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All people worry and find themselves scared from time to time. But those with anxiety may feel consumed by fears of things that will seem irrational to others. Learning how to help someone having an anxiety attack involves very few basic steps. It’s hard to relate to those concerns; many don’t understand how to help someone with anxiety best. How to help someone having an anxiety attack can be tricky and varies from person to person.
People are often dismissive of people experiencing anxiety. With other medical illnesses, you can see physical symptoms1, but people having anxiety attacks can get challenging to address. It is essential to be sensitive to what the person with anxiety goes through if you want to know how to help someone having an anxiety attack.
It’s distressing to see a fellow experience panic attacks and face anxiety on a commonplace, but there are specific actions you can take to help. It starts with recognizing the signs of excessive worry and understanding the foremost effective ways to support your dear.
How to learn to acknowledge the sign of anxiety disorder?
Anxiety disorder is the most typical condition affecting up to 18% of the population. People should be conscious of how to help someone having an anxiety attack. Anxiety disorder has the most extensive prevalence among adults in the US. Almost all of its affected people live with anxiety disorder. Knowing what symptoms of anxiety, thoughts and emotions is a way to identify when people are experiencing fear.
Knowing the signs of tension can facilitate your realizing when someone you prefer has fearful thoughts or feelings. If one wants to know how to help someone having an anxiety attack, the first thing is to learn the symptoms.
Symptoms vary from person to person but are broken into three categories:
Physical Symptoms
Some of the physical symptoms your loved one may report feeling include:
- Lightheadedness
- Sweating
- Nausea, feeling edgy
- Restless
- Shortness of breath
- Diarrhoea
- Getting easily fatigued
Anxious Thoughts
People with anxiety often have thought patterns which must be considered, such as:
- Believing the worst will happen
- Persistent worry
- All-or-nothing thinking
- Overgeneralizing (making overall assumptions supported by one event)
Anxious Behaviors
Perhaps what you’ll notice most is your loved one’s behavior.
Common anxiety behaviors include:
- Avoidance of feared situations or events
- Seeking reassurance
- Second-guessing
- Irritability and frustration in feared situations
- Compulsive actions (like washing hands over and over)
How to help someone who is having a panic attack?
A panic attack occurs when a person suddenly experiences overwhelming emotions. There are numerous techniques for assisting someone with anxiety attacks. It includes using ground-based methods to assist the patient in controlling breathing. An individual must recognize how to react if they are experiencing a panic attack. It can be helpful for panic victims to calm down and even reduce symptoms.
An anxiety attack entails a quick but intense reaction. Panic attacks produce similar symptoms when facing threats. The body believes there is a threat, but they are not actual threat situations. People with one attack may experience another, primarily in public. Panic attacks often cause severe discomfort and cause profound distressing feelings.
Everyone is anxious or afraid. Some people with anxious feelings feel overwhelmed by fear about certain situations and may think they are unreasonable. This is a challenging situation, and many people are unaware of ways to treat anxiety, making the affected person more uncomfortable. Many people dismiss people suffering from anxiety and are unsure about their feelings.
If your partner has panic attacks, knowing how to deal with them is difficult. If we respond with empathy, we can make a difference. You can always get in touch when something like that happens so that you know what to do. At least 34% of all trusted sources will suffer from anxiety during their lifetimes. One in four Americans suffers from anxiety disorders at some point.
What are the dos and don’ts?
DON’TS
1. Don’t Enable
It’s common to want to help your loved ones avoid painful situations by leaving your due to eliminate the cause for concern. On the surface, this seems thoughtful and sweet, but anxiety doesn’t usually depart. Over time, if people continually avoid facing difficult situations, the anxiety grows, and special requests for accommodations get bigger.
If you continue to modify your behavior or the environment to accommodate your loved one’s anxiety, this might unintentionally enable the anxiety to persist and grow. Avoiding difficult situations doesn’t give your love the prospect of beating fears and learning to master anxiety. Instead, it makes their world smaller as what they can do becomes more and more limited by their growing anxiety.
2. Don’t Force Confrontation
On the other hand, it’s also not good to force undertaking confrontation and do something they’re fearful of. Trying to push somebody who’s not ready can damage that relationship. Learning how to beat deep apprehension is figure best-exhausted partnership with an expert therapist. This takes the burden off you. It also empowers your dear by helping them face their fears one step at a time with guidance from somebody with experience.
3. Don’t do
You should avoid minimization. Understand that your friends may be a little scared at the moment. No criticism. It is useless for people to blame their panic attacks. Try not to convince people of this one, either. Having a panic attack increases the probability of another attack. They might even be dependent upon your protection to help them face fears.
DOs
Take it easy! Keep yourself safe. Your calm behavior will help your affected friend in the long run. It shows that you are there for them to listen and understand. i
You can always keep in touch with someone who is going through panic. Usually, the panic attack continues for 20 or 30 minutes. Make a point of understanding positive behavior. Ask the person who panicked. They can also take a step down and consider situations rationally.
Responses supported love and acceptance, and the need to figure out your lover’s retrieve, are the cornerstones of helping someone with anxiety2. Consider the following approaches such as:
1. Provide Validation
Many different things can make people anxious. Saying something like, “I can’t believe you’re getting upset over such alittle thing”, belittles a person’s experience. Instead, ask your dear how you’ll provide support during challenging moments. What makes one person fearful is additionally no big deal to somebody else; their anxiety doesn’t have to add up to you. It is essential to know that what the person is experiencing is real and requires sensitivity.
2. Express Concern
It’s hard to figure out a beloved having an attack, but there are always some observable signs. When you start to notice your loved ones withdrawing from activities that they are accustomed to enjoying, you mustn’t conceal your concern. Instead, it’ll be helpful to approach your dearest warmly and positively. You can start a dialogue by saying you’ve noticed specific behavior changes.
For example: “Hey, I noticed you’ve been avoiding visiting [insert location] and other social gatherings. are you ready to share with me what caused the change?” Then, betting on how the conversation goes, you’ll ask if they think they need some help or support in managing their anxiety. This straightforward question while learning how to help someone having an anxiety attack.
Know when to look for help?
If your loved one’s anxiety impedes their ability to enjoy life, interact in class, work or lurk around with friends, or if it causes problems in reception, it’s time to hunt professional help. Encourage a beloved to make a rendezvous with a psychological state provider. If they’re resistant, you’ll remind them it’s only 1 appointment.
Speaking to relations, friends and family about the mental state will be hard. That’s why it’s crucial to own healthy friendships to show in times of need. It doesn’t mean they have to arrange treatment or to working thereupon specific therapist. It’s just an initial check-in, like an annual physical exam apart from your mental and emotional health.”
There are two primary treatments for people with anxiety while learning how to help someone having an anxiety attack:
- Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT3) involves learning to lower anxiety and face distressing situations.
- Medication management with antidepressants
During therapy, still, show your support. Ask your dear what you’ll do to help them; ask if you’ll attend a therapy session to seek out some skills to higher support them. Encourage the one you love to try another therapist if the first one isn’t a good fit.
Bottom Line
- Aiyegbusi, Olalekan Lee, et al. “Symptoms, complications and management of long COVID: a review.” Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 114.9 (2021): 428-442. ↩︎
- Knowles, Kelly A., and Bunmi O. Olatunji. “Specificity of trait anxiety in anxiety and depression: Meta-analysis of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory.” Clinical psychology review 82 (2020): 101928. ↩︎
- Atwood, Molly E., and Aliza Friedman. “A systematic review of enhanced cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT‐E) for eating disorders.” International Journal of Eating Disorders 53.3 (2020): 311-330. ↩︎
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