Anxiety Self HelpFind helpful information about anxiety.

How you breathe can have an impact on your panic attacks. Most of us don’t give any thought to how we breathe but learning how to do it correctly can help you with treating panic attacks. You can reduce the frequency of your attacks and the length of the them when they do occur.

Stressed Out By Your Breathing?

The most natural way to breathe is from the abdomen but when people get stressed or anxious they will often start breathing from their chest. Chest breathing, as the name suggests, is when you take shallow and rapid breaths from the chest. This type of breathing upsets the balance of carbon dioxide and oxygen in the body and can lead to a number of physical symptoms including muscle tension, increased heart rate and dizziness.

Abdominal breathing, on the other hand, is characterized by deep, even breaths that are drawn down by the diaphragm. A newborn baby will do this, as will people when they are in a deep sleep – it’s the natural way to breathe.

There is a very simple test to determine which way you are breathing. Place one hand on your tummy and the other one on your chest. Pay attention to which hand moves the most as you breathe. If you find the one on your chest is moving the most then you are chest breathing, if the one on your tummy is moving more then you are breathing with your diaphragm (abdominal breathing). Understanding which method you are using can help you reduce your anxiety by allowing you to consciously switch to a more relaxing mode of breathing.

Relaxation Through Abdominal Breathing

This simple technique can be used to help with treating panic attacks. They key is to practice this technique outside of those situations that make you anxious so that you can use it automatically when you start to feel anxious. (note: try practicing this when you can be alone, lying or sitting down at first. If you feel uncomfortable or dizzy stop immediately):

Sit or lay down and try to relax as much as possible. Place a hand on your stomach and inhale slowly through your nose. Your hand should rise and fall with each breath if you are breathing with your diaphragm.

Don’t try to hold your breath. Exhale through your mouth. Rather than push the air out, let the air exit your body naturally.

Try repeating this several times.

You can increase the relaxing effect of this technique by focusing your attention on the breath. As the air moves in and out of your body focus on your hand moving up and down or the air moving in your nose and out your mouth. This is a breathing meditation.

Practicing this technique will help you use it for preventing and treating panic attacks. The key is to practice it at home so that you can apply it when you start to feel anxious or stressed. Adding this to other methods you may already be using can help you win the battle against panic attacks and anxiety.

Getting Rid Of Anxiety contains methods to help you deal with your panic attacks. Here is one straightforward method for treating panic that you can start using right away.