Hyperventilating or panic attack

[suzansuzan]

I am not sure if my daugher is having a panic attack or hyperventilating. I also do not know what to do when this happens. It doesn't happen very often, but when she gets hurt, she freaks out and can't calm down. She can't hardly catch her breath, and scares me to death. She slammed her finger in the door last night, and I was so afraid she was going to pass out from breathing wrong. I guess I'm really afraid how she would handle it if she really got hurt bad and I wasn't around.

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

This sort of reaction to physical injury is not an example of panic attacks. It often does involve hyperventilation in the context of heightened emotional arousal. There is little to do, with the exception of maintaining your own state of equanimity in her presence, along with reassuring her and assisting her to regain her own state of calm. It is not something that should be causing you undue worry.

[melbush]

Suzansuzan,
I was wondering how old your daughter was because my son is 9 and he is displaying the same thing.  He gets so upset that he can't breathe and he isn't really crying, he had his first one when we were in line to go onto a roller coaster.  I could not calm him down and he could not say why he was crying and upset but he just couldn't calm down and catch his breath.  

[JamesJessie]

A related discussion, Son can't handle discipline was started.