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Ugh ok. The whole "POSITIVE THINKING" thing is not particularly good advice for someone who actually having a panic attack. Any logic in their brain has just shut down by this point, hence they are panicking. It's only good for before they have a panic attack because it's too late by the time they're actually in one.
I found when I used to get panic attacks I needed to stand up as straight as possible to get as much air into my lungs as I could (this is actually quite hard 'cause you just want to curl up into a ball) and have someone rub my back until I can get out of it. I know lots of people say that giving the person a sharp slap can snap them out of this but I never found this was the case at all, it just made me worse.
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They are horrible. I've been advised deep breathing techniques, they really help.
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Panic attacks can be caused by lots of things. The most popular being stress and anxiety. Dealing with them isn't easy but they're actually caused by your own mind. The physical reactions are the result of your brain not knowing how to control itself. The best way to deal with them is to sit down, try and keep calm and lower your heartbeat.
Lowering your heartbeat is the key because if your heart is inclining towards tachycardia then that alone will cause you to panic even more. I understand it will be extremely difficult to bring it under control, but that is the way to deal with them.
The paper bag technique, although it generally works is kind of defunct in its teaching nowadays. Apparently they've linked the extreme and abrupt CO2 increase to making attacks worse.
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