When anxiety hits you, it can be terrifying. The panic and frightening thoughts coupled with physical symptoms may lead you to believe that you’re having a heart attack or suffering from a terrible disease, when in reality, you’re perfectly healthy!

Anxiety can often cause you to have an exaggerated nervous system reaction to common stressors that others are able to ignore.

If you’re one of the millions who struggle with anxiety, the good news is that you can feel better, even without medication. You can take positive action on your own to get a handle on your anxiety and feel more in control. Of course, especially if your symptoms are debilitating, please consult your doctor or other health professional for their advice.

Both your mind and body are involved in anxiety. It’s a vicious circle: the constant worrying and negative thoughts can produce physical symptoms, which can cause more anxious thoughts. It becomes a pattern that can be challenging to break free of.

But when you’re able to overcome this challenge, it’s well worth the effort! Tackle your anxiety on both the physical and mental levels today by practicing these 10 strategies.

Physical Ways to Lower Anxiety

Try these tips to physically lower your anxiety levels:

1. Breathe. If you’re breathing from the top of your chest and not from your abdomen, you might be making yourself more nervous. Breathe from your diaphragm and take full, deep, slow breaths.

2. Get moving. Use up that extra energy and adrenaline that your body produces. If you don’t, it can build up and make you more nervous. By getting frequent exercise, you’ll prevent your body from storing excess adrenaline.

3. Sit still. It’s important to exercise, but sometimes it’s more effective to be still. If you usually run from a panic attack or anxiety episode, force yourself to stay where you are and focus on your relaxation techniques, like deep breathing, to help prevent your impending anxiety.

• The anxiety might get worse for a moment, but you’ll be calmer after a few minutes and you’ll be more prepared the next time you face anxiety.

4. Distract yourself. It’s hard to think about feeling nervous when you’re actively engaged in other activities. Help others, play a game, or do something else that requires your total concentration as soon as you start to feel anxious.

5. Get in shape. Being physically fit can help you feel better about your health and reduce anxiety. It’s not a quick fix, but more of a long-term goal that you can actively pursue. Staying in good physical condition goes a long way in preventing anxiety.

Mental Ways to Lower Anxiety

A positive mental attitude is just as important as using physical techniques to help overcome your anxiety. There are many ways you can use your mental resources to find peace and calm amidst the chaos of anxiety.

Follow these techniques to tackle your anxiety on a mental level:

1. Educate yourself. It’s hard to battle something you don’t understand. Learn about your condition so you have a better understanding of what you’re facing.

2. Use the stop sign. Imagine a big stop sign in your head when you start to have anxious thoughts. The stop sign technique is a great place to start.

3. Network. Talking to others with anxiety can help you feel more “normal” and bring you additional strategies that have worked for others in your same situation. Reach out to others!

4. Set aside a worry time. If you allot a few minutes each day at a set time and give yourself permission to worry only at that time, you’ll soon find that it becomes a chore – making you worry less. By only allowing yourself to worry for a short period, you can program your mind to actually worry less.

5. Offer yourself affirmations. Say positive statements to yourself each day to help you stay strong and brave. For example: “I am a valuable and worthy person, and I have much to offer to the world.”

No matter how long you’ve had anxiety, you can do something about it. When you apply both mental and physical techniques to getting better, you’ll soon find that you – not your anxiety – are the one in control!

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1. Anxiety Attack Symptoms

Panic is an emotion that everyone has felt at one time or another. Feeling panic is normal, but if panic is taking over your daily life, it’s time to take action to reduce it. Understanding what it is and what you can do about it can help immensely.

Panic serves a clear purpose in life. It gets your adrenaline pumping and allows you to act quickly to save yourself when you’re faced with danger. Humans are complex creatures, however, and your mind may create panic in situations where it wouldn’t help you.

Also, if these situations continue to arise, you may be dealing with a serious panic disorder, so please consult with your physician.

Here are some strategies that can help you overcome panic:

1. Breathe deeply. Deep breathing techniques can bring you a certain level of calm during any situation. When you start to feel panicked, you tense up and your breathing becomes quick or heavy.

• Take a moment to find your breath and take deep breaths in and out. The deep breathing will relax you and help you focus on taking in oxygen, instead of the stressful situation.

2. Watch your health. Your mental and physical health are all part of the same system. When you take care of yourself, many of your problems tend to right themselves. If you have a poor diet, lack exercise, or don’t sleep well, take action to correct these core problems. Doing this will often address your panic directly or indirectly.

