Help with panic attacks — what helps right now.

If you know this feeling, you're in the right place. On this page you'll find first aid for the acute moment — five steps that calm your nervous system directly — and an honest look at what helps long-term when the anxiety keeps coming back. I'm Laura, psychologist & Gestalt therapist, and I work with people online — in English, German and Polish.

First aid for panic attacks: five steps for the acute moment.

1. 1

   Stay where you are — if it is safe.

   The impulse says: get out of here! But fleeing confirms to the anxiety that the situation was dangerous. If you stay, you experience: the wave rises — and it falls again. Exactly this experience takes away panic's power in the long run.

2. 2

   Lengthen your exhale.

   Breathe in for four seconds — and out for six to eight, as if through a straw. Don't breathe in deeply (that can intensify the tingling); breathe out long. The exhale calms your nervous system directly.

3. 3

   Come into the here and now through your senses.

   Name silently: 5 things you can see. 4 you can hear. 3 you can feel in your body — your feet on the floor, the backrest behind you. Panic lives in the future ("something is about to happen!"). Your senses live in the now.

4. 4

   Use cold.

   Cold water over your forearms or on your face, a cold glass of water drunk slowly. The cold stimulus pulls the body out of alarm mode.

5. 5

   Call the panic by its name.

   Silently or out loud: "This is a panic attack. My body is sounding an alarm although there is no danger. It is unpleasant — and it passes." Naming creates distance.

What helps with panic attacks long-term.

The five steps help in the moment. But when panic attacks keep returning, a second problem often begins — the fear of fear. You start avoiding the supermarket, the train, the cinema. Life gets narrower. This is exactly where support becomes useful: not because something is "wrong" with you — but because a pattern has worn itself in that is hard to break alone.

In my work as a Gestalt therapist I don't primarily look at diagnoses with you. Something else interests me:

What is the panic showing you? Often it is a very loud signal for something that has been quiet for a long time.

Overload, held-back feelings, a life that no longer fits in important places. We work in the here and now, a lot with the body: where do you feel the anxiety? What does that place in you need? Step by step, the enemy "panic" becomes a messenger you can understand — and let go.

Panic attack help online — how it works.

My sessions take place over a secure video connection — in English, German or Polish. For many people with panic attacks, online is actually easier: you are in your own safe space, no commute, no waiting room.

And if you're thinking "but what if I get a panic attack during the session?" — that would actually be a good moment: we would be together exactly where the work happens, in the here and now.

If anxiety shapes your life beyond the panic attacks, you'll find more here: Individual therapy online.

This page does not replace medical or psychiatric treatment. Physical symptoms should be checked by a doctor once; in an acute crisis call 112 (emergency) or the German crisis line 0800 111 0 111 (free, 24/7).