Hyper anxiety and panic attack - any idea to soothe?

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My friend (ex boyfriend) has aspergers and he suffers from panic attack pretty often. He worries a lot about things that are not needed to be worried about (in my opinion) and he freaks about it quite often.

I really care for him and hope that he can overcome and soothe from his panic attack. Do you have any idea how to? I have been looking online with no answer other than medication and he won't go for that route.

How I should be or what he needs to do or any ideas.. appreciate it!

remind him that though panic attacks feel horrible, they are not dangerous. ask him to take slow, deep breaths. ask him to focus on something - a picture, a song on the radio, or even just his slow-deep breathing. let him know while he is calm that you will be offering him these helps.

Control of the Breath , breathing control!
When anxious the uncontrolled respiration tends to make it even worse. One little link to help find out more about it:
http://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/relaxation-techniques-breath-control-helps-quell-errant-stress-response

Kava tea is helpful, if he's open to herbal remedies. Tulsa (aka holy basil) can be helpful too. Even a good chamomile helps.

He can try Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Not simply for panic disorder but for the specific anxiety disorders. Everybody is a little different it is methodology. It take a little time, but can be effective is self tailored.

I have found and exercise to be a big factor. Just eating well

As far as attack themselves, it is more about mitigating and knowing the sign early enough. The most effective technique I found is interrupting the thoughts with nonsense/noise. Rather than to attempt to rationalize.

During a panic attack it is management. This is general advice:

Close your eyes, if possible sit on the floor or on a chair or bench. Don't take deep breaths. 9/10 people having panic attack are hyper-ventilating, even if people feel like they can't breathe. There is not reason why belly breaths would be better, in fact the out breath is what you want to prolong. You might say that the slowness of breaths might help, but you actually have too much intake anyway. People wrongly assume shallow breaths are wrong. This is becuase they associate shallow breaths with fast breathing, but this isn't necessarily the case.

If you can imagine a sine wave going full cycle 3-4 seconds, take a shallow breath through the nose not the mouth for 2/3 up the up curve. For the rest of the half cycle just pause, not physically holding back the breath or straining, then for the remaining half cycle breathe out slowly. Just do that. At the start it make sense to do it through the nose, but as you get the hang of it, make the out breath through a small gap in the lips. Do not force the breathe out, let it out steadily.

This is something you can practice, when you are not panicking and do regularly. You can even create an animation of a dot moving on a sine wave, and shaded parts for the different sections to help you.

Take every sensation as is, neither good or bad. If you get lock-jaw, this is a not so bad, becuase you are hyperventilating, so it sort itself out. I used to get strong cramps and be buckled, and fingers would claw up with stiffness, but even that is a much needed distraction. I recommend just taking in the body sensations, and focusing on breathing. You don't wan to "think" to much other than this, if you find yourself thinking interrupt your thoughts.

I know with my friend, it is helpful for him to feel the sensation of the breathing, so putting a hand in front, might help some people regulate their breathing.

My last full blown panic attack was around 2007 I think. You body can learn, and the brain is built to learn. It can get itself into negative cycle, and these cycle need to be broken, by removing some link in the chain of cognition and behaviour.

kava can cause liver failure.

I go the timings slightly wrong it is really around 8 second rather than 4, but obviously if you are breathing fast it will take time to slow down gradually.

Aprox 1.5-2 second in breath, pause 2 seconds, out breath 4 seconds.