3. Seek professional help. Discuss treatment options with your physician and naturopath. There are natural treatments available as well as several well-studied prescription medications that can help with your anxiety and panic concerns. Your doctor will know best if you’re a good candidate for these medications.

• Remember that you must always take a holistic approach that addresses the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects of your health.

4. Address the problem. Try to locate the source of your panic. Are you only panicking in certain situations, or do you feel anxious at all times? If you can figure out the source of your panic, you can address the problem by facing your fear directly.

• Exercises to reduce your fears enable you to become more comfortable in situations that could set off a panic attack.

5. Deal with your stress. Panic is more likely to arise in a stressed mind. If you study certain relaxation methods, you can keep your stress level down and make it less likely for you to experience a panic attack.

• There are many relaxation methods for you to choose from that can keep you healthy and happy. Practicing yoga, daily meditation, prayer, and listening to soothing music are just a few ideas.

• One of the best stress relievers is to make time for yourself each and every day. This time gives you a chance to relax, rejuvenate, and continue your day with renewed positive energy.

6. Avoid alcohol and caffeine. Alcohol and caffeine can increase the frequency of panic attacks. To be on the safe side, avoid or limit their use. While this tip may not cure your symptoms, it can be an important factor for getting you back into a healthy mental state.

Getting Help

Panic and anxiety fears are quite common and there is no shame in getting help. Recognize the triggers and early signs of panic and start fighting it. When you do, you’ll feel free once again!

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3. What Are Panic Attacks

Dealing with panic attacks can be imperative to helping you live a normal life. You may already know what they are, dreading them when they hit you, but you can learn how to stop them from interrupting your daily activities.

The number one cause of anxiety attacks lies at the feet of stress. Some of the stress can be external but a lot of it is internal anguish. External stress that causes an attack can be things like getting held up at work when you know you have to be somewhere else or running into an ex with his or her new relationship in tow.

Internal stress is the mental dialogue we have silently within ourselves. What happens is we start thinking about all the negative or frightening stuff that goes on in the world. We begin to project what ‘could’ happen.

We could get kidnapped. Someone could break into the home while we’re out. Our children or other family member could get hurt in some way or develop a life and death illness.

None of the things have taken place, but we react as if it has and our bodies send out signals that increase the heart rate and the breathing, tighten up the muscles and releases adrenaline into the system.

When you’re in the middle of having an attack, it’s not the time to try to learn about dealing with panic attacks. You need to be armed beforehand so that you can know how to fight back and stop it before it blooms out of control.

The first step you can take is avoidance. Don’t allow your focus to stay on the stress or the ‘what if’ scenarios. Instead, fix your focus on something that consumes your mind and keeps you active. If you like to sew, start sewing. If you like to play basketball, call some friends for an impromptu game.

Even though panic attacks can be extremely intense, understand that the battle with anxiety isn’t physically dangerous. This battle is fought in the mind. Don’t let your thoughts roam like wild mustangs. Rope them in. When you think of a worse case scenario such as, “Oh no! He must have had an accident,” change that to a positive scenario, such as, “Someone probably stopped to chat with him before they could leave.”

Processing what’s really happening is important in dealing with panic attacks. Whether you’ve had one or have experienced numerous attacks, stay focuses on the belief that you’re okay, you’re safe, and nothing bad is really happening at that moment. What’s happening is that the fear has hit you and it’s scary but you can beat it.

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If you’re suffering from extreme anxiety, you’ll want to know what sort of help for panic attacks is available so that you can choose the option that works best for you. Some people wait until the situation is dire to seek help.

At first, panic attacks are disguised as just being excessively worried. Then you start to realize it’s affecting your everyday life. You start avoiding going to public places. You anticipate a panic attack, which is like a vicious cycle because it sets it all into motion over and over again.

When it comes to finding help for panic attacks, you can start with whatever you feel most comfortable with. Would you prefer to sit down with a licensed therapist and talk over your problems? This is one option and therapy is very helpful to many people.

If you’ve tried that route, or the mere thought of it sends you into an anxiety attack, then you might want to try a solo option. You can utilize self-hypnosis or neuro linguistic programming (NLP) to offset your mind’s current state and regain control over a situation when it arises.

These two forms of panic attack solutions also assist you in eliminating the episodes completely – so that you never have to experience that awful feeling again. They work in helping you achieve a state of calm using your mental acuity.

