You’ve had this before… you’re hearts pounding, you feel your chest tightening and you’re gasping for breath. You feel like you’re going to faint, sweating uncontrollable and this feels like its never going to end…
This is a panic attack, if you’ve been unfortunate to have had one you can never forget this experience. It’s scary and people who haven’t gone through it will never understand how bad it feels. When you have experienced an attack it may be a lot different then what I described earlier. It could be sweating, blushing, tummy problems, a foggy brain where you can’t think straight and so much more.
In this post I am going to introduce you to some grounding techniques that myself and others have found useful in the lead up to an anxiety panic attack.
Remember: you should always get medical advice from a doctor if you are experiencing these type of symptoms!
Before we begin, when dealing with anxiety it is important to recognise your ‘alert’ system before you go into a full-on panic attack. This could be thoughts, feelings, environments or even people that trigger off your panic mode. If you are struggling to work out these, your therapist will certainly help in this area!
These following techniques work best to ground you beforehand when you are recognising the anxiety is starting, however these can also be tried at any point in the panic cycle.
5,4,3,2,1 Technique
This technique brings awareness to your environment by using your 5 senses. It can be done anywhere that is safe and even better if you are sat/lay down encase you feel faint.
Instructions:
Name 5 things you can see- window? Outside? Are you in a room?
What are 4 things you can feel- Clothing, chair, floor etc
Can you hear 3 things? – can you hear traffic, people talking, a ticking clock?
What are 2 things you can smell? – does something smell on your clothes? Your hair? In the room?
What’s 1 thing you can taste? – a good thing here is to carry around gum, mints, anything you can pop in your mouth to focus on.
Categories
This is a mind focusing exercise to help keep your mind occupied to dampen your anxiety ‘alert’ system.
Instructions:
Pick a category and name as many things/characters/people from it.
Here are some example:
· Food
· Drinks
· From you favourite movie or TV program
· Cars
· Singer/band songs
· Colours
· Animals
· Books
You can even try and name one for ever letter of the alphabet in order to really get your thinking focused e.g. Apple, Banana, Cantaloupe melon,
Mindfulness Breathing Technique
Now I just want to put here that although mindfulness has been well researched to show many benefits it brings, this is not for everyone! Especially with those experiencing anxiety attacks, bringing your attention to breathing may have the opposite effect so please use with caution.
Instructions:
1- Take 5 deep breathes breathing in from your nose then out through your mouth, how does your body feel? Tight? Loose? Tense? Achy?
2- Wiggle your toes then place them firmly on the ground. Can you feel your feet in your shoes?
3- Try stomping your feet on the ground, how does that feel? Can you feel the sensations running up your legs?
4- Squeeze your hands into fists as tight as you can. Count to 5 then release.
5- Stretch your arms above your head as far as you can safely go, make sure that you have straightened your back and are reaching high up to the ceiling.
6- Roll our head around your shoulders, make sure you go slowly, here can you notice if your shoulder are tight? If they are, try to lower them.
7- Finish by taking another 5 deep breaths try to notice the difference in your body now, has there been any movement?
Charli Davies
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