Advise for helping girlfriend with anxiety attacks
I am hoping that I might be able to get some advice on how I can help my girlfriend get through her anxiety attacks. I have been with her for about 2 and a half years now and within the past year or so she has started to suffer from severe anxiety attacks. They started when a friend of hers suddenly became really hostile towards her and made a blog that just bashed on her. Over time this has developed into her having abandonment issues which became a big trigger for her anxiety attacks. Her anxiety attacks seem to occur most often as a result of these things: possibility of losing a friend that she is close with, parents fighting with each other, or when she is trying to deal with a lot of things that need to be done within a short amount of time. She describes her attacks as her thoughts start to race at a thousand miles an hour and all she can think about is either that it is her fault that what ever said event is happening or she can only think about the worst possible outcomes.
Although she has been struggling with these attacks for some time it was not until earlier today that I saw one first hand. Up until this point I have heard of the attacks after they have happened at which point I try to make sure that she is okay and feeling better. Today however she had an anxiety attack that was triggered by a combination of a fight she had with her sister and her sister running into my car when she was reversing far to quickly because she was upset. After another argument between them our friend, my girlfriend, and I decided to go to her backyard and wait until her parents get home before doing anything. When we got back there my girlfriend sat down in a lawn chair while I got into her hammock. I noticed that she was breathing deeply and instantly I realized what was going on. I then asked her quietly if she was okay and she told me that she was having a panic attack. I asked her to join me in the hammock but she said she will when she has herself together. I then went over to her and took her hand and asked her to trust me so she did and laid down with me in the hammock. We laid there for probably 15-20mins before it passed. During that time I put my arm around her and stroked her face and just tried to keep telling her things like "it's going to be okay, I promise" "I love you" and "It's not your fault"
I asked her afterwards if it helped at all and she told me that it really did help which came as a shock to her because up until now she thought that the only way to get through them was to be left alone. I am extremely glad that we found something that helped her a little more then breathing exercises alone but I am worried because we have college coming up and will be about an hour and a half away from each other so I wont be able to comfort her when she has her attacks. I am hoping to get some advice that I can share with her for various things that have helped people handle panic attacks and what else I can do to help her when that happen and I am with her.
She has said that she does not want to be on medication (unless she is unable to get them under control or they begin to occur even more often), she does nightly yoga to clear her mind each night, drinks lots of calming tea, and tries to meditate when she is having an anxiety attack.
I am extremely thankful for any advice that any one can provide, it will mean the world to me if I am able to give her some advice that helps her in anyway.
