To my fellow anxious people, this one is for you. We’ve all been in a situation in which we can feel an anxiety attack coming on: increasing heart rate, hyperventilating, can’t think straight, feeling like you’re losing control, hands shaking, etc. Once it starts, it feels like there is no stopping it. However, over the past few months, I’ve learned how to calm down from an anxiety attack before it takes its fully developed form.
The first step in calming yourself down after you feel anxiety coming is to remove yourself from the situation. Whether this is by sneaking away to the bathroom for a moment at work or school or just stepping into an isolated area when you’re in public, it’s important to find a place where you have space to breathe and are away from whatever was stressing you out. I prefer to be able to be out in nature where there is fresh air because I feel like I can actually breathe. After you’ve found a place to be alone, take a few really deep breaths. I usually breathe in for ten seconds, hold it for three seconds, then breathe out for ten seconds. Do this as many times as you need to calm down.
After you take some deep breaths, you need to organize your mind. Typically when I have an anxiety attack, my mind is all over the place and I can’t think straight, so this is key when it comes to calming myself down. The first question I ask myself is what stressed me out or what triggered the attack. Once I have a concrete answer to that question, I ask myself if, in the grand scheme of things, it is a big enough deal for me to be panicking about (spoiler alert: the answer is always no). Although I already know the answer to this question, it is still important to ask yourself because you have to actually recognize that this is something that is not worth stressing out about this much. Just remember that whatever happens, happens. Today will pass and tomorrow will come. One way or another, things will turn out okay.
Once I’ve recognized that I’m overreacting and should not be panicking as much as I am, I find a way to logically and realistically deal with the situation. This can honestly be as simple as sending an email, writing down a to-do list, journaling, or calling someone to talk to. Remember that while you are doing all of this, you are also keeping your breathing steady and calm.
If even after doing all this, you still feel like you’re in an anxiety attack, try finding a mantra to repeat to yourself that will calm you down. This sounds really weird, but what this actually does is give your brain a single thing to focus on that will drown out all the other chaos going on around you. This mantra can be specific song lyrics, affirmations, advice from a loved one or a therapist. No matter what it is, repeat this mantra and try focusing on ONLY this. This gives you the opportunity to focus on one thing at a time and really slow down your brain so you don’t feel so overwhelmed.
Last but not least, the most helpful thing for me is to recognize that not everything is falling apart. Usually, the day starts out good, then one single thing happens that will trigger my anxiety and all I can focus on is that one bad part of my day. To reverse this, I go through the good parts of my day to remind myself that things are not falling apart. Usually, it is only a bad 15-20 minutes, not an entire day or even an entire week. Don’t let these bad few minutes grow so large that they ruin your entire day. Instead, get control of them so you can get over them rather than letting them control you.