Anxiety & Panic Attacks

Anxiety and panic attacks can make life a misery, and in extreme cases, can be totally disabling.

Sufferers may experience:

• shortness of breath or having trouble catching their breath
• heart pounding
• feeling dizzy or light-headed
• tingling or numb fingers, feet, face or lips
• tightness or pain in the chest
• a choking or smothering feeling
• feeling faint
• sweating
• trembling or shaking
• hot or cold flushes
• feeling that things around them are unreal
• a great urge to flee
• dry mouth
• nausea or "butterflies"
• "jelly legs"
• muscle tension
• visual disturbances
• inability to get thoughts together or speak
• feeling that they are about to die
• feeling that they are "going mad"

A panic attack is known clinically as an acute hyperventilation attack. All the above symptoms occur because the sufferer is hyperventilating, and by doing so is lowering the level of carbon dioxide in the lungs. The first aid for a panic attack is to breathe in and out of a paper bag, thus breathing back in one's own carbon dioxide, and starting to restore the balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the lungs.

The Buteyko breathing technique is highly effective for anxiety and panic attacks. By practising the Buteyko breathing exercises, breathing is controlled and retrained, so that hyperventilation is reduced, and the symptoms of anxiety decrease or disappear.

Buteyko exercises can also be used if a panic attack starts to occur, to relieve the symptoms.

Participants in Buteyko courses regularly report:

• Feeling more relaxed and calm
• Improved sleep - falling asleep more easily, waking less often during the night and going back to sleep easily, and waking feeling fresh in the morning
• Improved digestion
• A feeling of wellbeing