Stop Anxiety from Stopping You: The Breakthrough Program For Conquering Panic and Social Anxiety(4)

Breathing

Our breathing quickens during a panic attack. We can also feel as though we cannot get enough air or experience a choking sensation. In response, we tend to open our mouths in an effort to take deeper breaths. We may also try to correct our breathing by practicing some kind of relaxation type breathing.

I am going to go against a lot of experts who recommend different ways and types of breathing. While those techniques can be helpful in reducing your overall anxiety level, they do not help with panic. If you have ever tried to breathe your way through or out of a panic attack, it is likely that it either did nothing or that it actually escalated your panic.

Physiologically, when we think we are practicing corrective breathing, what we are actually doing is trying to take deep breaths. Most of us do this by opening our mouths to try to inhale as much air as possible. This is actually likely to increase your panic symptoms. You will probably begin hyperventilating. The very symptoms that are part of the panic profile, like dizziness, feeling faint, and lightheadedness, are actually brought on by deep, open-mouthed breathing.

Even when we are not taking deep breaths, and we are just practicing well-controlled breathing in an effort to control our panic, we are operating under an illusion. That is, we start believing that we need to take over an automatic function of our body and try to breathe intentionally. So what should you actually do when trying to breathe through a panic attack? The answer is nothing! Just close your mouth and do not interfere with your body – it knows how to breathe! It is best to let your body restore itself. If you are a fan of breathing techniques and have found them helpful, it is absolutely fine to use them, just don’t use them during a panic attack. In my experience, breathing techniques can be a great way to reduce overall stress, and they serve that purpose best when practiced regularly. I will speak to that more later on in the book.




Here’s a quick tip to stop hyperventilating: The most important thing to do to stop hyperventilating during a panic attack is to close your mouth so that you do not breathe through it. Open-mouthed breathing does the opposite of what we want it to do – it will make your panic attack worse, not better.





CHAPTER II.



The Difference Between





Panic and Anxiety




“True happiness is… to enjoy the present without

anxious dependence on the future.” —Seneca



This is one of the most common questions I am asked in my practice: how do I know if I am having panic attacks or just anxiety attacks? A panic attack feels scary, frightening, and like you are about to lose control. It usually peaks quickly and often comes out of the blue with strong physical symptoms that typically affect breathing rate and produce a faster heartbeat.

Anxiety, by contrast, is usually a subjective feeling that may build over days or weeks, or come and go without ever turning into a panic attack, or it may come and go between panic attacks. Anxiety refers to fear in the absence of danger, and involves a future-oriented scenario. You may feel that something may go wrong: a sense of worry, dread, or a feeling of paralysis brought on by a strong sense that something (not otherwise dangerous) should be avoided. You may also experience feeling restless, keyed-up or on edge, being easily fatigued, more distractible, or have difficulty concentrating, irritability, muscle tension, gastrointestinal upset, and disruptions to your sleep. Below are two examples of what anxiety and panic feel like.

Jack came in for treatment after having several panic attacks that came on suddenly. During the panic attack, he described experiencing his heart beating very fast, feeling like he could not get enough air, and starting to feel very faint. He was also afraid that he would do something out of control, although he had not previously had any instance to suggest he actually would. All he wanted to do was to get out of the situation and to be somewhere comfortable where he could get to safety. Jack was engaged to be married to a woman he loved deeply and with whom he was excited to start a family in the near future. His current fear was that he was going to pass out during the wedding ceremony, which was going to be in a Catholic church and last over an hour. Since he would be the focus of everyone’s attention, he was very worried about having a panic attack and not being able to just “slip out unnoticed.”

Karen came in for a consultation due to severe anxiety she was experiencing at work. She had recently been promoted and now needed to give presentations to her department during large company meetings. Karen was terrified of public speaking. She was worried that she would do or say something that would embarrass her or cause others to think that she was not a competent professional. The night before a presentation, she could not get any sleep and noticed that she became very short with her husband and friends. Karen knew that these presentations were key to being successful in her new role, and so she endured them with great distress. Although she did not experience panic attacks, she would get sweaty palms and her voice would get shaky when she presented. This only made her more self-conscious, and she found herself over-preparing and dreading these presentations.

Both Jack and Karen (not their real names) were in quite a bit of distress when they started treatment. Jack had Panic Disorder and Karen had Social Anxiety. While only a mental health professional can provide a diagnosis, these vignettes can provide some clues into the types of symptoms you may be experiencing.