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How Therapy Can Help With Depression: Unveiling The Benefits
Depression is one of the most common mental health disorders in the world. However, depression can sometimes be misunderstood, misdiagnosed, or undetected in many people. This can have serious consequences as the individual with depression doesn’t receive the help they require and deserve. Depression requires timely support and professional help, which can be sought through counselling. Therapy for depression holds numerous benefits, and can bring a positive change to one’s mental health. Here, we will be talking about the advantages of therapy for depression and why it is important to seek professional help when you are struggling. Understanding therapy for Depression Depression can feel complicated and difficult to move through. There may be mixed emotions that can be difficult to understand and process. You may feel demotivated to take on new things or do activities you like to do. All of these feelings can bring up a sense of helplessness and loneliness. The nature of counselling is supportive. One of the goals of therapy is to support you through your journey, through coping strategies to manage uncomfortable emotions. Some emotions may be easy to notice, accept, and process. On the other hand, some emotions may be complicated and uncomfortable to sit with. Sometimes, what you may think could be sadness, could be much more. There could be a tinge of grief, a touch of guilt, or a smattering of loneliness. Depression can bring its own variety of emotions, and navigating through these heavy emotions alone can be difficult. Taking the guidance of a therapist can help alleviate some of the load that depression brings. A counselor can help you identify, hold, and process these emotions in a safe place. Counselors can provide you with comfort and acceptance which can help you feel open and welcome to express and experience all kinds of emotions. Therapists are also trained to help you go deeper to understand your emotions. They ask you questions to help you ponder over the thoughts and feelings you have been experiencing due to depression. Thus, taking up counseling can bring in a great deal of support, self-reflection, and resources to manage depression. How Therapy Helps To Treat Depression Apart from the obvious benefit of overcoming depression, therapy can be a great addition to your life, providing you support in multiple areas. To learn more about the benefits counseling offers for your mental health, click here. We have highlighted some other important benefits to seeking counselling for depression: Provides a safe space: Therapy is designed to help you learn more about yourself in an environment that feels comfortable and safe. A counsellor’s non-judgemental, and accepting nature can be helpful for you to open up and process uncomfortable feelings or thoughts associated with depression. Helps you identify triggers: For many people, there may be situations, thoughts, or people that could trigger depression. For instance, there could be events from childhood, or difficulties in the present that could be one of the causes of depression. Therapists can help you identify these triggers and teach you to be better equipped when there will be triggering events in the future. Helps you probe deeper into your thoughts and feelings: Like identifying triggers, therapy for depression also looks into patterns of thoughts, feelings, or behaviour that could have caused, or is sustaining depression. They can help you be more cognizant of your negative patterns and guide you to more positive ones. Improves your self-awareness: Sometimes, when we are caught up with troubles and difficult situations, we often don’t think of what we can do differently. Seeking therapy for depression makes you more aware of your patterns, and ultimately, yourself. Understanding yourself better can lead to having a better relationship with yourself. This can help you handle your difficulties with more acceptance, compassion, and gentleness. Helps you establish better relationships: Sometimes, depression can cause some strain in your interpersonal relationships. Therapy equips you with communication skills and strategies to manage your relationships with others in a better way. Teaches you coping strategies: One of the main challenges people face with depression is the lack of awareness of what to do when difficult emotions or thoughts come up. Thus, many people resort to unhealthy, and often dangerous ways to cope with them. Therapy is a useful tool to learn effective and healthy coping strategies to manage and overcome difficult situations through gentle support. Feeling Low? Counseling can be a great tool for you to manage and overcome depression and lead a happy and balanced life. We are here for you. Book an Appointment Process Of Uncovering Underlying Causes And Triggers Of Depression If you are trapped in a dark, suffocating room, it can be difficult to find the key to come out. The darkness may also make you believe that there is no way out, and that there is no key. But sometimes, the key to getting out of a dark