My friend sometimes has anxiety attacks whenever I skype her and are occurring more frequently. I try to calm her down by saying simple things like "It'll be over soon." and "I'm here for you.". I try asking questions to keep her from thinking about it, suggesting things she can do while she's enduring it, and more. My heart breaks whenever she abuses herself during the attack such as snapping a rubber band against her wrist and cutting her hand or thumb, thinking that pain will distract her. And through it all, I feel helpless not knowing what I can do to comfort her. Any ideas I can use to help comfort her?

I have never had a panic/anxiety attack but I do have generalized anxiety. I think the best thing you can do for her would be to talk her through it. Remain calm, talk about something simple and distracting, try to avoid topics that may be surprising or cause stress, ask her to breath deeply with you bc in my experience when you are panicking breathing deeply will help relax you, I am not sure if she takes medication for this but if she does remind her to take it if she is having an attack. I hope this helped anxiety of any form is very hard to deal with so I hope this helps at least a little bit. Good luck with everything and remember that being with her through it is the best thing you can do

I don't think I'm much of a stranger to anxiety but I honestly don't think there's anything I could say to help your situation. Anxiety is one of those things that has no fix, there's no cure, work around or way out really.

The only thing I can really say is to keep in mind what is said or done. I found some of the most anxious moments are the ones where others realize I'm anxious. So try to remember you want your friend to be aware of the anxiety and for them to work themselves through calming down. You don't want to try and calm them down yourself. It's their problem and while you CAN help them, they can only get through it themselves.

Thank you for all the great advice I'll try my best :)

I think trying to rationalize helps. Point out impossibilities in a calming voice. My friend has a very bad phobia of spiders and called me while she was having a panic attack because there was a big on in her room. I asked her to take a deep breath and breathe. then i asked her to point out characteristics of the spider. I have a knowledge of them so it helped, and i told her about the few kinds of deadly spiders in our area. i then comforted her and let her know this fear was rational and valid. talking out the details of the situation really helped her. maybe the same will work?