Many people will experience at least one panic attack in their lifetime. Learning to recognize panic attacks is an important first step toward managing them, which can often be done without the need for medication.
How to Stop a Panic Attack
You can help stop a panic attack by breaking it down into phases and symptoms. This makes it easier to recognize when a panic attack is coming on so you can interrupt it before it becomes too overwhelming.
The first step in managing a panic attack is being able to recognize when it’s happening. Besides sudden, overwhelming feelings of anxiety, fear, or dread, you may also have symptoms like a racing heart, nausea, or chest pain.
Learn to Recognize the Physical Symptoms
Panic attacks are often mistaken for heart attacks, strokes, or other serious medical conditions, given their sudden onset and intense physical symptoms. These can include:
Racing heart or heart palpitations (fluttering or pounding)SweatingShaking or tremblingShortness of breath or choking sensationChest painNauseaDizziness or lightheadednessChills or hot flashes
Panic attacks may be characterized by one or more of these symptoms, but all of them do not need to be present during an episode.
Learn to Recognize the Emotional Symptoms
Along with physical symptoms, there are emotional or psychological symptoms that are brought on by panic attacks. These include:
Feelings of fear, dread, or doomLoss of controlA feeling of going crazyFear of dyingA loss of connection from reality or a feeling of detachment
These symptoms can range in intensity and can occur before, after, or along with physical symptoms.
Panic attacks can be so distressing that they can cause the person to feel as though they are dying, and the experience of having a panic attack can bring about additional fear or anxiety of future panic attacks.
When panic attacks continue to occur over time, it could be a sign of a panic disorder.
Before a Panic Attack
Panic attacks can occur for a number of reasons, including:
Unrelated to any specific trigger and unexpected: These types of panic attacks can even occur when you are relaxed or asleep and are the most common type of panic attack. Situational-induced: These occur as a response to something specific and expected, such as being in an enclosed space. They happen in anticipation of the trigger or immediately after exposure to it. Situational predisposed: With these types of attacks, a trigger often causes a panic attack, but not always. For example, having a fear of spiders and seeing a spider might bring on a panic attack, but sometimes an attack won’t happen at all or one might occur after the trigger is no longer present. Emotionally induced: These types of panic attacks are brought on by a special highly emotional circumstance. These types of attacks are common at night. Situational: These types of panic attacks are common with specific types of phobias, like social phobias. They are also common in panic disorders.
Knowing the situations and triggers that may cause panic attacks can help you prepare for them. Having tools ready to use when needed offers some control over the situation and can lessen the intensity of symptoms.
Periods of high stress or facing a known cause of extreme worry can bring on a panic attack. In these circumstances, paying attention to your body and practicing relaxation techniques can help stop symptoms before they happen or before they worsen.
During a Panic Attack
Panic attacks feel different for everyone. Some people might have physical symptoms first, followed by emotional symptoms, while others have emotional symptoms first or experience various symptoms at the same time. Regardless of how a panic attack feels, there are ways to lessen or stop symptoms once they starts.
Panic attacks may feel like they are never ending, but they usually peak within 10 minutes. Keeping this in mind and using techniques that bring relaxation, distraction, and mindfulness can lessen symptoms during a panic attack
Relaxation techniques can help prevent hyperventilation, slow down a racing heart, and interrupt the body’s natural panic response to extreme stress. Some examples include:
4-7-8 breathing: Breathe in for a count of four, hold the breath for a count of seven, and breathe out for a count of eight. Meditative breathing: Focus on the breath as it enters and leaves the body. As thoughts or distractions enter the mind, bring the focus back to breathing. Grounding breathing: Combine a focus on breathing with a grounding experience like drawing circles on the palm of one hand with the finger of the other hand. Doing this distracts the mind and brings attention back to the body.