place is right where we are, or it could be in our own hands. It just takes a little bit of searching. Therapy helps you in that “searching” process. The process of therapy involves helping you find that key to come out of the dark space safely. The process of therapy for depression is simple and can span over a few weeks to a few months. Step 1: In your initial sessions, the therapist will try to understand your concerns thoroughly and will work with you to set realistic, short-term, and long term goals. This step is to give you and the therapist clarity on what you are seeking from therapy and to give the process more structure. These goals may change as you proceed with the process. Step 2: Once your goals for therapy are set, the therapist would get into creating a treatment plan with you. Therapists can have their unique ways of creating a treatment plan, depending on their therapeutic style. While some therapists believe in working with your negative thoughts, other therapists would be curious to learn more about your
Teen Mental Health Challenges In The Modern World
Adolescence is a time of many shifts, both in the mind and the body. It is a transformative period, where there is a growing curiosity about oneself and the people around them. Teenage certainly isn’t a smooth period in one’s life. It is a time when one invests time into self-exploration and learns more about how and where they fit in. During this phase, with a myriad of changes, it is quite natural to face stress and worry over what could happen, and whether we would be accepted by everyone. While many emphasize on the significance of having a healthy childhood, people tend to undermine the relevance of being a happy, well-adjusted teen. The teenager in this stage, grapples with the many changes happening within and around them. It is a time where they try to fit in and find a niche for themselves. Adding to this, the teenagers of the present world also have the added challenge of maintaining their presence in an online, virtual world. Thus, the teenagers today have to not just balance the challenges of growing up and accepting change, they also have to learn to navigate through the standards and norms of a virtual world as well. Balancing two worlds can be difficult, and therefore, acknowledging and understanding the significance of teenage mental health becomes important. The Changing Landscape Of Teen Mental Health The world as we now know it, is a product of the many significant changes and developments that have occurred only in the recent years. Due to advancements in technology, we can now connect to people across the globe with just a click of a button. Teeangers these days enjoy a plethora of options to connect with their peers without any hassle, over the internet. But can these virtual interactions replicate actual, human interactions? Ironically, there has been a surge in mental health disorders, loneliness and discontentment among teenagers in recent years. As of 2021, around the world, approximately one in seven teenagers suffer from at least one mental health disorder. There are also other factors contributing to the pervasive mental pressure that teenagers face these days. While social media and technology are recent developments, there are other aspects that contribute negatively to the modern-day teenager’s mental health. For instance, unrealistic body standards, shifting family dynamics, navigating through changes in the mind and the body, and managing peer and academic pressure may trigger mental health issues in many teenagers. Therefore, it becomes imperative to understand the issues and challenges faced by teens. We have highlighted some of the most common mental health challenges among teens below: Common Mental Health Challenges Among Teens 1. Social Media and Peer Pressure: Social approval, social acceptance, and social validation are some of the most important needs of the adolescent. As teenagers, it is quite normal and common for them to dabble into and try out new things that would gain approval from their peers. Peer pressure is a very common phenomenon experienced by many teenagers. For a teenager, peer pressure puts them in a tricky situation. If their peers pressure them into doing something they don’t like or something that their parents don’t approve of, it creates guilt and shame within them. Or, if they don’t give in to peer pressure, there is also a huge chance of being isolated or rejected by their peer group. For a teenager going through adolescence, social approval is of utmost importance. As a result, many teenagers experience stress, confusion, guilt, or may indulge in habits that may not be good for them. Social media, in essence, is designed to provide you with social validation through likes, comments, and sharing just the happy, positive moments of your life. However, many teenagers use social media to base their self-worth on the numbers on social media, leading to poorer mental health. Social media tends to only show a filtered version of life, and it shows only what others want you to see. This creates a warped form of reality. “They have it better than me,” is something teenagers