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How to Handle Anxiety Attacks

5 Tips to Help Defeat Anxiety

By Blair GomezPublished 6 years ago 4 min read
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Anxiety has started to become the norm for the world we live in today. It seems to be affecting anyone and everyone now that the world we live in has become extremely fast-paced and surrounded by different social media platforms. Anxiety levels are different for everyone however helpful solutions can be equally affective for everyone.

This post is about helping people understand those who do struggle with anxiety and how to help them. Anxiety is not black and white and comes out in different forms. I personally have dealt with a high level of anxiety for many years and over time I was able to open up and let my friends and family help me. So the audience I’m writing to is for those who want to help those dealing with anxiety. Here are 5 tips to help people help those with anxiety.

  1. Understand that if there was an easy solution to stop having an anxiety attack, we would take that solution and never have an attack again. Don’t presume it’s all in our head or that it is easy to shut off the crazy emotion that we are under. The worst thing someone could tell me when I was at the worst part of my attack was “it’s okay, it’s just in your head.” This statement always seemed to make me feel weak and vulnerable and honestly extremely irritated. Part of the solution to helping those with anxiety is being able to understand anxiety for that friend or family member. Have conversations with them and express that you want to understand.
  2. When we are having an attack we do need help however sometimes we might run off and hide or not be easily comforted. We know that you might be there trying to help, but sometimes the anxiety can be very restricting that we may not be able to see your help in the moment. Try not to get frustrated and DO NOT LEAVE. Luckily the attack will eventually come to an end and you being there throughout means a lot to us.
  3. Please try not to ask, “What are you feeling?” because like I said in tip #2 our anxiety can be very restricting and we aren’t able to put into words what we are feeling. We may be overwhelmed or we may feel scared. And even if we did know what we were feeling its not going to help us stop having the attack. Unfortunately it just has to run its course.
  4. Don’t feel awkward if we aren’t responding to you or if all we are doing is crying and/or hyperventilating. Keep talking to us. Don’t give up on us. We know you are there and we are doing everything in our power to block out our emotions and focus in on you and your soothing voice. Even if you think what you are saying or doing isn’t helping in the long run it may being doing so much for us.
  5. Hug us! Affection helps in many ways. For me a hug really does help with my attacks. Hugging slows down our breathing and calms us down. Sometimes I’ll even fight someone from trying to hug me but once they rap their arms around me I start to calm down and feel better. This is one of my favorite tips!

Now in case there are people reading this who deal with anxiety, I want to tell you that this does not define you. I have tried my absolute best to beat my anxiety and one of the ways I did that is to figure out what causes them. What triggers an attack? One of my triggers is having a lot of tasks at hand and trying to please everyone. I’ve learned that in order to prevent an attack I need to take a deep breath before taking on multiple tasks and try to organize and prioritize them. Another one of my triggers was being forced into big social gatherings with people I didn’t know.

For these triggers I’ve learned that planning in advance helps, because then I am able to prepare myself and I’m not shocked when I see a lot of people. I love having a day planner and making “To Do” lists. It helps me see everything I have in my mind, written on paper in simplified form. This helps organize my thoughts. Maybe this can help you too.

Anxiety is very complex and sometimes our friends, family and even we can’t understand it. But once we learn more about our anxiety the more we are prepared to defeat it.

In simple text the most important thing you need to know is that anxiety is only for a season for your life. You may feel that you have always had anxiety and that you will continue to have this for the rest of your life, but that is a lie. You will overcome this. You will come out the other end better and able to help others through their own battles, but until that time stay strong and stay confident that you have people around you supporting you.

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About the Creator

Blair Gomez

Hi,

I'm a former Student Athlete for the University of Miami 2011-2015. Newlywed 02/03/18. Living out my dream to become a writer.

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