If those don’t seem to be your kind of treatment for panic attacks, then you might want to consider a more medicinal approach. You have two options for medicinal therapy – natural and prescribed medications.

Some people prefer to go with long-term medicinal options like anti depressants that ward of anxiety-ridden occurrences over a long period of time. You likely have to stay on these continually, and many people find the panic attacks coming back as soon as they stop taking the medicine.

There are other medications that work right during the onset of a panic attack. They too calm your nerves, and you pop the pill right when you start to experience an episode. But these medications aren’t meant to be taken all of the time – or for a long period of time.

Beta blockers are another medicinal option. These stop your body from experiencing the physical symptoms, and that can sometimes be enough relief to allow you to go out in public – but it doesn’t address the mental anguish you go through.

Natural herbal medications might be more suitable for you, but always make sure that you get the right dosage and type of organic/herbal solution to treat your anxiety. Help for panic attacks is abundant – you just have to choose what’s right for you.

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When you’re in the middle of a panic attack, relief can seem very far away. Perhaps you’ve had the symptoms for so long now that they’ve become a regular part of your life. You don’t know what brought them on, you only know you want them to stop.

The great news is that you can rid yourself of these attacks forever. You might find yourself taking two steps forward and one step back, but if you stick to it, you will be the victor.

What genes you carry from your family can give you a predisposition to developing the condition. But it can also be stress that’s triggered the beginning of this cycle for you and without help, the cycle can drain your energy and leave you with less than the great life you should have.

Treating these attacks needs to be a priority because they can turn into severe phobias that can cause you even greater stress. It’s okay to attempt some self help steps if you think you don’t need or aren’t ready to talk to your doctor or other professional.

The attacks usually don’t last longer than a few minutes at a time. Don’t allow your mind to think about what hasn’t occurred and don’t drag past attacks up. Fearing an attack can actually cause an attack to happen. Put what’s happening in the right place in your mind. What you’re dealing with are emotions and not real circumstances.

More often than not, attacks are brought on by feelings that are a projection of a known or unknown fear and not a reality. Panic attack relief can be found by facing what it is you’re feeling the fear over.

If you’re afraid of a fire starting in your home, take steps to make sure you have a fire safety plan. Have your home checked by a qualified electrician. Keep a fire extinguisher where you can get to it.

Don’t allow pride or fear of what people might think stop you from reaching out for help. Keeping emotions locked inside can make an attack worse and it can cause them to happen again.

If you feel anxious and stressed because of past attacks, that anxiety and stress can trigger another attack and each subsequent attack will only reiterate those emotions. Let someone know what you’re dealing with. Sometimes just getting those emotions out relieves the anxiety.

The anxiety doesn’t have to control your life and it doesn’t have to take away your ability to handle life. Don’t think you have to fight alone, not when panic attack relief can be as simple as a phone call or a getting a prescription filled.

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You can take natural herbs for anxiety instead of relying on synthetic medicine to treat your needs. The body has an incredible ability to heal itself and naturopathic medicine is treatment that taps into the body’s own healing system in order to cure ailments.

This is one of the reasons that the body responds to bacteria by spiking up the temperature. The resulting fever helps eradicate that bacteria. In relation to anxiety, herbs are used to calm and soothe the emotions.

One such herb used to soothe and calm is chamomile because it is a relaxant. It’s safe for long term use and carries health benefits which is one of the reasons you can find chamomile tea on an aisle inside of most grocery stores.

Chamomile works by relaxing the muscles so the tension and stress you feel when anxiety hits is soothed away by this herb. Because it has sedative qualities, it can also be used to help battle the insomnia that is so often associated with stress.

St. John’s Wort is another one of the natural herbs for anxiety. This herb hails from Europe and is used to naturally treat insomnia, anxiety, feelings of jitteriness and depression. It has very mild side effects but most people don’t have any problems with any adverse affects.

When anxiety reaches a crescendo and the ability to handle it alone is no longer an option, some people head automatically to the nearest doctor who usually prescribes medicine to treat stress, depression and other symptoms associated with anxiety.

While it’s true that prescription drugs can and does help some patients, natural herbs are better tolerated by the body with fewer reactions and there are no problems with withdrawal even with long term use. Plus, many of the natural herbs used to help handle anxiety won’t cause stomach upset.