find themselves saying quite often. Many teens may find themselves constantly comparing themselves and their lives to what they see online. While social media isn’t the sole reason for teenagers’ poor mental health, the excessive and mindless usage of it can definitely create low self-worth among teenagers and can lead to a multitude of mental health concerns like anxiety, depression, or substance use. 2. Academic Pressure and Performance Stress: Adolescence is one of the most turbulent and transformative periods of an individual’s life. During this stage, many teens begin to ponder over the question, “What next?” Teenagers use this period to figure out their careers. This decision-making process can be uncomfortable, stressful, and daunting. There is a lot of pressure from oneself and also the family to choose the right field of study to ensure a secure career. And to choose the right field of study, the teen goes through immense academic pressure. Parents, and many of the grown-ups around the teen, constantly remind them of how important it is to score and perform well academically. This causes the teen to set high expectations for themselves, thus, creating anxiety. Additionally, the competitive nature of education also causes the teen to constantly doubt themselves and compare their performance to others, creating more performance anxiety, stress, depression, procrastination, and self-doubt. 3. Digital Dependency and Screen Time: This is related to the excessive social media usage among teenagers. With the term “doom-scrolling” gaining popularity, it is becoming more apparent that everyone, including teenagers, are using their screens excessively. Excessive screen dependency can lead to using social media and other mediums like binge-watching content online, gaming, and other means, to numb or suppress emotions. One of the main characteristics of adolescence is attaining emotional maturity and exploring various negative emotions that come up like sadness, angst, and irritability. When there is an over dependence on the screens, teens do not learn how to sit with their feelings or actually feel
Why Am I Feeling Sad? : A Guide On Understanding And Accepting Sadness
What Is Sadness? Sadness is a basic human emotion. It’s a natural response to situations that cause emotional, psychological or physical pain. You can feel happy, angry, joyful, and a plethora of other emotions. Same goes for sadness, it’s real and a part of life. There’s nothing unusual about feeling sad. You may also feel sad for no reason, and that is normal too. Sadness can coincide with other feelings such as stress, grief, anxiety, anger or hopelessness. How Sadness Is Felt In the Body We can use different words when referring to sadness. For instance, agony, dismay, anguish, distress, unhappiness, dejection, sorrow and many more. Sadness also changes how you feel in your physiology. Perhaps you may have a headache or a stomachache, or you might also have trouble going to sleep when you are experiencing sadness. When you experience sadness, you may get teary-eyed, frustrated, grumpy, bored or just eager to avoid or may even disconnect with people. The Society’s Perception Of Sadness Sadness is a healthy emotion. Although it doesn’t come under the list of ‘comfortable emotions’, a lot of us do our best to avoid it. Since sadness is not culturally accepted, witnessing it in others and ourselves can get challenging. The last few decades has promoted happiness as a normal state of being – something that we all should aspire to be. We’ve been encouraged to diligently work on acquiring happiness in all aspects of our life. On the other hand, we’re advised to conceal sorrow and work on hastily eliminating it rather than dwelling on feelings of sadness or melancholy. The above understanding of normal does not allow us to sit with our sadness and understand what it is trying to communicate to us. Possible Reasons For Feeling Sad Life is filled with situations that make people sad. Experiencing issues or troubles at home. For instance, family feuds, skirmishes or domestic violence Feeling pressured at school or work Moving away from home – relocating or migrating to a new city or country Losing a loved one or a dear friend Getting diagnosed with an illness, caring for someone who is unwell or in a critical condition Struggling with financial issues Grappling with changes in thoughts like getting self-critical, or learning new information on subjects like poverty, inequality or climate change Sadness doesn’t have a clear path or a pattern of inheritance in families. Nonetheless, some of us may be genetically predisposed to sadness and that’s perfectly okay. In case you are one of them, you may find yourself getting twirled in the cycle of sadness when triggered with difficult life events. When you face situations that overwhelm you, it’s possible to get entangled in negative thoughts. These very thoughts can push you further into a shell aggravating your sadness. Here are some ways you can get in touch, explore, and ultimately learn how to manage your sadness. Are your anxieties holding you back? Counseling can be a great tool for you to manage