Understanding Panic Attacks & What to do About Them
Panic attacks are the bodily manifestations of anxiety magnified. When anxiety levels get too high, when the mental and emotional stress become unbearable, and it literally feels like you will die, you are experiencing a panic attack.
Severe anxiety can make routine things feel terrifying, and panic attacks can be understood as the body’s response to this terror. Panic is the signal that tells the body to shut down and try to save itself.
Because panic attacks play out in the body, the best way to stop them is to work with the body. Three ways to engage the body and help it to calm down are:
Deep breathing exercises
Finding a peaceful spot to rest in where you feel grounded
Holding yourself while repeating calming mantras
How Depression & Anxiety are Related
Both depression and anxiety are responses to loss, real or imagined. The depressed person is preoccupied with what was and the anxious person is preoccupied with what could be.
Depression and anxiety describe dynamic states of mind and these conditions frequently interact with each other and overlap. To think of a future and constantly worry about what could go wrong is to live with anxiety. But when the potential threat of future loss is replaced by the inevitability of loss, anxiety becomes depression. When the mind goes back and forth between these two states, anxiety and depression brush up against one another, doubly tormenting the psyche.