Hi,
I've been a member of this forum for a long time having suffered terribly with health anxiety and panic attacks which started 10 years ago when I was 21 years old. I was getting daily panic attacks and found that nothing was helping to relieve the symptoms except leaving the situation I was in (supermarket queue, restaurant, crowded place etc). The problem is that leaving isn't always possible (eg if you're on a plane or train), and it's a vicious cycle anyway - if you avoid situations due to panic attacks you only make the panic attacks more frequent, which in my case led to agoraphobia.
It was these panic attacks which led me to develop an iPhone app designed to lessen the symptoms. It's designed to help people cope better with the symptoms without them having to leave the situation they're in. The app is called Panic Attack Aid, and I have based each section of the app on CBT techniques I have learned from all the self-help books I have read about panic attacks.
The sections in the app are:
- Breathing: a visual breathing guide designed to replicate the normal respiration rate of a relaxed individual at rest, which will regulate your fast breathing caused by your panic attack.
- Reassurance: this section explains the many scary symptoms of a panic attack helping you to calm down and feel at ease. The reassurance is tailored to your location, for example at the airport, in a queue, at home, in a crowd.
- Distraction: this section is filled with games and simple mental exercises designed to distract you from your panic attack symptoms. The science being that as soon as you forget about your symptoms and focus on something else, the symptoms diminish.
There are also links to helpful resources for people who suffer from panic attacks, like this excellent website.
Panic Attack Aid is available on iTunes all around the world, has received very good reviews and has been endorsed by leading anxiety charity Anxiety UK as an excellent resource for panic attack sufferers in times of crisis.
If you think that this app will be useful to you, you can download it from the Apple app store here:
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/pani...396659945?mt=8
Thanks for reading, and any feedback/reviews would be much appreciated.
Mike