and overcome your anxiety and lead a happy, stress-free life. We are here for you. Book an Appointment How To Deal With Sadness Normalising Sadness Sadness, unlike other emotions, unfortunately comes with a bad reputation. No one really wants to talk about it. We’re so stuck in the narrative of happiness that everybody craves for it and abstains from feeling sad. You can be a self-confessed optimist. But being optimistic doesn’t guarantee happiness all the time. You can be sad – but you can also be a person who is optimistic at the same time. Sadness is important as it connects you to yourself. Myths around the world lead us to believe that sadness is attributed to being weak. For instance, when you are feeling sad and are brave enough to verbalise or show it, you are told not to ‘stew’ or ‘wallow’ in it. In other words, even when you want to, you’re discouraged to feel sad. If you were raised in a family where it wasn’t safe to feel sad because you were criticised as being needy, you might judge your sadness and brush it aside. It results in you suppressing this vital emotion. A person may distract oneself from genuinely feeling sad. An individual may push it away with whichever manoeuvres the mind, body, and the brain can take to avoid any emotional discomfort. Sadness helps in understanding what’s happening within you and lets you process your feelings. For this reason, it’s a very important emotion. There’s nothing weak about feeling sad. There are no labels around sadness, it just is! Recognising and Allowing Yourself to Feel Sad Sadness comes with a message of its own. ‘Feeling’ your sadness is essential as it tells you what’s missing. In other words, it conveys to you that there’s something that’s not currently present in your life. Often when you’re feeling sad, you’ll realise that your energy levels are depleting and it’s a task to get back up and re-engage. Sadness can do this to you. During times like these, your mind forces you to instantly fix what feels wrong and look for what’s missing. When your ‘fixing mind’ doesn’t give you what you need at that moment, it causes frustration and in turn leads to more sadness. How can you recognise sadness in yourself? When you’re aware of triggers that make you sad, then know that it’s time to feel sad. Feeling sadness isn’t pleasant. However, by just letting yourself know that you’re sad by either saying “yes” or a simple nod when you feel a rush of sadness is a good way to begin. Acknowledging your emotion in this manner makes it easier to access it. You can now fully feel sadness without judging or analysing it. (This part doesn’t come easily. It takes practice to learn to recognise physical sensations with the experience of sadness). Instead try and focus on your sadness and see what it is about. Any reasons come to mind or is it
How To Use Mindfulness During Stressful Situations
How To Approach Mindfulness During Stressful Situations? In today’s times, mindfulness practices have become pretty well known as stress management practices. Even if one does not practice, one has at least heard of mindfulness as something that brings down stress. However, what still remains less known is, how to approach mindfulness during stressful situations? What to expect from it when one is going through an emotional upheaval? For instance, you’re going through a particularly difficult phase in life like job loss, relationship loss, a significant life change, conflict and upheaval at home, a very hard part of your student life or career, a significant mental health issue, debilitating physical issues and so on. Does mindfulness magically wipe out your stress? Or does it help in more cumulative, subtle ways? Let’s find out! What to not expect from a Mindfulness Practice during a stressful situation? The main thing that you should not expect from mindfulness practices during a difficult time is – the typical image that comes to your mind when you think of mindfulness. A content person sitting on a hill, feeling light, blissful and worry free. This expectation can become your worst enemy during a difficult time and can cause you to believe that mindfulness isn’t helping. It can cause you to let go of the practice and lose out on all the benefits it actually brings about. If you are practicing mindfulness during a difficult time, it’s very helpful not to expect: Your mood to lift significantly Yourself to feel good for hours or days A clear, fresh mind for a long span of time Significantly improved memory and focus To stop worrying about your problems To stop feeling low or down You will most likely still feel difficult feelings, have worrying bouts, crying spells, anger bouts, emotional eating or binge shopping sprees -depending on how stress tends to manifest itself for you. Mindfulness does not erase this out, at least not until years of practice and learning take place. So if you expect to breathe and be for 10 minutes a day and then feel like the blissful person on the mountain, you will be sorely disappointed, something that is completely avoidable if you know what to expect! Mindfulness does not erase the humanness in you. Instead, it builds capacity and