1. Prior to an attack: a healthy diet, as well as a good mix of activities such as exercise, hobbies, social activities can help maintain a more balanced general attitude, as well as maintaining a 'healthy mind', i.e. try and think uplifting thoughts and surround yourself with positive mental images rather than reinforcing / attracting attacks by making yourself feel bad in advance. Knowing what kind of thoughts may trigger your attacks also helps, as you can use them as signals and consciously try to force yourself to think other thoughts instead of going through a fullblown attack.

2. during an attack: although it is hard to "stay calm" (obviously) during an attack, trying to rationalise your level of fear might help put things into perspective and thus lessen the attack. Judging your anxiety on a 1-10 scale telling yourself 'My Body (not ME, as this might increase your anxiety further) is a t level X or Y and learn to accept that level instead of trying to force yourself to "be calm" can help, as can reaffirming to yourself that your head tells you the emotions you are going through are not rational, and if in doubt you should listen to your head.

3. generally accepting your anxiety as part of who you are, not over-analysing it and consciously trying to avoid attacks by being aware of what may trigger them and not 'falling into the same trap' over and again, can help. even if you do have an attack, it's part of who you are and all you can do is patiently work on it bit by bit!

For more info see http://www.anxieties.com/panic -intro.php

http://www.postpartum.net/pani c.html

Good luck!

Learn more about this author, Vanessa Fagan.
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