Your anxiety about it may never fully go away, but you can learn to more effectively manage your symptoms in a way that will allow you to feel more safe and secure when facing public situations. Here are some tips. Breathing exercises can help you to slow your breath down, eliciting feelings of calm and relaxation. Deep breathing can also greatly help keep other symptoms from escalating, such as rapid heart rate or chest pain. For example, you may want to start your day off with a few minutes of deep breathing, use it to recharge in the afternoon, or practice this exercise in the evening to unwind from the day and prepare for a better night’s rest. You can become so afraid of your symptoms that you believe you’re going to lose control, go insane, or even die. These distressing thoughts and symptoms are often amplified when experiencing a panic attack in public. In order to gain control over these thoughts, you must first become aware of them. Practicing mindfulness is a way that you can learn to acknowledge your thoughts without letting them take over your emotions and behaviors. Through mindfulness practices, you can increase your self-awareness to become better prepared to handle your symptoms in public. Prepare the person you’re with by explaining your symptoms and fears to them. Come up with a game plan that can include recognizing your symptoms as they occur, utilizing coping strategies to get through a panic attack, and preparing to leave a place or situation if needed. Visualization involves closing your eyes and envisioning yourself in different circumstances. Through visualization, you can imagine what it would be like to successfully manage your anxiety while in public. Similar to daydreaming, this exercise allows you to tap into your senses and imagination to see yourself achieving positive outcomes. For example, you may visualize yourself utilizing your coping techniques to face public situations with more relaxed confidence. By visualizing success, you may feel more ready to deal with your symptoms in public. If you have agoraphobia, you’ll often develop extreme avoidance behaviors in which you sidestep many circumstances in order to feel safe. For example, you may avoid public transportation and crowds. In more severe cases, you can become homebound with agoraphobia. The sooner you begin an appropriate treatment plan, the quicker you will be able to manage your condition. A technique known as imaginal desensitization can be a helpful way to gradually overcome situations you’ve avoided. This self-help technique can help you unlearn fears and overcome situations that seem to trigger panic and anxiety. Through the use of visualization and other anxiety management techniques, imaginal desensitization allows you to gradually face and overcome fears associated with managing panic disorder in public.