softness within you to receive and cope with that humanness better. So, now that we have dealt with what not to expect, do not despair, mindfulness has some very tangible and robust benefits that will help, especially as you practice. Let’s now look at the good news – how indeed mindfulness helps during a tough time! Research On Mindfulness Eager to learn more about mindfulness? We have gathered all of the recent studies on the benefits of mindfulness to help you unlock the path to greater well-being and mental clarity. Know More What You Can Expect From Mindfulness Practice In A Stressful Situation? Opportunity for a Reset: Even if it’s just for some time, you tend to feel lighter, clearer, more relaxed. This opportunity to reset is very important to fill your cup a bit while the difficulty empties it. A Break for the Nervous System: Your nervous system is going through a whole lot during difficult times. It remains wired up and dysregulated, sometimes for weeks or months together. Mindfulness practice helps this dysregulated nervous system stabilize for a bit. Your heart rate, blood pressure, breathing quality, muscle tension, digestion, circulation etc are all affected when you are under perpetual stress. Mindfulness helps all this stabilize at least for some time before you deal with the difficulty again. This helps your body and nervous system a great deal. It can help all your body and brain functions to reset and release at least for some time each day. When you are dealing with a chronic difficulty, this opportunity means a lot. The body gets some space to repair, the mind gets some space to just be. Opportunity for small little insights: When you return to stillness and the present moment (instead of being just in your head), it helps you think better, get some perspective/insight. This may not happen all the time but is of great help when it does. These little (or sometimes bigger) aha moments can open up new ways of seeing things when you feel like you’ve hit a dead end. The practice itself builds resilience – mindfulness practice in itself changes how stressed you feel and for how long. But this is a long term benefit and needs consistent practice. You can read more about the benefits of mindfulness here. Better Ability to snap out of overthinking- With more practice, your ability to recognize when you are getting caught up in brooding and ruminating becomes better. You become better able to release the impulse to keep thinking and instead, just be. You become better able to check in with yourself and see when you are tired of stressing and to release that stress, just for a bit. This increased flexibility helps a whole lot during a difficult time. You do not then need an entire shopping spree or 3 pizzas to feel better. You become better able to regulate yourself, and decide when it’s time to stop stressing and just be in the moment. This is a huge benefit when we need to run a psychological marathon. It helps greatly in the ability to rest mentally. It helps greatly in being able to come back to the situation better once you have had that mental rest, even if it’s just for one activity like – ‘ I’m thinking while swimming, let me release my stress and just feel the water while I swim’. Hope this gives you some idea of how mindfulness is likely to help during difficult times. It’s like a silent friend. You feel like nothing is happening, but something is definitely happening. It’s just not as loud or obvious as, ‘I don’t think this will bother me anymore’. Its
Exploring The Link Between Agoraphobia And Panic Attacks
What is Agoraphobia? Agoraphobia comprises two words of Greek origin. “Agora” means “open or public space” and “phobos” means fear. Thus, agoraphobia is a type of anxiety disorder that refers to the fear of open or public spaces, where you feel you won’t receive any help or can’t escape. If you experience agoraphobia, you may feel helpless and trapped in public spaces or in crowds. You may feel like there would be no one to help you if something happens to you. You may also feel like you will lose control in public spaces. Eventually, to avoid these overwhelming fears, you may avoid public spaces. You may also avoid going out of your house. This can negatively affect your personal relationships, work, or school. Agoraphobia is a scary, difficult experience for those who go through it. Yet, people many people are unaware of this disorder and its connection to panic attacks. This article explores this relationship between agoraphobia and panic attacks. We talk about why it is important to identify agoraphobia, and the consequences of neglecting it. We will also guide you through some ways through which you can manage agoraphobia. Symptoms of Agoraphobia Agoraphobia is a form of anxiety disorder. Therefore, when you think about or visit public or open spaces, you may experience extreme anxiety. Agoraphobia symptoms often overlap with symptoms of anxiety and a panic, making it difficult to make sense of. If you are experiencing agoraphobia, you may notice the following symptoms when you are in, or imagine being in open, public spaces: Fear of losing control in a public space Fear