How to Stop Panic Attacks

In order to learn how to stop panic attacks you must first learn what you are doing wrong when you are experiencing a panic attack.  Imagine this scenario and rest assured many people experiencing the same disorder simply do the wrong things that only aggravate the problem or do nothing to alleviate the symptoms.

Your sitting in a classroom full of people and the instructor is droning on about the latest assignment. You start to experience the feelings of anxiety and fear slowly creeping into your conscious mind. You have no doubt in your mind you are about to experience a full blown panic attack. You then try to focus and think you know how to deal with the problem.

You start trying to control your breathing, in through the nose, out through the mouth.  You try to focus on relaxing thoughts, good positive thoughts.
 
Slowly breathing in then slowly breathing out while trying to focus on relaxing. But then you realize this does not seem to be working, only now you feel more conscious and uptight then before because you are concentrating on your breathing.
 
Now it’s time to try those popular muscle relaxing exercises that everyone says works so well. You tense your shoulders for ten seconds and then release. Then try again.  Only now at this point the fear and anxiety have become so intense you feel the need to run out of the classroom.
 
What makes it even worse is you have run out of ideas to try to calm the panic attack symptoms down. The only thing you want now is for the panic attacks to stop, but you feel totally lost and out of control with each passing minute.

I’m sure after reading this far you can relate to the reactions that were detailed here. After all it seems so natural and the right way to respond to the intense feelings of a panic attack.
 
Now that you have a general idea of what the wrong ways are to stop a panic attack you are well on your way to overcoming panic attacks and anxiety disorder in your own life. I advise you to read the panic attack stories below from people who have figured out the right way to stop panic attacks from ruining their lives.