My mother suffers from terrible panic attacks and social anxiety disorder. On a positive note, she is overcoming the social anxiety disorder, however, the panic attacks seem to be increasing and getting worse. She doesn’t want to take prescription medications as she has tried some in the past and they just made the attacks even worse. She wants to try natural treatment for panic attacks if she can.
I took her to see a clinical psychiatrist who specialises in treating panic attacks. The psychiatrist was very good. She said it is important to discover the root cause of the panic attacks as medications will only mask the problem.
To treat the panic attacks right now she recommend a brilliant panic attacks treatment which is a breathing exercise to try when my Mum feels a panic attack coming on. She said when she feels a panic attack coming, she must do everything she can to stop the anxiety taking over her body as this is what leads to a panic attack. She said to do this her first action is to think of something pleasant and whilst doing this to do a yoga breathing exercise at the same time: breathe through your nose, taking in as much air as you can and then control the air by letting it come out as slowly as possible through your mouth. She recommended my Mum practices this yoga breathing exercise at home and said that usually 2 or 3 of them are enough to make you feel very relaxed.
Now to the root cause. She told Mum that as soon as she feels a panic attack coming on she must stop and look inside herself, and really think about what is going through her mind at that moment. Then, once the cause of the panic attacks has been established, she can work to find a solution to the problem by means of an effective panic attacks treatment.
Mum has been practicing the yoga breathing exercise at home every day and it definitely seems to be a good treatment for panic attacks.