Panic attacks can be highly distressing. A panic attack can come with many symptoms, from sweaty palms to a racing heartbeat. Other potential symptoms include dizziness, shaking, shortness of breath, and intrusive, rapidly shifting thoughts. 

Panic attacks aren’t just experienced by adults. Studies show that an estimated 2.3% of U.S. adolescents aged 13-18 have a panic disorder. While panic disorders often involve panic attacks, people without panic disorders can also experience panic attacks. These attacks are often triggered by persistent stress and anxiety. If you have experienced panic attacks, intervention can be key to improving your mental health and preventing the next attack.

Intervention can mean different things for different teens. For some, joining a support group may be highly beneficial. If your mental health symptoms are causing major disruptions in your daily life, more intensive care might be necessary. Depending on your condition and needs, Residential Treatment or another high level of care could be the right option. In addition to seeking professional treatment, you can also start making progress right now at home. Effective grounding strategies can help you stop your next panic attack in its tracks. 

By using these tips, you may be able to help yourself relax and cope. This can be essential to managing panic disorders in the long term.

• Focus on your breathing 

Taking slow, deep breaths can often help you avoid a panic attack. If you are feeling anxious or nearing panic, focus on your breathing. Shallow breathing can limit your oxygen intake. It signals to your body that it needs to further increase its stress response. This is why deep breathing is important, as it helps signal to your body that it can relax its stress responses. 

In addition to breathing deeply, breathing slowly is also essential. During a panic attack, you may begin to hyperventilate, which involves rapid, deep breathing. Hyperventilation involves rapid deep breaths. Even though your breaths are deep when you’re hyperventilating, they are not controlled. And this can lead to a feeling of breathlessness or suffocation and can worsen feelings of panic. Excessive exhalation of CO₂ lowers its concentration in the blood. Low CO₂ levels cause blood vessels to constrict, particularly those supplying the brain. This reduces blood flow and oxygen delivery to the brain, leading to symptoms like dizziness and tingling. To ensure that you’re breathing in a way that promotes relaxation, it can help to measure each breath. One popular strategy is box breathing. To do box breathing: 

• Inhale while you slowly and silently count to 4.
• Hold your breath while you slowly and silently count to 4. 
• Exhale while you slowly and silently count to 4. 
• Repeat this process until you feel calm.

This process helps slow down breathing while also shifting focus to breathing rather than negative, stressful thoughts. 

• Engage your senses

When you panic, you can feel detached from the world around you. You may be completely absorbed by your thoughts and emotions. Engaging your senses can be a good way to draw yourself away from spiraling thoughts and feelings, grounding you in the world outside.

There are plenty of strategies for engaging the senses. One thing you can do is engage specific senses one at a time with what is called the 5-4-3-2-1 method. To use this method, work through these steps:

• Look around and name five things you can see. 
• Touch four objects around you with your hands. 
• Listen to three external sounds around you. 
• Identify two things near you that you could smell.
• Find one thing around you that you could taste.

By the time you have acknowledged this last sensory object, you may be grounded enough to avoid a panic attack. 

• Relax your muscles

Physical and mental stress are often deeply connected. By relaxing physical tension, you may be able to alleviate mental tension. Muscle relaxation also has a grounding effect, as it allows you to focus on your physical condition instead of your mental state.

One helpful strategy for relaxing physical tension is progressive muscle relaxation (PMR). With PMR, you will focus on one muscle or muscle group at a time. You will engage this muscle, intentionally tensing it up, then letting it relax completely. 

You can start PMR with muscles at the top of the body, such as your neck muscles, and work your way down your body until you get to the muscles in your legs and feet.

While PMR can be practiced alone, it can be helpful to have a guide. Try to have a person you have previously designated as your guide help lead you through your PMR progression. When you are starting to experience the onset of a panic attack, have them ask you to engage specific muscles, wait a few moments, then ask you to relax. Allow yourself to focus on your guide’s voice and the muscles they name. With this approach, you and your guide can help relax your body and mind.

While coping strategies can be very helpful, they aren’t always sufficient on their own. For long-term improvement, professional treatment may be necessary. Lightfully Teen can help you avoid and cope with panic attacks. We treat a range of mental health conditions, including anxiety, depression and panic disorders. The framework of everything we do is based on evidence, compassion and whole-person-centered care. This approach is embedded in our Precision Care Model (PCM).

Change is possible. When you are ready to take the first step, reach out to our Admissions Concierge Team. We’ll take the next steps together, toward the fullest, brightest version of you.