Overcoming anxiety and panic attacks

Anxiety must be one of the worst things to experience especially if you don’t know what to expect and you are in a crowded bus or a train and fear that you might make a fool of yourself in front of people you don’t know.  Know one thing; that the fear starts in your head. You entertain it. Pretty soon you are breathing funny and fear that you might faint. You may experience dry mouth and pant with anxiety as you hurriedly try to get off at the nearest station, and have something to drink. Your legs feel wobbly. You make it to the nearest toilet and flop down on the seat wondering what is happening to you. You sit down and shake and take some deep breaths. Your heartbeat returns to normal. You are grateful to be alive, and you are, but you have just caused great stress to your body.

Understanding the insidiousness of anxiety

Knowing that a panic attack will eventually subside can go a long way towards helping you keep control in the midst of panic. This writer has suffered from anxiety and panic attacks since childhood and has worked endlessly on trying to overcome fear and coming to terms with the fact that there is good stress and bad stress and that we all have a little bit of each. In a nutshell, the bad stress can lead to high blood pressure and hypertension, not to mention cardiac arrest and other medical conditions, and good stress is stress that we all experience when we rush to do something fun or want our favorite football or hockey team to win or when we are part of an exciting event.

You want to avoid feeling constantly anxious and the best way to counter anxiety is to learn how to manage your stress by taking fifteen minute breaks with meditation and deep breathing exercises. The breathing helps control your blood pressure, and what you want ideally is to know how to deal with panic when you fear you might have an episode coming on. Something that I have always kept in mind in stressful situations is that NOTHING WILL HAPPEN TO ME; that my fear is all in my head; that I can control my anxiety, even in a crowded bus, by tuning out and taking deep breaths, and slowly exhaling. In any situation, you can take these long breaths, even in a car. You will notice in time that the hard breathing subsides and that you feel back to normal. You should go online and read up on how you can deal with your anxiety. Also check out natural remedies to halt your anxiety and stave off anxious events before they happen.