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View Full Version : A great tip for quickly controlling severe anxiety or a panic attack!



Joe.
06-23-2014, 01:16 PM
The other week I was talking to a friend about anxiety, she herself has social phobia and consequently panic attacks, and she gave me a great piece of advice!

She said that because of how our brain interacts with language, if you say to yourself when anxious "I am breathing manually", you will then breathe manually. What this means is you are now in total control of your breathing ( which is key to anxiety) and then you can take corrective action to calm your anxiety, you know, deep breathing etc.

The good thing about this though is the immediacy of the treatment, once you have said those words (in your head) you are forced to think I want to breathe ( and breathe like .......this), it's unbelievable how usefull it is!

( I might have explained this badly, it's a sort of thing that is hard to put into words)

(Sometimes in the heat of the moment of a panic attack, having the focus to deep breathe and other techniques is just too hard, this can be easier FOR ME; I don't know about you though)

Ankhsious
06-23-2014, 02:22 PM
Great advice! The other good one is "I am observing <insert your name> trying to control anxiety through breathing"