of not receiving help when needed Fear of being trapped in a public space Fear of being away from home Fear of being in crowded and open spaces These fears can be suffocating and overwhelming for you. As a result, you may experience feelings of anxiety and panic. Sometimes, the fear can be extreme, and can result in a panic attack. Due to the persistent and extreme anxiety, you may begin to avoid stepping out of your home. Going out alone to do everyday tasks can seem terrifying without a companion. And thus, you may spend most of your time at home as your fear holds you back. What Are The Common Triggers For Agoraphobia? There is a misconception that agoraphobia happens only in public spaces. There are other situations that can trigger agoraphobia as well. Agoraphobia manifests often in places such as: Shops, theaters, malls, hospitals, restaurants Public Transport Crowded Spaces A line or queue Enclosed spaces such as elevators or cubicles These situations can trigger a panic attack, or can cause anxiety symptoms like shaking, sweating, nausea, rapid heartbeat, and shallow breathing. In a world that constantly requires you to step out of your home to get tasks done, it may be difficult for you to manage things like school, work, travel, or visits to the hospital. What Is The Relationship Between Agoraphobia And Panic Attacks? There is a strong relationship between agoraphobia and panic attacks. Agoraphobia can often arise as a result of repeated panic attacks. Experiencing frequent panic attacks, especially in public spaces, can make you fear having a panic attack in public again. You may worry about not receiving help, or losing control in public. These fears can bring up feelings of helplessness and embarrassment. Sometimes, the fear of having a panic attack in public can be intense enough to trigger another panic attack. This creates a vicious and endless cycle. Therefore, the anxiety about having a panic attack becomes even more difficult to manage than the actual panic attack. You may become highly sensitive to any situation that could potentially lead to another panic attack. This sensitivity can make you avoid being in public spaces, thus leading to agoraphobia. The core of agoraphobia and panic attacks are anxiety. It is therefore important to handle the underlying anxiety in order to manage the symptoms of the anxiety disorder. Working with the anxiety and its root cause will subsequently reduce the panic and the agoraphobia. Are your anxieties holding you back? Counseling can be a great tool for you to manage and overcome agoraphobia and lead a happy, stress-free life. We are here for you. Book an Appointment Managing Agoraphobia Treating Agoraphobia and other anxiety disorders have a lot to do with regulating the nervous system, and addressing the underlying anxiety. But, How do we regulate our nervous system? Some of the best ways to do this is to: Adopt a self-care practice: Incorporate meditation, mild exercise, and mindfulness into your everyday life. These practices can reduce your stress levels, heart rate, and release happy hormones into your body. They are simple, yet effective, ways to heal from within and manage your anxiety. Go for Therapy: Therapy is a great way to seek professional guidance to manage agoraphobia. Therapists can work with you to understand the underlying patterns of thinking that contribute towards your fear of public spaces. The ideal way to treat agoraphobia would be a combination of a good self-care and self-help regime, counseling, and medications, if required. By using these techniques and with time, you will be able to manage agoraphobia and lead a joyful life. Counseling And Therapy For Agoraphobia At Inner Space, we believe that managing agoraphobia requires a multi-dimensional approach. Therefore, our therapists help you observe the underlying patterns of negative thoughts and beliefs, and regulate your nervous system and body through relaxation and somatic therapies. It is important to find the right therapist to help you through an anxiety disorder, such as agoraphobia. Going for counseling can help you learn ways to manage everyday stress and reduce symptoms. Anxiety disorders can be a tough experience to go through. However, with the right support, you can manage agoraphobia and live your life with ease. Self-Help Techniques For Agoraphobia There are numerous self-help techniques you can do by yourself to manage some symptoms of agoraphobia. Performing these techniques, along with therapy and/or medication, can improve your ability to manage the
Navigating Panic Attacks: A Guide To Successfully Solving The Panic Puzzle
