How you can help someone having a panic attack

Topics mentiond: panic attacks, supporting a friend, anxiety

About: Your first panic attack can be a scary experience, but there are things you can do to manage them. Beth gives her advice on how you can help someone having a panic attack.

I was standing in the canteen at work, talking to my team. I was getting more and more worried as my boss listed all the tasks we needed to complete, and was panicking about how I was going to juggle everything and get it all done. Then I started thinking about everything I hadn’t done at home. I’d forgotten my lunch that morning - and did I accidentally leave the iron on?

Suddenly I wasn’t listening to my boss anymore. My mind was swirling with thoughts, my inner critic shouting at me, reminding of everything I had to do. I couldn’t cope. I felt like a rabbit in headlights, frozen in terror - and then I blacked out.

I came round, lying on the floor of my work canteen, with my colleagues crowded around me. What had just happened? I’d fainted. Someone at work called 111, and they sent a fast-response ambulance. It was the second day in a row that I had fainted at work, and they were worried about me.

The paramedics came, did all the tests, and declared me physically absolutely fine. Except I clearly wasn’t fine. I couldn’t stop shaking, crying and feeling really dizzy. Luckily, one of the paramedics knew what a panic attack looked like, and he asked me if I was stressed about anything.

“Have you lost someone?” he asked, and I was shocked that my bereavement was so obvious. It turned out he had lost someone too, and knew that panic attacks could be a part of the grieving process. He made me promise I would go and see my GP, which I did that very afternoon.

After that incident, I had about five further panic attacks. They were really scary, although once I knew they were panic attacks, I found them easier to manage. I knew I had to simply take deep breaths, keep calm, and the feelings would pass. That was easier said than done though!

I was prescribed medication that I could take reactively when I felt a panic attack coming on, and this did help. But the panic attacks came from a rapid increase in my heart rate as I got more and more stressed about something, so the first thing I had to learn was how to control my breathing.

It might be that one day you encounter someone having a panic attack. It’s really important that you know what to do if this happens - it’s more common than you would think, and it’s really easy to help someone stay calm and safe.

In the UK, one in four people has a mental health condition, and panic attacks are increasingly common. They are nothing to be afraid of or ashamed by, and if you see someone having a panic attack, remember that it is really simple to help that person feel better again.