decided to compile my list of what I would call common sense tips. I am not medically qualified, so see what you make of them.

My tips to reduce anxiety and panic attacks are:

1.Diet and exercise can by all accounts have a surprisingly large impact on the occurrence, and severity, of panic attacks. So, eat a good healthy balanced diet and don\’t over eat.

2.Don\’t give yourself excessive responsibilities to do things for people and don\’t rush your life too much. Take it easy! Lots of stress is caused by not taking time to do things, and by cramming too much into your days.

3.If you are one of those couples that tend to discuss family and relationship issues while you prepare for bed, you should be aware that this may not be the best time to do this for people who suffer any form of anxiety at night. By discussing worrying circumstances just before sleep your dreams will tend to be accentuated on those difficult aspects of your life, which is unhelpful.

4.Medication can help, but in my view should be a last resort as there are in fact very few, if any medications which don\’t have side effects.

5.Talking to someone who understands, and cares is what we all used to do before the idea of counseling was devised. There is wonderful therapy in talking with someone you know well and who you know will not judge you. Find someone who will offer you support and positive reinforcement and hopefully they will talk with you. You will be surprised how helpful that can be and as a by-product how much closer and more you will learn to like about that other person as the same time!

6.Breathlessness is just about the most common anxiety attack symptom that most experience. Breathing techniques may be helpful during an attack. We have all heard of inhaling slowly into and out of a paper bag. However, my special tip is to combine it with closing your eyes think of it a bit like meditating. It very often helps.

I suppose that I am saying the obvious, and truly it is hard to really take this on-board when you suffer from the sort of anxiety that results in panic attacks, but these attacks (except in rare cases where there could be a biological/physiological reason so do consult a medic) are in fact purely a product of the mind. An attack is the result of a person/\’s imagination of a perceived threat or danger. In reality, the perceived danger does not exist, but it is so much easier to say that than live-it when you are a sufferer….