Panics unpicked

The shrink's comments may have been bloody useless, but the booklets she sent me on anxiety and panic were gold.

The key is indeed breathing, but the missing, vital, piece of information is it's about my breathing BEFORE the panic attack, not during.

I haven't read it all yet, but it looks like this is what happens in my case:
•the pain kicks off
•it's agony drawing breath, so I breathe fast and shallow to minimise the pain
•this equals hyperventilation
•the oxygen levels in my blood fall too low
•I take morphine to help the pain
•the side effects of the morphine, coupled with low oxygen levels make me feel floaty and out of control
•I start to panic as a result
•I feel terrified, I tense up, the pain gets worse, my breathing gets worse, I panic more
•and so on.

So the solution seems to be:
•when the pain kicks off, concentrate on breathing as slow and as deep as possible
•when the floatiness from the morphine starts, imagine my feet firmly rooted in the ground, so I feel safe
•keep repeating

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