When I first started experiencing shortness of breath, I became quite anxious and had some full-on anxiety attacks with incontinence and all of the negative things that can go with it.

I learned to reverse the fight or flight or as I like to call it the reptilian brain. You do this by engaging your cognitive brain. I will use being in a parking lot as an example because that is where my worst attacks took place.

I will start naming and describing the cars within my vision while I am doing pursed-lip breathing. It is sort of like playing that game I see that I played as a youngster. I see a red 2 door Pontiac Grand Am Coupe, a blue Toyota Camry with PA plates, and so on and so on. The more specific you can be the better because by being specific you are causing your cognitive brain to have to work.

As soon as I would start to feel short of breath or feel my heart begin to pound, I would employ this strategy. After a month or so I was able to go out and not think about a panic attack.

One of the worst things about having a panic attack out in public is the scared and concerned looks on people’s faces. They want to help, but in reality they are making things worse, but I certainly do appreciate their willingness to help, so I have never shunned them.

Once when I was in the hospital and could not get my heart rate to go down, I asked my wonderful friend to bring my notepad so that I could play some free cell because reading was not using enough of my reasoning brain power. I fell asleep playing free cell and trying to solve some other puzzles on my notepad, and when I woke up my heart rate had begun to decrease.

I hope that someone reads this and can benefit from my experience.