Coping during an anxiety attack

As I've posted elsewhere, I have had very good results using something called Emotional Freedom Technique, or EFT. It uses tapping on acupressure points to address a wide range of issues.

A quick YouTube search (EFT tapping anxiety) will yield a lot of videos to demonstrate. Here's one example:

There are probably some very good techniques of dealing with panic attacks, such as the one posted upthread. I’m no professional, but this is my experience. I can just say that when I got them, I did several things that helped me and I haven’t had one in many years, though I still struggle with anxiety. I think my anxiety is situational. Sometimes, I get a hint of one and I do self soothing talk where I repeat how I’m ok, just anxiety and soon, it’ll be gone.

Initially, I discussed it with my primary, who diagnosed me. I had ended up in the ER thinking I was dying. I had had several smaller attacks. She referred me to a cardiologist for a stress test, to confirm my heart was fine. I discovered that caffeine was my trigger. I gave up caffeine for an entire year! It did help.

I had been totally checked out and knew my body was ok. (I had been diagnosed with type I diabetes and that was stressing me out.) i read as much as I could about panic attacks and how others had talked themselves through them. Some entertainers have them, but they overcome them with therapy and self soothing.

Just knowing that I would be ok got me through. I kept telling myself that. Also, my primary prescribed me a low dose Xanax to only use when needed. I kept it with me, but would use self soothing techniques by telling myself to wait 5 minutes before taking a pill. Then, wait 5 more minutes…..until it passed. I only needed to take the pill a couple of times. I carried them with me for a year, then stopped, realizing that I didn’t need them to get through an attack.

I realize many people have a much more serious case than mine. I will say that unless you have had one, you cannot understand how it feels. It’s extremely stressful. I really hope you find some things to help.

Oh, I have a friend who used self hypnosis techniques, but I don’t have any personal knowledge of that. He said it helped tremendously.

Many times when people practice breathing to calm anxiety, it is not done properly and some hyperventilate, get dizzy from it etc. I was one of those people. I was taught “square breathing”. Google it. It will change things I promise. Do it long enough and it can and has in me lowered my pulse and calmed me down. I think one of the tricks is I spend so much time focused and concentrating on breathing that It helps distract which on its own helps too. When I get anxiety attacks the physical manifestations of it snowball the mindset.