If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

One of the most common symptoms that someone having a panic attack will experience is difficult and constricted breathing. Sometimes the breath will feel totally constricted with the sufferer is unable to draw breath. And other times the breathing will become rapid to the point of hyperventilation. When you consider this, it seems appropriate that most methods of dealing with panic attacks incorporate some form of breathing technique.

The most useful breathing technique that can be used in a panic attack situation is abdominal breathing. Most people in times of stress, and this would be particularly so in the case of someone experiencing severe anxiety or a panic attack, start to breathe in a very shallow fashion and high in the chest. It is almost as if they are rapidly panting and unable to catch their breath. This is exactly what happens when the body goes into a fight or flight response.

Unfortunately when the person experiencing the panic attack and the associated difficulties with their breathing begins to notice their breathing difficulties the level of panic increases making them feel even worse.

When our breathing is disturbed in this way our nervous system provides feedback letting us know that we need to address this breathing issue. If we consciously become aware of the breathing problem and our nervous system is screaming at us to fix it and we are unable to fix it, the panic attack response gets stronger and stronger.

This is the vicious cycle of a panic attack.

A regular practice routine of controlled abdominal breathing, will over time develop in the anxiety sufferer a very useful way of controlling and coping with their anxiety attack. However in order to be able to use this particular technique during the worst anxiety and panic attack situations a certain amount of training is needed in the method.

If you think of this as training for a sporting event. With regular practice sessions when game time arrives many of the skills you need will be almost automatic and there for you when you need them.

By practising regular deep abdominal breathing at non-stressful times it allows the body the chance to get used to the technique itself as it becomes conditioned to breathe differently. Once a certain familiarity has been gained with the technique it is very useful to begin using it during periods of moderate stress and anxiety.

Over time our confidence and ability to apply the deep abdominal breathing technique in all kinds of situations of varying levels of stress and anxiety increases. So much so that in a very short time the method can be applied during a panic attack situation.

While breathing in this way can help immeasurably during an actual panic attack, an even greater benefit is how the body becomes less prone to anxiety and stress generally, due to regular deep abdominal breathing, making the occurrence of future panic attacks less likely.

Practising controlled abdominal breathing is very easy. If you have not used this technique before, like any exercise start practising in a slow and easy fashion gradually increasing the length of time you practise this form of breathing.

You may not know this, but this way of breathing is the way our body is designed to breath. It is natural and normal. If you look at how toddlers breath you will see that they are belly breathers. As we get older for one reason or another we move into a more chesty way of breathing.

So rather than think of this as learning something new we are simply re-familiarizing ourselves with something we already know how to do.

Popularity: 42% [?]