What to do if you see someone having a panic attack

Hi there, my name's Caroline Cavanagh. I'm an anxiety specialist and I work with people one-to-one to help them overcome anxiety, but I also love sharing the tips and techniques I use with a wider audience as a public speaker. And today I'd love to share with you information about panic attacks. Now panic attacks are getting more common, and so what I'd love to share is 3 3 specific techniques for you to do if you come across someone having a panic attack. Now I know myself, if I come across someone and I don't know how to help them, it's really, really stressful. And actually a lot of the things that people will intuitively do when they come across someone in a panic attack isn't the best for them. I did a little bit of first aid many, many years ago and they had the ABC of first aid, so if you come across someone on the floor, there's 3 things that you do to help them in those instants. And this is very much the 3 things that you can do in the instant of that panic attack going on that will help you be useful, but also most importantly help that person throughout the panic attack as well. And so actually, what is a panic attack? It's an exaggerated fear response. So a fear response will straightaway bypass the logical conscious mind and trigger the fight-or-flight response, which operates at the subconscious level. So if I was to put this into a context that, you know, most of us can probably relate to, let's say, you know, you're standing at the edge of a cliff and there's a massive great drop beneath your feet. You're going to feel anxious, you're going to feel that panicky mode, your heart's going to start racing, you might feel a bit sick, sweaty palms, all of those things that we start to associate with being fearful, anxious. And that panic level may be a 10 out of 10, but it's appropriate. You're at the edge of a cliff, there's a drop beneath you, it's normal. But then let's take you 200 metres down the cliff. You're walking across a really safe path, but even the thought of that cliff being there and the drop the other side can be enough for some people to trigger A panic attack. And that panic attack is not just going to be a 10 out of 10, it's going to be like a 15 out of 10. It's going to be way off the scale, but it's still very real to that person. Now let's have some facts about panic attacks. They're— it's very rare for someone under sort of less than a teenager to have a panic attack. It starts to escalate through the teenage years and will then peak At about mid-20s and then start to tail off again. So there's about a 10-year window between 14 to 24, 25 when you're going to have most people having their panic attacks. So we're starting to look for reasons to identify if someone's exhibiting the symptoms of a panic attack. Is it a panic attack? Could it be something else? If it's a youngster, then the chances are it may be a panic attack. Twice as many women will have a panic attack than males. So again, if it's a female, 15, 16, maybe it's a panic attack. Anxiety levels are increasing, so the more anxiety generally raises, the more occurrences that you're going to get of the more extreme exaggerated fear responses. But finally, and most importantly of this list, is a panic attack is not going to result in any physical physical injury, and this is one of the key themes here. Panic attack is emotional, but also symptomatic of a lot of other physiological things going on as well. So let's talk now about some of the triggers. There are 2 types of triggers. One of them is expected. It's kind of what it says on the tin. If someone knows that they're worried about doing public speaking, for example, but they've got a talk coming up to their team, That can trigger a response, so there's a logic. A leads to B. But the vast majority of panic attacks are triggered by an unexpected trigger, and this is when A leads to F or G or K. There's no logical link between them. Someone can be sitting quite calmly and suddenly symptoms will emerge. And so again, for you as the observer, look for the context. What's the age of that person? Female, male, what's going around— on around them, were they calm 5 minutes ago but now they're not, looking for things to kind of take you down that road. Is it physiological? Is it emotional? So let's talk now about some of those symptoms. As you know, we were balancing at the edge of that cliff, your heart rate's going to be racing, there's going to be potentially feelings of nausea, dizziness, the breathing may become very laboured, They may be shaky, they may have impaired or even lose their vision. But there's one thing that is also quite common but not often associated with panic attacks, and that's anger. Especially, or should we say not especially, more commonly in men. It's the fight element of the fight or flight. So if someone again was quite calm and suddenly they're like, Raaah! Then don't think they're just a miserable Toad? They may be having a panic attack. There are lots of other symptoms, but those are the main ones. But obviously, again, quite similar to some other physiological illnesses. So all the time you're looking for hints, for clues, for context to lead you down physiological— is it emotional? When you've identified, yep, this is a panic attack, this is something that you can deal with. Obviously, if it's physical, they then you might need to get some specialist medical help in. Here are the 3 things I'd love you to take on board and have in your tool case to use should this situation arise. Firstly, don't assume they want help. Going across going, oh, let me help you, let me help you, you're going to be okay. A lot of people when they're having panic attacks, they withdraw. That's their main coping mechanism, and they're often quite embarrassed by what's going on because they know kind of deep down this is not rational, it's not logical. But they can't help themselves in that moment. So say, are you okay? You are likely to get some form of response, maybe not verbal, but it may be non-verbal, such as, I'm fine, move away. Respect that, let them be, but don't just go, all right, leave you then, off I go. Stay at a respectful distance but keep a watchful eye because you're looking to see how that pattern of, of their panic attack is is moving on to. Has it escalated? Is it going down? Because panic attacks are going to be between 5 and 20 minutes long. Typically they will escalate, peak at about 10, and then come down. If someone's panic attack is going on way beyond 20 minutes, or their symptoms are staying really, really high, that may be a cue to you it's actually something physiological. Get help. Yeah, and if you're some additional help from someone else. Second thing that I'd love for you to do, and this is a little bit more challenging, is try and keep calm yourself. So their brain is going, there's a real big danger around, I'm really, really scared. So if you kind of go, ah, ah, ah, too, their brain's going to be going, I told you there's something wrong, and it's going to escalate that panic attack. You need to do the opposite. Try and keep your body language really calm, keep your voice Really calm. Because by you having that low vibrational energy, their brain's going to pick up on that too. Our brains are doing this all the time, most of the time without us realising it's going on, but this is a really critical time that it will be picking up. If you're nice and calm, their brain's going to be saying, okay, maybe there's not a sabre-toothed tiger, I can calm down too. And the third thing is, please, please, please, whatever you do, don't go, oh, you're being really silly, there's nothing wrong, you're absolutely fine. They're not. They won't be able to compute that, and all it's going to do is add to their stress. It's very, very real to them. So again, just move away, keep a watchful eye, look for those other contexts that are going on, stay calm. But then, when the panic attack has finished, there's some other further things that you can do. They are going to be absolutely exhausted. A panic attack is a massive drain on energy, so they're going to be knackered. If it's someone that's had the panic attack that you love, this is time for love and cuddles. Just embrace them. If it's someone that you don't know, sit quietly beside them, hold their hand, touch their arm, whatever's appropriate. Just allow them— just be with them during that recovery period. This is still not the time to be talking to them. The time to do that is when they're back in their normal mode. That might be half an hour later, 2 hours later, next day. It's only when their normal brain functions have restored You can then say, okay, was there a trigger? Do you know what it was? Have you got any coping techniques? Do we need to develop some more? How often is this happening? Do we need to get some medical help? The time is not mid-panic attack, not after it, it's way after it. So as I said earlier in this video, most people are going to have at least one attack, sometimes 2 panic attacks within their lifespan, so the chances are you're You are at some point going to come across someone in this situation. So I hope this little video clip has helped you, should you come into that situation, to be more resourced, to do the things that are going to help that person, because that's obviously going to be your intention. These techniques are taken from a free download that I've got on my website, carolinecavanagh.co.uk. So if you're interested in learning a bit more or having something physical that you can read, Please go and download that from the site with my pleasure. There's lots of other things on anxiety there too. But in the meantime, thank you very much for taking your time to watch this. I hope you now feel a little bit more resourceful, and together let's all work to make this a bit of a less anxious time for all of us. Bye-bye for now. Bye-bye.