Start naming things in your immediate area and describe them. There's a desk. It's brown, square, and it feels cool.
Do this until you can think again. Keep doing this when you feel out of control.
this post was submitted on 18 May 2025
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thanks for the reply, it helped.
i know all that already, at least in theory, but knowing that is useless during an actual attack and so being told that really helped.
Agreed! I'm glad it helped! I've dealt with panic attacks myself and the key is small instructions. We don't need long screeds about mindfulness right now, we need to make sure you can like, breathe and stuff.
Learn to breathe, it'll help a lot. Straighten your body and then breathe in for 4 counts and out for 8 counts. Twice as much counts out than in. And calmly. Out has to be done slowly. It'll help fairly well with calming down by having a regular breathing rhythm. It also helps against hyperventilation. Forget plastic bags and such, force your breathing to be regular, just focus on the counting.
You need to ground yourself. Touch your arm trace it feel your pulse you are here and that is real. The rest you can process later.
Breathing is key.
I've found that a cold shower can shock me out of the panic attack enough to make me control my breathing. Then I can work my way through why I was panicking. (Since I have IBS, it's usually toilet related.)