Stress Management

Golden Rules For Coping With Panic

1. Remind yourself that although your feelings and symptoms are very frightening, they are not dangerous or harmful.

2. Understand that what you are experiencing is just an exaggeration of your normal bodily reactions to stress.

3. Do not fight your feelings, or try to wish them away. The more you are willing to face them, the less intense they will become.

4. Do not add to your panic by thinking about what "might" happen. If you find yourself asking, "What in" tell yourself, "So what!"

5. Stay in the present. Notice what is really happening to you as opposed to what you think "might" happen.

6. Label your fear level from 0 to 10 and watch it go up and down. Notice that it does not stay at a very high level for more than a few seconds.

7. When you find yourself thinking about the fear, change your primary thought. Focus on and carry out a simple and manageable task.

8. Notice that when you stop adding frightening thoughts to your fear, it begins to fade.

9. When the fear comes, expect and accept it. Wait and give it time to pass without running away from it.

10. Be proud of yourself for your progress thus far, and think about how good you will feel when you succeed this time.

11. Remember that a Level 10 panic attack is, by your own personal definition, "the worst. " It is a comforting thought that you have had Level 10s before. They were awful, but temporary, and you did survive. Nothing worse can happen. You have already dealt with "the worst."

Source: Ross J., Triumph Over Fear. New York, NY: Bantam Press; 1994.

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