The first thing I do when things are really overwhelming me is make sure I’m alone as generally I feel that I’m worse if I’m with other people. Even my husband can recognise when I’ve reached the point where his presence is making me feel worse. If other people are talking at me, trying to calm me down or trying to reason with me etc I find that it muddles my thoughts even more. It’s like I can’t cope with trying to digest their thoughts and opinions whilst also trying to juggle all the voices in my own head.
If I can sense myself spiralling I will always take one of my propanolol tablets. I have low dose tablets 3 times a day (upon waking, mid afternoon and before bed) but my GP told me that I can take one as-hoc if I feel an attack coming on.
My counsellor says that the use of heat or cold can really help stabilise mood as it provides a “real” sensation that grounds you when you feel like you’re losing control, so I will always go and make myself a cup of tea. I hold the mug in my hands and feel heat on my skin, and I take tiny sips whilst it’s still really hot and I breathe in the hot steam etc. Feeling the realness of the heat reminds me that I’m still in the real world and not in the crazy world that my anxiety is trying to drag me into. My counsellor says that the use of cold can have the same effect, like running your hands under cold water or placing a bag of frozen peas somewhere on your body etc, but heat has always been my go-to. When I find myself starting to calm down I then go and have a hot shower (if the attack happens whilst I’m at home) and that continued exposure to heat helps.
I have used fans though to calm myself down, I will turn one on at full power and sit directly in front of it to the point where it makes me quite cold, and that does help too.
I also have a technique she also discussed with me where I have to look around the room and name five objects I can see, name five colours I can see, and then name five sounds that I can hear around me.
I also have a piece of fabric that has familiar and comforting smells on it (my husband’s deodorant and my son’s strawberry shampoo) which I then put near my face, but again I can only do this if I’m at home.
Along with the use of heat, the general idea is that by focusing on the use of my 5 senses to bring me back into the reality around me, it will divert me away from the “place” that my anxiety is taking me to.
Whilst I’m using these techniques I’m also quietly telling myself that I’m ok, that nothing bad is going to happen and that it will pass. I remind myself that Ive had 100’s of panic attacks before and they’ve all passed without any harm and that this one will too.
I have kind of accepted now that I can’t stop the panic attack from happening, it’s just doing what I can to try and make it less overwhelming for me until it passes.
I have a counsellor that I see twice a month just a buffer to talk about all the stresses in my life as the build of pressure is a big trigger for my anxiety so just having a vent to her every fortnight and off-loading about anything and everything helps keep my mood much more stable too.
I recognise that my anxiety is always worse in the first hour or so of the morning so I try and keep myself busy and anytime I feel anxiety start to creep in I take regular breaths and keep repeating to myself “Don't worry, this is just your normal morning-time anxiety, you know it’s worse when you wake up so stay calm and don't attribute meaning to it.”
If I do find it hard to control though I then tend to go in the garden and move my legs/hands around on the grass, and I focus on the sharp and prickly sensation of the grass on my skin, instead of focusing on my thoughts - again, it’s just a way of using one of my five senses as a distraction to keep me grounded in reality.
So yes, with me it isn’t so much about talking myself out of my anxiety/panic states because we all know that those state of minds rarely respond to reason, it’s just about using my techniques to keep me in the real world rather than spiralling into the irrational one.