A panic attack can be a scary and confusing experience to go through. During a panic attack, you can feel like your heart is beating faster and you are losing control. Panic attacks usually happen without any immediate or apparent reason. It can occur even if you are relaxed. Some of the main signs of a panic attack are: Feeling breathless Feeling like you are losing control over your mind and body Having cold sweats Feeling numb in various parts of your body Heaviness in the chest Rapid heartbeat or palpitations Having blurred or tunnel vision. Explaining the feelings and sensations that come with a panic attack to another person can be very difficult. Moreover, it can also be difficult for you to make sense of the experience of a panic attack. The immense anxiety, the suffocation, breathlessness, and disconnection with things around you can feel tough to put into words. Panic attacks can also make you feel like they can happen again. This can even cause to avoid certain places due to the fear of it all coming up again(agoraphobia.) This article highlights some of the strategies and things you can do when you are going through a panic attack. We also take you through certain lifestyle changes you can make to prevent panic attacks in the future. Thus, this article can be used as a “Guide on Panic Attacks.” What Causes Panic Attacks? While panic attacks may feel threatening and fatal, they could be a way for our body to cope with underlying anxiety. Our mind constantly watches out for, and protects our body against threats. These threats could be external like an animal running behind us, writing an exam, going through a break-up, or experiencing abuse. It could also be internal, like our own anxious thoughts, or feelings of anxiety. When our mind detects a threat, our body can go into overwhelm and this can manifest as a panic attack. Over time, people having panic attacks often develop a fear of panic attacks. They are afraid that an attack may come on anytime. The Invisible Underlying Cause of a Panic Attack Most often Panic Attack is the result of a chronic and suppressed anxiety. There is a non-acknowledgement or denial of the anxiety or a lack of addressing it, which then gets converted into a panic attack. Once a panic attack has occurred the fear of panic attacks itself, feeds the anxiety further, which can lead to further panic attacks. Often, the fear of panic attacks itself is used to displace and disguise the actual anxiety. The real reason for anxiety continues to be unaddressed or denied and instead the person continues to fear getting more panic attacks. The symptoms of a panic attack move our attention away from our distressing thoughts and feelings. Our body produces these strong symptoms of chest heaviness, shallow breathing, and palpitations, to take our attention away from our anxiety. After experiencing repeated panic attacks, we may develop a fear of having them again, and it may lead to fear of going to public spaces. The fear of panic attacks and avoidance then becomes the focus of our lives. And the real reason for our anxiety does not get processed. This invisible and often very real reason for panic attacks is not addressed even by mental health professionals. Thus, we need a sustainable resolution that can help us with the symptoms of panic attacks, while also addressing the root causes of it- which are leading to anxiety and stress. What To Do When You Are Experiencing A Panic Attack Panic attacks happen suddenly. It can be an overwhelming experience. But, there are some ways to reduce the extreme sensations we feel during a panic attack. Here are some steps you can follow to reduce the intensity of a panic attack: Be aware of your experience: The first step towards reducing the intensity of a panic attack, is to know that you are going through one. This will help you feel less anxious, as you are now aware of your experience. Focus on your breathing: One of the first signs you notice in panic attacks is difficulty in breathing. To work through this, inhale deeply through the nose. Then, exhale through the mouth. Focusing on your breathing can make you feel more grounded. As a result, you feel more in control of the situation. Find a comfortable place: Panic attacks can be an uncomfortable experience. Moving to a location that is airy, quiet, and spacious can put you at ease. Use Ice: Using ice is a less-known way to handle panic attacks. You can rub ice cubes on your palms, wrists, face, or neck. You may also use cold water if ice isn’t available. Ice acts like a mild “brake” to make you focus less on what is going wrong. It helps you pay attention to your surroundings. Use your sense organs: Sense organs pick up signals from our surroundings. You can guide your sense organs to pick up signs of safety from your surroundings. These signs from the sense organs can help you feel safe in your body during panic attacks. The 5-4-3-2-1 method helps use our sense organs during a panic attack. The process works as follows: Focus on your breathing. You can do this yourself or have someone guide you through it. Look around and notice five things you can see. Notice the colors, patterns, and shapes of the objects you see. Next, pay attention to four things you can touch. And focus on them, and bring your mind to how the objects feel in your hands. Now, notice three things you can hear. Notice the sounds around you and bring your attention to them. The next step is to bring your focus to two things you can smell. Find something like coffee, lime, perfume, or essential oils that have a distinct scent to draw your attention to. Finally, find one thing you can taste. Notice what flavours and textures stand out when
