Panic Attack Relief by Michael Logan

When you're in the middle of a panic attack, relief can seem very far away. Perhaps you've had the symptoms for so long now that they've become a regular part of your life. You don't know what brought them on, you only know you want them to stop.

The great news is that you can rid yourself of these attacks forever. You might find yourself taking two steps forward and one step back, but if you stick to it, you will be the victor.

What genes you carry from your family can give you a predisposition to developing the condition. But it can also be stress that's triggered the beginning of this cycle for you and without help, the cycle can drain your energy and leave you with less than the great life you should have.

Treating these attacks needs to be a priority because they can turn into severe phobias that can cause you even greater stress. It's okay to attempt some self help steps if you think you don't need or aren't ready to talk to your doctor or other professional.

The attacks usually don't last longer than a few minutes at a time. Don't allow your mind to think about what hasn't occurred and don't drag past attacks up. Fearing an attack can actually cause an attack to happen. Put what's happening in the right place in your mind. What you're dealing with are emotions and not real circumstances.

More often than not, attacks are brought on by feelings that are a projection of a known or unknown fear and not a reality. Panic attack relief can be found by facing what it is you're feeling the fear over.

If you're afraid of a fire starting in your home, take steps to make sure you have a fire safety plan. Have your home checked by a qualified electrician. Keep a fire extinguisher where you can get to it.

Don't allow pride or fear of what people might think stop you from reaching out for help. Keeping emotions locked inside can make an attack worse and it can cause them to happen again.

If you feel anxious and stressed because of past attacks, that anxiety and stress can trigger another attack and each subsequent attack will only reiterate those emotions. Let someone know what you're dealing with. Sometimes just getting those emotions out relieves the anxiety.

The anxiety doesn't have to control your life and it doesn't have to take away your ability to handle life. Don't think you have to fight alone, not when panic attack relief can be as simple as a phone call or a getting a prescription filled. Panic Attack Relief Through Counseling Not only are there medical approaches to panic attack relief, there are counseling and biofeedback approaches that might be useful.

The counseling approach most often utilized is called Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and this type of counseling will ask that you pay attention to your thinking and dispute thoughts which can begin the panic feeling.

A biofeedback approach, like heart rate variability biofeedback, can combine a powerful physiological training with the CBT.

I really like heart rate variability biofeedback personally because it feels good, and I can induce the feel good physiology on any given heart beat, and if I decide to pay attention to a fearful thought too long, I can switch out of that to a coherent thought in the proverbial heart beat.

In other words, I can practice heart rate variability biofeedback every five minutes for a couple of heart beats, and very soon my body gets used to this coherent physiology, and it doesn't let me get too far away from it.

Other useful tools that I have discovered over the years are to remember that "Gratitude is the Attitude", which certainly takes me away from the fearful thought.

I have also had a wonderful experience using the Open Focus model of Les Fehmi, Ph.D, which asks me to consider the space around the anxiety or my thought which brings the anxiety.

If you stop and think about it, there is a great deal of space, a universe of space around my thoughts and my body.

As a professional though, the heart rate variability biofeedback process is the one my clients find the most believable, because they see the process on the computer screen.

Clients seeing biofeeback experience that the learning is happening and are more confident that they can repeat the good feeling heart rate variability biofeedback on their own.