What to do if you are having a panic attack

Hi there, my name's Caroline Cavanagh and I'm an anxiety specialist that works a lot with people one-to-one to help them with anxiety, but I also love sharing that information with wider audiences as a public speaker, and today I'd love to talk about panic attacks. Now this is the second video that I've done on panic attacks. The first one, which is available on my YouTube channel, is all about what you do if you come across someone else having a panic attack, because often it can be really frustrating, and in fact really scary yourself if you see someone having a panic attack and you don't know what to do. But today I'd love to talk about what to do if you are the one having a panic attack. So before we go any further, let's just clarify what exactly is a panic attack. And it's purely an exaggerated fear response, but it's very, very real. And in that exaggerated state, The conscious mind, which is the logical, rational part of you, is just totally bypassed until you go into something that we often refer to as the fight-or-flight mode. This is purely when you're talking about your brain has taken over and gone, I just need to survive this moment. Something has triggered that fight-or-flight response, and often that trigger is an unexpected one. It can often be just a thought. And it's often not rational at all, but the brain at that point has bypassed the rational part of you and it's running at the subconscious level in that fight or flight mode. A panic attack can last between 5 and 20 minutes, often peaking about 10 minutes and then fading away. And in that fight or flight mode, a number of things are already happening physiologically. Huge amount of adrenaline is pumping around the system, which is making a lot of other things like having a logical conversation absolutely irrelevant. So here are 5 things that I would love to share with you that you can think about, and it's not about finding the one that works with you. Have 5 in your toolkit and then you can pull out the one that may seem most relevant to you at the time, or if one doesn't work, you've got another one to go to. And the first one is just very simply breathing. Now it may sound blinking obvious, of course I'm breathing, but the breathing that we do naturally is called parasympathetic breathing. It's like the part of the breathing that we don't consciously have aware of. So up until when I said that a few seconds ago, you weren't aware of your breathing now, but now you probably are. When you go into this fight or flight mode, it switches into what's called the sympathetic nervous system. And that's the brain going, sabre-toothed tiger! Get yourself out of here! Panic! Get ready! So, but we have this kind of like manual switch that can switch it back into parasympathetic breathing, and that's by taking control of the breath rather than allowing it to do what it wants. There are huge amounts of breathing techniques out there, so I encourage you to find one that works for you. The one I love doing, and the one I teach to all of my clients, is purely to control each out-breath. So one of the ones I'm familiar with, it's like breathe in for 6, hold for 6, out for 6. Whoa, what a faff! And you're not going to be in that mode when you're in that panic attack. So it's purely about controlling each out-breath. Every time you breathe out, take conscious control and just breathe out for longer. And it's a bit like if you imagine how you might blow on a candle flame, not quite blowing it out, just making it flicker. So it's just a very gradual— But you keep going. And then you get to the point where you can't do anything but breathe in. But what tends to happen is when you breathe in again, you breathe out for longer. So all the time you are taking conscious control back of your breathing, switching it back into parasympathetic operation, which is meaning again the subconscious mind is starting to recognize that perhaps we don't— we're not at critical risk of survival here. The second tool is about your thoughts. So often in that panic state thought— sorry, panic state, God, it'd be good if I could say it, wouldn't it? Panic attack. Your thoughts are running wild, so it's latch onto one. And it's a bit like how people in the past have used mantras. Have a little phrase that you just keep repeating to yourself. My favourite one is, this too shall pass. This too shall pass. This too shall pass. And just having that repetition of those little, that tiny little phrase, 4 or 5 words, gives you focus, but it also, I find, I love that phrase because it gives you hope. You know the panic attack isn't going to go on forever. So, this too shall pass. You may like to say something like, I'll be okay. I'll be okay. Find a little sentence that works for you and just keep repeating it, because again, you're distracting yourself, giving your conscious attention focus, kind of waking it up. Say, come on, focus on these words. But it's just a little world. Total control of your conscious mind is not going to happen at that point. Make it little, like your breathing, like a short