Diaphragmatic Breathing

Beat Panic Attack Symptoms in 5 Minutes with Diaphragmatic Breathing! Works for the Fear of Public Speaking Too!

I specialize in the treatment of anxiety disorders, so you can trust me on this one even though it sounds outrageous that a person could end panic in five minutes.

HERE’S THE TRICK. It ends the physiological part of panic. Since panic attacks (whether from speech anxiety or the “out of the blue” kind) are caused by both physical body reactions to a sensation of danger and thoughts that stimulate panic, you need to be able to address both issues to end a panic attack. For the physical symptoms, you need to get your parasympathetic nervous system to kick in. That’s the part of your auto-pilot brain function that calms you down. The easiest way to activate it is by what we call diaphragmatic breathing.

HERE’S HOW: You take very slow breaths deep into your lungs. It should feel as if your belly is expanding, not your chest. You should breathe out as much of your air as you can to start with. Then breathe in to the count of eight seconds (this will be hard to do when you’re in panic mode). Then exhale VERY SLOWLY to a count of 8 seconds, or more if you can slow it down that much.

NEXT, continue breathing at this slow, deep rate for five minutes. That’s how long research has found it takes for this process to undo the full-blown panic reaction. When having an anxiety attack, you may have seen people on TV breathing into a paper bag. This technique accomplishes the exact same thing, only without the paper bag.

You see, the paper bag causes you to re-breathe your own air, which is necessary because it helps to undo the effects of hyperventilation (over-breathing which naturally occurs in response to the fight or flight reaction of your body to stress). By slowing down your breaths, you are allowing carbon dioxide to build up a little more in your lungs before you exhale the air and take another breath. This is necessary, because it’s actually having too much oxygen relative to carbon dioxide in your blood that stops you from breathing well. That’s because when the ratio gets off (from over breathing), the little hemoglobins in your bloodstream that carry the oxygen molecule to your brain and muscles simply won’t release the oxygen when it gets there because the ratio of oxygen to carbon dioxide is off. So, by having too much oxygen, you feel as though you are not getting enough air…so you breathe even harder and make the symptoms even worse. Plus, you start thinking you are dying of a heart attack or a stroke because of the weird sensations, which stimulates more panic thoughts and panic physiology in your body.

When you hyperventilate, you get dizzy feelings, tingling and numbness in the extremities (including the lips for some people), or you may simply feel like you are anxious, floating, or having trouble getting that oxygen satiation feeling. The more you over-breath, the harder it is for you to make the mental shift back to saying, “I’m okay, this is just a wave of panic.”

EASIER SAID THAN DONE? Well, yes, but it’s worth the effort because your life will improve dramatically when you no longer fear panic attacks. This technique is actually quite simple compared to the methods needed to overcome the mental side of the panic reaction. For detailed instructions and training on how to beat the second part (the thoughts part) of panic attacks, I recommend the following instructional materials:
End Panic Attacks For Good.

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