Hey guys, I was hoping to make a more thorough list of coping strategies people can use to talk themselves down from panic attacks/paranoia. I’m sure you’ve all seen my suggestions, but I wanted to see what yours are, too.
Since this will hopefully become a resource thread, all posts that are not suggestions for how to calm yourself will be deleted, but no hard feelings. Just trying to keep this clean. I’ll start.
Some things I do to calm down are:
Put an ice pack on the back of your head. This will cool down your brain and reduce activity in your limbic system, where emotions happen.
Do a task with simple, clear steps. I like baking. I follow the recipe, and it’s easy enough that I don’t get frustrated, but it requires enough concentration that I don’t have room to think about other things. Cleaning also helps.
Engage your five senses. This will remind you what is real and what isn’t. Listen to soothing music. Smell something pleasant, like an essential oil. Suck on a hard candy. Look at pictures of things you enjoy. Feel something with an interesting texture, like a piece of Velcro or a stress ball.
Try to levitate something with your mind. You obviously won’t succeed, but it gets you to focus all of your attention on a single point outside your body, instead of on your thoughts. I like to use this on airplanes or in public places, because it doesn’t require you to move at all. It looks like you’re just daydreaming to observers.
My father taught me to breathe in squares. It gives my mind something else to focus on, and it slows my breathing so I don’t hyperventilate.
What you do is find a square to look at. It can be a box or a window or a picture frame, anything.
Run your eyes along one side of the square while you inhale. Hold your breath for the next side. Exhale at the third, and hold at the fourth.
Repeat until you feel calmer.
Control your breathing. Breathe in for 4 sec, hold for 4 seconds, then exhale for 4 sec.
Find 5, counting down to 1, things for each of your senses. List them in your mind. See 5 sights, hear 4 sounds, touch 3 textures, smell 2 scents, taste 1 taste.
Occupy your frontal lobe with a pleasant, relaxing activity like reading or drawing. This brings your fight or flight reaction down.
Reality checking also helps me.
And by reality checking I mean telling someone about my anxieties and having them tell me why I’m worried over nothing.
“I’m scared the cars I hear outside are people going to abduct me, throw me in a high-security ward and leave me there”
Friend: “No one is allowed to take you to such a place unless you’re an extreme danger to yourself and/or others, which you’re not.”
“I feel like something terrible is going to happen if I go outside”
Friend: “The risks of that happening aren’t higher than on any other day. You’ll be fine”
I find distraction is best. Focus my attention on something other than the trigger. For example, if someone talking to me is stressing me, I stop listening and wiggle my toes, focus on my toes, and repeat in my head, “I’m not listening, I’m not listening”. My pdoc said this was mindfulness but I just think of it as tuning out.
Focus on your feet while you walk, on the feeling of each step, and on the weight of your body
Focus on your lower body when you are on a chair, feeling the weight of your body
Do a conscious effort to maintain your body relaxed at all times (this can be done even if you can’t relax your mind)
I take no meds, realized the SZ symptoms don’t manifest if you focus on the physical sensations… Voices can’t be heard when you do this, also helps with emotional problems
There are no visual hallucinations either
No paranoia, no racing thoughts
If you get distracted (from your physical sensations), symptoms manifest, if you focus again, symptoms suddenly stop
With time and practice it becomes easy and you can function normally
I used to have a panic disorder with severe panic attacks. I was debilitated by anxiety and fear of anxiety (panic attacks) I couldn’t go anywhere without my mother for a couple months but then I found out from a therapist that there was nothing to fear so you need to overcome the fear therefore beating the anxiety…this works still for me…I just ignore the fear I get when I go grocery shopping or to concerts…it can be done…I am anxiety free.