Distraction can help by taking the focus off of the fear and other symptoms being experienced. Distraction can happen by doing something else, visualizing something else, or focusing on something else. Some ways to use distraction include:
Get some exercise: Go for a quick walk outside to change the environment and change your heart and breathing rates. Use visualization: Think about a place that brings feelings of calm and happiness. This can be a real or imagined place. Add as many details as possible, including sights, smells, sounds, tastes, and feelings. Give the senses a jolt: To interrupt the automatic reactions that happen in panic attacks, use a strong smell, like peppermint oil, or touch something very cold like an ice cube to snap the body and mind out of current symptoms.
Mindfulness helps keep the mind in the present moment. Since anxiety is related to having intense fear about the future or the unknown, using mindfulness lessens anxiety symptoms and brings the focus to the here and now. Some mindfulness exercises include:
Naming objects: Look around the room and name as many objects as possible in a certain color. If needed, continue to another color once finished. Use the senses: Name five things in the room that can be heard, seen, felt, tasted, and smelled. Notice textures, flavors, and as many details as possible. Notice the body: Do a body scan by thinking about each body part and how it feels. Tense and relax each muscle during the scan. Move slowly up the body from the toes to the top of the head, picturing each body part.
After a Panic Attack
After a panic attack is over, it can be helpful to practice self-care. Doing some light exercise or stretching, taking a relaxing bath, or listening to soothing music can help bring the body and mind back to a calmer state.
It can also help to keep a journal for tracking panic attacks. After a panic attack has passed, try writing down everything that led up to it, including any potential triggers. Keep track of as many details as possible, including any thoughts or feelings that came up before and during the panic attacks. Over time, a journal will help you identify trends that can allow you to prepare for the next one.
Medical Treatment
Sometimes, panic attacks cannot be managed entirely alone. If panic attacks become an ongoing concern or they cause significant anxiety or fear about future panic attacks, it might be necessary to see a healthcare provider.
Mental Health Therapy
A psychotherapist can work with you to manage or overcome panic attacks with different types of therapies. There are two types of therapeutic interventions that have been shown to have the best outcomes:
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT): CBT involves understanding the relationship between thoughts and behaviors and working toward changing negative or distorted thoughts to more positive, helpful ones. Humanistic therapy: This is a type of intervention that helps people make rational decisions and accept responsibility for themselves. Common humanistic therapy approaches include client-centered therapy, gestalt therapy, and existential therapy.
Medication
If therapy alone is not effective in treating panic attacks, as may be the case in severe cases of panic disorders, medications may be recommended and prescribed by a psychiatrist. Commonly prescribed medications that have been shown to be effective in helping with panic disorders include antidepressants and benzodiazepines.
Anxiety vs. Panic Attacks
The key to managing a panic attack is being sure that what you’re experiencing is a panic attack. Some people confuse panic attacks with anxiety.
Anxiety and panic attacks are both very common. They are both often underdiagnosed or misdiagnosed as medical conditions.
Anxiety is characterized by ongoing worry or fear about the future. With generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), for example, anxiety symptoms are present for normal everyday experiences and can create mild-to-severe interruptions in a person’s life. With anxiety, symptoms may be present on some level all the time or during specific periods of known stressors, such as during a public presentation.
Panic attacks tend to come on suddenly and can happen from either a calm state or a state of feeling anxious. They often occur without warning or a known trigger and bring a sense of doom, intense fear, and a feeling of dying.
Similarly, both anxiety and panic attacks have physical and psychological symptoms. With panic attacks, however, the symptoms tend to come on quickly and are often only present for up to 10 minutes. With anxiety, symptoms can be present for a much longer period of time.
A Word From Verywell
Whether you’ve experienced one or many panic attacks, the physical, emotional, and psychological impact of symptoms can be extremely distressing. Gaining control over panic attacks means first understanding what is happening and being prepared with effective relaxation and mindfulness techniques to intervene before symptoms become overwhelming.
Remember that controlling panic attacks takes time, and changes won’t happen overnight. Starting small by practicing one new relaxation exercise and noticing triggers will get you started on a path to being able to manage panic attack symptoms on your own.
