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Don’t Panic! How Learning to Sing Helped Me Overcome Panic Attacks

Breathing is something we take for granted. It comes as part of the package of being alive along with a beating heart and a functioning brain. We may feel that our brains work better some days than others, but our bodies keep breathing in and out without us having to give any thought to the process. The latter however is not the case for anyone who has had the misfortune to experience panic attacks. For those, the whole experience of breathing suddenly becomes a much less automatic response.

I don’t remember when they started, or why, but I will never forget the rising sense of panic, the struggle to catch breath or the overwhelming desire to flee from wherever I was, as fast as I could. Supermarket queues were a frequent location. There was no logical explanation for this. I could make my away around the store, gathering the items on my list but once I got to the till area and had to stand in a queue, I would suddenly become acutely aware of the overwhelming symptoms of a panic attack. Along with the increased heart rate that made me feel as if my heart was about to burst through my rib cage, there was the light-headedness that caused buzzing in my ears and made stringing a coherent thought together almost impossible.

As this continued, I would also be drenched in ice-cold sweat as I struggled to swallow and to work out how to take in air. The buzzing in my ears would get louder and my vision would start to darken. In full panic mode the last thing I wanted to do was to draw attention to myself – though, with hindsight, I realize that I must have looked pretty unwell to anyone nearby, with my face drained of colour and covered with a glassy sheen of sweat! Faced with landing in a heap on the floor, I hung on and learned how to avoid fainting. I can remember concentrating on the weight of my feet on the floor and trying to ground myself there to avoid abandoning my trolley and making a run for the exit.

When it was my turn to be served, I would throw everything into bags as quickly as possible, hand over my money and then (propelled by a rush of adrenaline) narrowly avoid mowing down anyone in my way, as I sped with the trolley towards the exit. Abandoning it, I would race out of the door to stand on the street allowing the fresh air to blow over me, drying the sweat on my skin. With the adrenaline rush over, my heart rate would slowly return to normal and my breathing would gradually become easier. The stress of the attack however left me drained of energy and with an aching rib cage from my efforts at forcing my body to breathe. The walk home was laborious.

I was on my own and shopping for food was a necessity, so I re-lived this whole ordeal on a regular basis. It would continue to be repeated in shops and other settings to varying degrees over the next few years.

I have sung all of my life but during this period I didn’t have a regular singing outlet. I had been in a choir for years as a child and in singing groups of one sort or another after this but had never been taught the mechanics of breathing effectively for singing. As I had started university as a mature student, and included music amongst my studies, I decided it was time to get some lessons in singing and get my voice moving again. I began to learn more about my voice, and how it worked, and how to take in and use breath to support the sound. My singing voice began to get louder, my range improved, notes were less shaky, and I started to feel more confident in the sound I could make.

I realized something else as well. I had stopped having panic attacks. When I started learning how to breathe properly, in order to sing better - taking in good deep breaths, expanding my rib cage and filling my lungs – I had also been using this technique whenever I felt panicky. Slowing down my breathing and ensuring that there was plenty of oxygen circulating in my body, kept my brain stimulated and my heart rate closer to normal. The lack of oxygen was the main factor fuelling my panic attacks before. As the feelings of panic began, I would frantically snatch at breath, taking in short gasps that got nowhere near filling my lungs. Starved of oxygen, my brain was unable to function effectively and I spiralled into a full-blown panic attack. Now I was able to stop this happening by having more control over my breath. This was a totally unexpected but very welcome side-effect – I had no idea that learning to sing better would make such a positive change to my life.

Now I am not saying that I never experience feelings of panic anymore. They are a natural response and have helped, since pre-historic times, to keep us safe from dangers. It is how we respond to these feelings that makes the difference. Once in a while I feel that little prickle of panic. I check around – for sabre-tooth cats, speeding vehicles, anything that poses a potential threat to me. While I’m doing all of that, I remember to breathe. If that large moggy does turn out to be a sabre-tooth I’m going to need my lungs full of breath to keep my legs running as fast as they can go!

Sheena MacKinnon

Sign-up at our Ladies Room to access our Voice Box full of free resources, including breathing exercises to help you start working on your singing voice.

We also have our introductory self-learning module available for you to buy. Our Beginning To SIng course will give you a foundation on which to build your singing voice and help you to learn good breathing techniques.