Understanding and preventing panic attacks

I was pretty surprised to read recently, that researchers estimate between 35% and 50% of the British population will have a panic attack in their lifetime.  I think what really surprises me about this is the lack of awareness about them.  Therefore, I’m going to briefly explain here why panic attacks happen, what you can do if you have a panic attack, and how you can super -boost this technique to make it really work for you:

Why do we have these attacks of panic

Our human system has been designed and refined though hundreds of thousands of years of evolution, to react hard and fast in the face of danger.  Imagine what your body and mind would do right now if you were subject to a surprise bear attack!  Your fight or flight system would kick in with strong physical, emotional and cognitive responses, that are designed to save your life in one way or other.  Countless lives of your ancestors were saved from death in this way (your existence being evidence of this!) and therefore this response has been passed onto you.

However, these days we are rarely in danger in the way our ancestors were,  Nevertheless anything that fills up your metaphorical ‘stress bucket’ to the point of overflow can trigger this fight or flight response.  It is this knee jerk response that can lead to the horrible experience of hyperventilation that we associate with a panic attack.  Understanding the underlying breathing component of the initial response helps to explain why this over breathing happens, and also lets us know what can be done to help.

The causes of the hyperventilation

To have any chance of out running or fighting a bear you need a high level of oxygen to be delivered as fast as possible to your muscles.  To enable this your breathing will become shallow and rapid, and you will shift from belly breathing to using the muscles of your upper rib cage.  However, if you don’t run or fight (because these days there is no actual bear!) this means you will be taking in more oxygen than your body is burning off.  Breathing so rapidly also means breathing out more carbon dioxide that you normally would.  The result is a higher oxygen level and lower carbon dioxide level in our blood that usual, changing the delicate pH balance. This change actually triggers our nervous system to try to take more oxygen in and therefore we breath more!

This is due to the essential role of carbon dioxide on the delivery mechanism of oxygen to our muscles; without enough carbon dioxide in our blood, oxygen is not delivered from the red blood cell to the muscles.  The body recognises this lack of oxygen in the muscles and will initially try to take on more oxygen by breathing faster.   You can see that this would only exacerbate the oxygen and carbon dioxide imbalance,  and therefore the cycle of panic and rapid breathing can rapidly lead to hyperventilation.    These short lived periods of intense panic and rapid breathing will reach their peak around 10 minutes after which they burn out very quickly as the system re-stabilises.

What can you do when you are having a panic attack

When clients come to me suffering from panic attacks, we will have a conversation that involves me asking them some solution focused questions and on subsequent sessions inviting them into hypnosis.  This works enormously well to reduce their stress levels (emptying that stress bucket I mentioned), and helps them to find a way to live in a way they can cope, calmly and more confidently.  I also explain in more detail how their body, brain and emotional systems work so they can understand more about how to get back on track, and not fill up their stress buckets in the future.

However if you’ve not got as far as a nice empty stress bucket yet, it’s always good to know what you can do when your stress bucket does overflow and the panic cycle starts.  You now know you need to:

Get more carbon dioxide!

Hence why the old paper bag trick would work (this stops you breathing all that carbon dioxide out, and not introduce any more oxygen).  But where’s a paper bag and a private space when you need one!  So here’s another technique that works remarkably well, and just in discovering how well this technique works I hope means they rarely need to use it.  However as a technique it will come in helpful when ever your system is under stress, before an exam or presentation perhaps, or when you are about to walk into that family dinner you are dreading…

7-11 breathing

It’s pretty simple to explain; breath in to the count of 7 and breath out for the count of 11.  So here are some tips to super boost this technique:

• Count up to 7 as you breath in. This reminds you to breath out for almost twice as long, and slows the intake of oxygen. It gives you something to focus on that you know if going to help
• Breathing in through your nose will also slow the intake of oxygen
• Breathing out for the count for 11. As well as reducing the breathing out of carbon dioxide, breathing out slowly triggers your body’s natural relaxation system.  This helps calm your body.
• Rembmer you’re aiming for slower breaths using the diaphragm muscle, not from your rib cage, so learning/practicing belly breathing will superboost your 7-11 breathing technique
• Although this is your bodies default breathing system it many take a bit of practice!
  • breath in through your nose, and allow you belly to EXPAND
  • breath out, and allow your belly to deflate.
  • if you are struggling to get this right, practice it laying down on your bed when you are relaxed

In summary:

1. Panic attacks are very common in our community
2. This is triggered by your flight and fight response kicking in without aerobic activity.
3. This can lead to hyperventilation (too much O2, too little CO2)
4. We need to breath out long and slow breaths to re-balance the O2 and CO2 levels, and to trigger our natural relaxation mechanisms.
5. 7-11 breathing can be superpowered by deep belly breathing and this may need a little practice to start with.