Using natural herbs rather than prescription drugs has the added benefit of not clouding the mind. Many prescription drugs used for anxiety can cause brain fog-a state of confusion or difficulty thinking or marked drowsiness.

Some prescription anxiety drugs also cause weight gain. Any time you can use natural products, it’s always better for your body. You do want to make sure, especially if you’ve never used natural herbs before, that you are under the care of a holistic provider.

Once you begin a regime of taking natural herbs for anxiety, you’ll feel better faster. You’ll be able to laugh again and learn to stay in the moment rather than fearing what tomorrow might bring.

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1. Anxiety Attack Symptoms

If you suffer from anxiety attacks that are frequent in nature and/or have lasted for a long time (not just once or twice in your life), then it may be time to seek out a panic disorder treatment that will help you regain control over your life.

It’s important to meet with your doctor to determine if you do indeed have a panic disorder and aren’t suffering from any serious health concerns. Before you go to your doctor, make sure you list your symptoms, so that you can relay the physical and mental process you go trough during these episodes.

It will help your doctor if he or she knows your stress triggers and whether or not these are present prior to the attack. You want to rule out any medical conditions before you go through with the process of choosing the right panic disorder treatment for you.

Your doctor may refer you to a mental health professional if he or she believes you do have a panic disorder. This may be individual or family therapy – depending on what stress triggers you have in your life. They may just want to evaluate you and touch on what mental issues you’re dealing with.

Your doctor may take a different approach, testing you out on a variety of prescription medications that can alleviate anxiety. Make sure you know what side effects the drugs have – as well as how long you might need to be on them. Some panic disorders are only temporary while others are deemed chronic.

The doctor should do a physical exam to measure your vital signs as well as some laboratory tests on your blood to check your thyroid and other factors. If you’ve experienced panic attacks with chest tightening or pain, then he or she may want to conduct some heart tests as well.

You may not have a panic disorder at all. They have to be frequent in nature. A panic disorder sufferer will be afraid that another panic attack is imminent and may start avoiding social situations because of this fear. And in order to be diagnosed with a panic disorder, they’ll have to rule out abuse of substances or other mental health woes.

You can treat a panic disorder much the same way you treat panic attacks – through medicinal use or psychological solutions. Start with whichever method makes you feel most comfortable. In extreme cases, you may need to take a two-pronged approach to mapping out your panic disorder treatment.

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Are you aware that anxiety attack symptoms can sometimes mimic physical problems? Every single one of us has experienced what it’s like to be anxious. From childhood where you may be feeling nervous about school to adulthood, feeling nervous about a change at work – anxiety is a normal part of every person’s life.

Worrying is a natural part of being human and you wouldn’t be normal if you didn’t worry at one time or another. But when worry crosses a line and leaves you unable function throughout the day, then you could be having a problem with anxiety.

The feeling itself isn’t bad to have. Anxiety works to keep us out of trouble. Like when you’re out hiking in the woods and come across a bear, anxiety is caused over possibly being hurt by the bear. That’s a healthy anxiety and one that can work for your benefit because it shows you that you need to run away from whatever danger is in front of you.

The emotion isn’t unhealthy when it comes as it’s needed to help us or when it appears in relation to a situation or event where a person would normally experience it. What makes it a problem is when anxiety begins to steal your normal. You find that you can’t function around other people and you can’t function during your day-to-day activities. You might feel like you can’t function at all.

The anxiety attack symptoms you should be aware of arrive as physical signs. Losing sleep, trouble falling asleep at night or if you’re able to go for days with no sleep is a sign of extreme anxiety. You might even feel tired, but no matter how much you want to sleep, you just can’t.

Another way this emotion shows up is found in the way the heart reacts. Anxiety causes the heart to pound like you’re very frightened or you’ve finished a long, hard run. You may begin to breathe faster in shorter, quicker breaths. Headaches that rebound or won’t go away are a sign that something’s going on, too. You might begin to shake or have periods where you feel dizzy.

Other symptoms include hyperventilating and panic that cloaks you with a heaviness you can’t shake. You might experience a sense of impending doom, even when you know nothing is going on externally to bring on that feeling.

The time lapse for an episode can vary from mere seconds to almost an hour. They may come and go several times throughout the day or you may have one on one day but nothing the next. There might not be a pattern at all to when you get the symptoms.

Anxiety attack symptoms can be very scary to go through, but they can be managed with the right tools you need to learn how to cope with the anxiety. Yes, it’s scary, but you don’t have to live in the fear. There is help available.

