If you find it hard to establish a rhythm with this new kind of breathing, try counting in your head.

doing something you have been avoiding (exposure); and Give or take. This O.C.D. has once again won. If you need to talk about one incident, then dont talk too much about the build-up to it. And you could say that behaviours such as constantly checking a room for spiders, or crossing the road to avoid a meeting, have an element of compulsion to them. As we go through this information, I want you to understand that this section is of importance to those trying to help another person who is experiencing, or dealing with, Anxiety on a daily basis. This is specially useful if panic makes your legs turn to jelly - if you are fit, you can be sure that they will carry you, however shaky they feel. The important thing is that you now understand what you need to do, and you have learnt not to be intimidated by the size of the task, because you know that small steps are best. Someone with OCD with rituals, whether physical or mental, is doing that pretty well all the time. This will probably seem quite tedious at first, but after a while it will become second nature to monitor your negative thoughts and put a stop to them as soon as they start. Examine your behaviour while you are busy with your thoughts (this is known as ruminating). Typical thoughts are: I cut down my checking yesterday morning, but I was as bad as ever in the afternoon. Lots of people recover from Anxiety, but Ill be the exception. Magnifying and minimising This kind of selective attention makes bad things big and good things small, so its really a combination of filtering and discounting the positive. Feel the tension in your fists. Really feel it. YES/NO Look at the questions you answered with a yes. Am I looking at the whole picture? Am I looking at the whole picture? For instance, to change all-or-nothing thinking, write down the two extremes and draw a line between them. What is the problem? Just let the attack happen naturally, and in most, if not all, cases, their bodies will help them come out of the 'hot' zone all on it's own.