Learning how to deal with panic attacks begins with an understanding of what they are and what they are not. They most always cause symptoms resembling a heart attack, but unless you already have a cardiac condition, you’re not having a heart attack. They may make you think you’re having a nervous breakdown, but you’re not.

Professional and medicinal therapies can be very helpful, but learning how to deal with panic attacks when they happen is equally important. There are several things you can do to help yourself.

1. Practice Acceptance, Not Avoidance

It seems that most experts agree: Fighting your feelings of anxiety will only make you more anxious, and you become stuck in a cycle of fear that triggers additional waves of adrenaline. You can’t ignore those thoughts either. Panic attacks work in such a way as to prevent you from making your anxious thoughts disappear. The only alternative is to accept the thoughts but to change how you react to them. Like most everything in life, your reaction makes the experience what it is. So according to Barry McDonagh’s Panic Away program, you can actually break the fear cycle and free yourself of those horrifying thoughts by changing the way you react to them.

For example, he says to tell yourself that you refuse to react. Also tell yourself that you refuse to let the attack stop you from whatever you were doing when it started. Instead, a) observe the presence of the fearsome thought; b) label the thought as whatever it is you’re afraid of; c) watch it pass without judging it while d) moving on and focusing all your attention on what you’re doing at the moment. Or if you were not in the middle of some task…

2. Immediately Engage in “Clean Up” Work

Suppose the panic attack comes when you’re at home or at work. Another expert tells us that cleaning up the room or getting stuff organized is a great distraction that achieves two important things: a) a satisfying sense of accomplishment and control; and b) physical movement, which uses up the excess adrenaline instead of letting it deposit toxins in your muscles and cause pain.

3. Redirect Your Focus to Something Else “In the Now”

Suppose you can’t focus on a task because the attack comes when you’re in public. Redirect your focus from your fearsome thoughts to objects around you, the colors of things, or architectural designs, or words that you hear. Refuse to let your thoughts leap into the past or the future. This helps you regain the sense of being connected that panic attacks tend to take away.

4. Practice Gratefulness

The creator of Project Away points out that scientific research has proven the practice of gratitude can change body chemistry in ways that calm the body and mind. He says if you make a conscious effort to switch your attention from your head to your heart and consider everything you have to be grateful for, you’ll create a distraction that can diffuse your anxiety and fear.

5. Learn to Slow and Control Your Breathing

Slow, deep breathing is a coping skill that you can perform on the spot in order to relax. Whenever possible, practice breathing from your diaphragm instead of your chest. When you breathe from your diaphragm, your stomach, not your chest, will move out and in. Practice this routinely so it will come as second nature if a panic attack strikes.

6. Make the Necessary Lifestyle Changes

Quit the caffeine, smoking, sugar and processed foods. Add more water, fiber, vegetables and daily exercise. Learn and practice relaxation skills like meditation and yoga. Get eight hours of sleep every night.

7. Get Your Doctor’s Recommendations

Lifestyle changes and prescription drugs can greatly reduce the occurrence of panic attacks. But you’ll most likely learn that some prescription medications have unintended side effects and could even make your condition worse. And if you’re taking any medications containing caffeine, ask your doctor if there’s a substitute.

These seven tips for how to deal with panic attacks are meant to help you help yourself, and self-help programs such as The Linden Method may contain the guidance you’re looking for.