Moderated by
Danielle Johnson, MSED, Community mental Health Counseling, LMHC
Licensed Professional Counselor
Sometime situations and feelings can be so strong that we struggle to function. You are not alone! My practice is flexible and open-minded and tailored to your personal needs.
Top Rated Answers
Try the four, seven, eight breathing exercise. Breathe in for four, out for seven, and in for eight. It can help you to sleep and calm down from panic attacks.
Anonymous
March 19th, 2018 6:31pm
Try breathing with counts. As you breathe in, count to 5, hold your breath, count to 5, breathe out, count to 5. There are many .gifs out there that serves as a visual aid for breathing. You breathe in and out as the image moves. There are also mindfulness apps that helps to guide breathing.
Try putting your wrists under cold (streaming) water, find someone who can comfort you (if there is someone). Count or do breathing exercises, listen to calm music. Hold someone's hand (sounds weird, but it works)
To cut things short, by opening and closing your mouth lol. But truly speaking, by closing your eyes and inhaling deeply, focusing all your attention on all the air rushing into your lungs, filling them up. And then exhaling slowly, feeling your lungs push out all that air. Keep doing that in every tensed situation and problem solved. Hopefully.
Anonymous
January 8th, 2018 7:26pm
Tap the tip of your thumb against the tip of your pointer finger, then the tip of your middle finger... untill you reach your pinky. While doing this count to 4 and inhale, then work backwards from your pinky counting to 4 again while you exhale.
Check out some guided meditation/mindfulness for anxiety/panic on youtube. There are a lot of ones specifically to help breathing. I use them every day honestly.
But breathing in through the nose for 4 and out for 6 has been helpful sometimes. I've heard doing it for different amounts of time can help reset things.
Focus on the amount of seconds passed between each breath. Breathe in for 7 seconds, filling your lungs then exhale slowly. Once you empty your lungs, leave them empty for a second before breathing in again. Repeat.
Personally, this is what I do when I need to get my breathing under control. I first think about something calming. I go to a safe place in my head. I then count my breathes , or say "In" and "out" in my head slowly. I focus only on the words in and out or the numbers. It helps to completely remove myself for the troubling thoughts or situations.
Controlled breathing is completely based on focusing! If you try to tune things out and close your eyes, concentrating on taking deep breaths in and out, your breathing will steady. You can also try counting, breathing in for 4 and out for 5 or something along those lines!
Anonymous
August 9th, 2016 8:44pm
Using breathing techniques
Focus your attention on something that is constant, like a wall or a window. Count to 10 and ten recite your ABC's in rhythm with your breaths
Many yoga classes and videos on YouTube will have videos on breathing exercises. But most genre ly state to breath in threw your nose and count to ten, followed by breathing out threw your mouth on the count of ten as well.
Take a long, slow breath in through your nose, first filling your lower lungs, then your upper lungs.
Hold your breath to the count of "three."
Exhale slowly through pursed lips, while you relax the muscles in your face, jaw, shoulders, and stomach.
DO NOT PANIC. :)
Normaly people don't pay to much atenttion to their breath, but that is an important thing.
When you feel stressed it's important for you to control your breathing. Breath in through the nose and out through the mouth. I, for example, breath in through my nose for the count of 4 seconds, then breath out of my mouth for the count of 4 seconds.
Start by tuning everything else out. Breath in through your nose and count to four. Hold the breath for four counts, then release the breath through your mouth for four counts, and hold the exhale for four counts. This can help you reset your breathing.
There are plenty of ways to control breathing. I have panic attacks and breathing is very difficult during them. I usually put my head between my legs and that helps me breathe smoother and cleaner.
Thing that helps to me is to breathe in on my nose for 4 seconds and breathe out for 4 seconds. Do it for a while, you should feel better after it.
If you are having a panic attack or feeling nervous a good way to control your breathing is by taking deep breaths in and out and counting at even intervals. Taking deep breaths that fill all of your lungs help relax all those muscles that might be tense while you are experiencing heavy uncontrolled breathing.
If you experiencing dramatic over-breathing (hyperventilation), you can help control it by breathing into either a paper bag or pillow until your breathing rate normalizes.
Practice breathing in for four counts and then breathing out for four counts. Starting your morning with a breathing exercise can help your breathing throughout the rest of the day. It prepares your lungs for a long day of breathing and can help keep it consistent. During a panic attack or an asthma attack, place your hands above your head and breathe in as deeply as you can as slowly as you can. After a few times, your breathing will slow down and become normal again.
By personal experience, I can say that counting things around you can help :) For example, how many woman have their hair up in this room? or How many square objects are in this room ?
Focus on the feeling of the air entering and leaving your body. It helps slow my breathing down when I need to catch my breathe.
Related Questions: How can I control my breathing?
My mom caught me masturbating and I am so embarrassed that I don't want to go out of my room even. What do I do?Sometimes I cannot breathe and I am suddenly freaking out. It feels like a mini panic attack but it’s only a few seconds. What is it?Sometimes, my heart just starts racing and I can’t breathe for a few seconds/minutes. It feels like I’m having a panic attack but it’s really quick. I don’t know if it is one, or what to do. Help?Can you have a panic attack during an anxiety attack?Why is it that I've only had a panic attack once? Could I have had other times to?How do you know you're having a panic attack?I faint but still conscious during some of my panic attack. Is this normal or is it something to be concerned about?Im having panic attacks for years but only like once a month(sometimes nothing for 2months, sometimes 3in a day). Should I visist a doctor or is it not serious enought to worry about it?Ive had 12 panic attacks in the past 8 hours. Is it just one long panic attack or 12 different ones? And is this normal?I keep having random flashes of surreal/depressing feelings that lasts only seconds. What could this be and why does it keep happening?