I’ve heard about lots of tricks for stopping panic attacks; but using math? Yep, an EasyCalm user from Denmark named Tom recently sent me this tip for stopping panic attacks (Takk Tom!). It involves doing math in your head, and believe it or not, Tom wasn’t the first person to mention this trick to me.
I make no guarantees that this will work for everyone, but obviously, it has worked for some people. So give it a try for yourself and see how it goes.
The technique itself is as simple as they come. The idea is simply to start doing difficult math problems in your head whenever you feel a panic attack coming on. The trick is to make the math problems (or “maths” for my non-North American friends) difficult enough that you have to really focus on them, but not so difficult that you get frustrated and give up. Depending on your skill in math, this could range from simple multiplication to more complicated division, or even algebraic equations if you’re a whiz with the numeros.
I couldn’t try out this technique for stopping panic attacks properly, because, gratefully, I haven’t had a panic attack in a long, long time. But I did get a chance to try it when I was a little stressed about being stuck in traffic a few days ago. I just began doing multiplication problems like 13 X 13, and 21 X 11. My results were kind of mixed (but that could just be me). While I was doing the math problems I did notice that I was somewhat distracted from stressing about the traffic, and the fact that I was running late for an appointment.
On the downside, I also noticed that I began feeling slightly frustrated from focusing on the crappy math problems! Full disclosure: math was never my favorite subject in school!
But to be honest, if I had to choose between feeling frustrated by math problems or feeling the sheer terror of a panic attack, I would choose frustration every time. As I said, I can’t make any guarantees that this trick will work for everyone, but according to Tom and a few other people who have written in over the years, it does help some.
The next time you feel panic attack coming on, give it a try. You’ve got nothing to lose, and it could be a great help.
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Have you ever watched the news and found yourself terrified of some new, hidden health threat or similar that could possibly be the end of you? I know I have. It seems that almost every day there’s a new threat out there; it’s often something hidden in your food or your genes, or our neighborhood, and it it’s almost always lethal. But wait…then the commercial break comes on, and there it is; the pill or shot or company that will make it all better. 
According to a newly released Canadian study, reports that a lot of people experience a form of anxiety when they are not “connected” by the means of a wireless device like a cell phone or a laptop. As many as 59% say they experience some anxiety when disconnected and 26% report “significantly elevated levels of anxiety”. In addition, a CTV.ca article explains that another new phenomenon is people feeling their cell phones or blackberries vibrating in their pockets—when it’s not there.
Just a reminder today: when you are working on overcoming a problem (