mantra or sentence. Number 3, is to focus on a physical object. Again, it's directing just one of your senses into something very small. A great, great thing to focus on is your hand. Yeah, notice what your nails look like. Be aware of, in my case, lots of wrinkles on the skin. You know, rings— what do they look like? Just have complete and utter control of your hand. If you've got something like an item of clothing on that's got a very vibrant pattern on Even if it hasn't, concentrate on it. Take all of that attention. You're starting to wake up the conscious mind, noticing things. It's starting to take your attention away from the panic attack. Fourth thing to do, and this is more and more as the panic attack is starting to abate, is counting backwards. We're all very familiar with those numbers, so again, it doesn't require a huge amount of mental energy. But just start normally from something like 100, 99, 98, 97, 96. Some people like to close their eyes. For others, closing their eyes can actually heighten their anxiety because suddenly they've got even more focus on what's going on in here, whereas out there is stable. So again, play around with that, whether you feel better having your eyes closed or better having the eyes open. But counting, getting back in control, and it's also very systematic Gets this perception of being in control again. And then the last thing, which again, as we're getting further and further out of the height of the panic attack, is a little mindfulness exercise. And this is now directing your attention to the different senses. So if you've looked at your hand, then move your attention to your hearing. Be aware of what you can hear. Are there people around you? And it's just about noticing it. Spend 10 seconds just listening really, really acutely, and then move it to your sense of smell. What smells are there around? Then move it to your sense of feeling, your kinesthetic sense. Be aware of how the ground feels underneath your feet. You may like even to hold your own hand. Be aware, you know, as I do that, I can feel the warmth between my two hands. All of the time you're redirecting your attention, getting This part of the brain back in operation where before, in the height of the panic attack, it was bypassed. Once you're out of that panic attack, be aware that you are going to likely feel very, very tired. Please just be kind to yourself. It's okay. Take yourself off somewhere quiet, allow yourself time to recover, and perhaps as you start to make that recovery, having something that's a little bit sweeter to put a bit of energy back in your system to give you a little bit more of a boost while your body readjusts itself. There are a lot more resources on anxiety, including 10 things to do to help people who struggle with anxiety, and that website is carolinecavanagh.co.uk. Very easy one to remember, so hop over to the resources page. There's lots of stuff on there. And actually at the moment it's Black Friday today as I record this, there's a couple of offers on there that relate to Black Friday as well. So just a very quick rerun, 5 things that you can do if you are in a panic attack. Control your breathing, and for me controlling the out-breath is the easiest thing that you can do, and easy is the important element when you're in the midst of a panic attack. Second thing is have a little mantra or saying that you just keep repeating. Mine is, this too shall pass. Third thing is focus on a physical object. I like using your hand because it's always there with you, but it can be any physical object, or as I said, something like a material of some of the clothes that you're wearing. Number 4, counting backwards from 100, and the 5th one, extending that mindfulness out to all of your senses. So if you've never had a panic attack before, there's every chance that you may have one at some point. That doesn't mean there is anything wrong with you. Generally, 85% will have one or two panic attacks at some point in their life. It's nothing to be scared of. It's just your brain flipping something and adding 2 and 2 together and coming up with 496. If you have one, doesn't mean you're most likely to have another, but if you do have a number of them, or they are getting worse, getting longer, heightened in intensity, I do encourage you to go and contact your doctor, have a chat, because there may be things that the doctor can help you with also. So please, as I said there, this is the second part in, in 2 videos. The first one is up on the YouTube channel Caroline Cavanagh, and that talks about what to do if you come across someone else having them. To give you, like that first aid kit, just as if you find someone, you know, collapsed on the floor, what are the first 3 things you do? These are 3 things that you can do with someone mid-panic attack to help them. So thank you very much for watching. I appreciate you taking the time to do this, and hopefully if we all work together and learn more of these tools and techniques around anxiety, we can start to make the world a slightly less anxious place. And on that note, bye-bye for now. Bye-bye.