Breathing Exercises for Panic Attacks

Video Transcript

Hi. This is Ben Brennan from Austin, Texas. I'm coming to you on behalf of Expert Village and today we are going to be talking about panic attacks. Alright, now let's talk about breathing exercises and how learning these can help you during a panic attack and also help keep panic attacks from happening. Breathing is something we should all be pretty good at right? So why practice breathing? You've been breathing the same way for decades and you're still alive. Surely you can't be doing anything wrong, right? Well, as it turns out, learning to breathe abdominally, or with the stomach, can help to ease or (according to some experts) even end an anxiety attack. Also remember that breathing is an autonomic response. You really don't breathe as much as you allow yourself to breathe. Like writing with your non-dominant hand or speaking in another language, breathing is one of the things that it takes a long time to learn how to do well. But if it will help alleviate the terror and panic associated with anxiety attacks, then I think we can all agree it is worth the work. Most persons who have a high level of anxiety or who are more prone to having anxiety attacks, will tend to breathe with their chest. This is problematic for a couple of reasons. Not only is breathing with the chest not as relaxing as breathing with the abdomen or the diaphragm, this type of breathing is more rapid. It involves more energy and stress on the body and creates the same chest-tightening that many individuals with panic disorder associate with panic attacks. Thus, making a person who has had a panic attack before more anxious and more susceptible to future panic attacks.

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