FACING FEARS AND PANIC ATTACKS

When seized with fears or panic attacks
Let your built-in helper bring calmness back.
When switching to song, deep breathing abounds,
So chortle with joy to all around.

Singing can be an effective way of combating fear of panic attacks. Looking for a way to help his patients who experience panic attacks while driving, Dr. David Carbonell, director of the Anxiety Treatment Center in New York, came up with the idea of singing.

In his Panic Attacks Workbook: A Guided Program for Beating the Panic Attack (Ulysses Press), he explains that panic attacks feed on shallow, constricted breathing. Singing out loud relaxes the chest and promotes better breathing.

Humor helps too. He recommends singing this song aloud (to the tune of “Camptown Races”): “I’ll go crazy, then I’ll die … doo-dah! doo-dah!

Perhaps just another equally humourous song might do just as well.