So as I said in my How to Help Someone With Borderline Personality Disorder post, I decided to start a series on helping people to help others with certain mental illnesses, and one thing that always comes up when I ask people what posts I should write, is panic attacks and how to help someone else with them. Mainly because my friends are 90% of the time calming me down from one or I'm helping them with one, and one time I might have shouted at my friend for helping me wrong.. (I'M SORRY CHLOE) so said I should write one myself for what helps me cope. Also note, I've written this post and title a bit misfuddled, they are all tips for helping someone else with anxiety or a panic attack but are written in a way of helping yourself, hope that makes sense!
I've always suffered from panic attacks since a young age, I would panic walking to school and end up in floods of tears in the toilets by the time I got there, this carried on through my entire life, up until a few weeks ago on a trip to Cornwall with my friends, my anxiety became so much I just sobbed and lost control in the pub twice (soz pals).
Finding Out Your Triggers
The first thing to do is for you to (yourself, or to help someone) find out your triggers - what makes you tick and pushes you from anxious to panic. For me it's a whole bunch of things and was easy to figure out, the usual new places, new people, large environments etc, but for some people it's more specific and can be trauma related, so it's good to help someone to figure out what it is that's causing the anxiety in the first place. Some other triggers can be health problems, I get a lot of health anxiety/paranoia and can be convinced I am ill or have cancer or something dramatic when I feel poorly. Another trigger could be caffeine, I don't drink coffee because I get shaky and more anxious, it can be worsening for an anxiety condition, or money, stress, social events, so many different things big and small can cause anxiety.Breathing Techniques
Once you've gotten to panic station, it's about doing what suits you to help you calm down. Various breathing techniques are always helpful in life for anxiety, but especially during a panic attack. My personal go-to is to take deep breaths and count from one to ten whilst doing them, then once you get to ten, count back down, this one works well with someone else helping you and encouraging you throughout the breathing in-case you start to re-panic. (this is the specific situation I shouted at Chloe at for "counting wrong" - again, SORRY CHLOE) It can help to practice breathing techniques whilst calm in a spare five minutes to work these into your system and really remember them and know how to use them when in panic. Another I like to try is the 4-7-8 breathing, breathe in for 4 seconds loudly, hold for 7 and then breathe out deeply for 8 seconds, thinking about blowing out your anxious thoughts as you go. There are lots to try, have a google/youtube and check out my links below!
Mindfulness
I will do a full post on mindfulness as I've done the therapy groups a million times and some of the stuff I've learnt might be helpful to some! But these are some little bits for now. When you're feeling overwhelmed or anxious, or like you're going to have a panic attack, I like to go outside, get a drink (a cup of tea is always good) and think descriptively about what you're doing. So hold the tea in your hand, think about all 5 senses and describe them, what does the tea feel like in your hands? Can you smell the tea, what does it smell like? Taste the tea, think about it in your mouth and what it tastes of? Think about your surroundings, what can you hear around you? and see, what can you see around you? Think about all of these things in great detail and take your time to focus on each sense before moving onto the next, this will distract you and calm your senses down into rationality easier.
Calming a Panic Attack
So once someone has started having a panic attack, comfort them! Make sure they know you're there for them, and that it's going to be okay, they will get through this and will calm down eventually. Ask if there is anything you can do, do they want you to move them to somewhere private? Do they want a specific person to help them? Make sure they know they are in charge of the situation, and what happens. Once they are somewhere comfortable and private, make sure there isn't too many people around, you know what they say about too many cooks, no one wants to be surrounded by people when they are struggling, one or two close people is enough. Then start some breathing exercises, count to ten with them making sure they are breathing deeply every time you count up then back down again (deep breath in, "one", deep breath out, deep breath in, "one", deep breath out etc), do this as many times as helps them to calm down. If they have another breathing exercise they prefer to do, do this with them, always make sure you're doing what they prefer to do and know to do. Once they have begun to calm down just be there for them, personally I like to have a little cry and need a hug and to be held for a while.
I hope this was helpful to some of you, and to those trying to help someone else. If anyone else has any tips please leave them below! And as usual, some helpful links are posted below.
Meg x