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If you suffer from extreme public or private anxiety episodes, you want to find a panic attack treatment that not only helps you stop a panic attack in its tracks (or deal with it in a way that lessens its impact on you), but you also want to find a solution that helps prevent panic attacks completely.

Because the cause of panic attacks isn’t some one size fits all incident, it’s hard to pick one panic attack treatment and say, “Use this – it’ll work best.” Everyone is different, so you may have to try a few different approaches to find what works for you.

With panic attack treatments, you’ll find that most people recommend medications for the prevention aspect and actions for the endurance of a panic attack. For example, certain anti anxiety medications like Xanax can help prevent a panic attack. But meditation and self-hypnosis can help someone in the midst of a panic attack.

It’s probably a good idea to use a two-pronged approach in quelling these types of episodes. You should meet with your doctor about prescription medications or herbal medications that can serve as valid panic attack treatments.

Some prescription medications serve as immediate symptom reducers. You might take a pill only when the onset of a panic attack occurs. Others are taken regularly and help keep your disposition calm so that a panic attack never arises, or if it does, it’s mild in nature.

The only problem with trying to treat panic attack disorders with prescribed medications alone (such as Xanax, Klonopin or Ativan) is that they aren’t meant to for long-term use. So what happens when it’s time to get off of the drug?

It’s important to have a back-up plan – a way to diffuse the situation without pills. Some of the mental panic attack treatment options that greatly assist people in overcoming these episodes are:

· Psychotherapy – this is a panic attack treatment that helps patients understand what’s at the core of their anxiety. The idea is, once a person understands what distresses them, they can then learn how to best deal with that issue (or issues).

· Cognitive Behavioral Therapy – this panic attack treatment helps you focus on your thinking as the root cause of your panic attack, and not some sort of external element. In other words, if you know it’s your mind and your thoughts causing it, you have the power to control and change that.

· Relaxation Therapy – this panic attack treatment helps release the tension. Your breathing stabilizes, your heart rate returns to a normal pace, and you’re able to overcome the anxiety episode quicker and easier.

Make sure that you test out a few different panic attack treatments so that when the time comes and your anxiety spirals out of control, you’re able to quickly get a handle on the situation and feel a sense of relief come over you rather than the feeling of sheer terror.

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If you’ve been trying on your own to handle anxiety attacks, treatment can bring you some much needed relief. Whatever it is that triggers the attacks and can result in a physical reaction, treatment can help break the cycle.

Doctors aren’t 100% sure exactly what leads some people to suffer from higher levels of anxiety than others but studies have shown that certain causes can be at the bottom of the anxiety.

The attacks could be hereditary, or they could be brought on by stress – even if the stress isn’t extreme. Your brain’s signals may not react to stress the way someone without a predisposition to anxiety attacks reacts.

The reason that treatment is so important and you shouldn’t keep trying to take care of them alone is because sometimes anxiety attacks can worsen. Though the link isn’t yet widely understood, anxiety attacks can sometimes turn into depression, especially if you feel stress rising up in you and crashing over you. Another way that untreated anxiety can worsen is it can lead the sufferer into withdrawing from social events and in turn can lead to phobias like agoraphobia.

Knowledge on how to handle anxiety is something we can all use, but when it’s deeper and longer lasting anxiety attacks, treatment isn’t really optional any more, not if you want to heal once and for all. You may be in the thick of living with deep-rooted anxiety and not even realize it.

If you’ve started staying away from people, not getting involved in activities because of the feelings of anxiety, then this condition is stealing your joy out of life. If your thoughts zip around two hundred miles an hour like a racecar with fears and stress at the wheel, then it’s time to find someone to help you get back taking back the wheel.

You might have tried some self help techniques such as deep breathing, only to discover it didn’t work. That’s because some of the simpler ways to treat anxiety are not meant to cure anxiety that’s recurrent.

You might have been told that you needed to learn to ‘take a day off’ or ‘find a way to relax’ and while those statements are usually made by those who mean well, it can’t take the place of treatment designed to help you put a stop to anxiety.

So how do you know if you have the kind of anxiety attacks treatment is needed for? If you’re having attacks more than once in awhile, if they’re interrupting your ability to have a functioning life and if they’ve ever led you to suicidal thoughts, then you should seek treatment as soon as possible.

Tags: Anxiety

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