There has been a great deal of research performed on the treatment of panic attacks. Panic attacks can be severe and may completely dominate a person’s life. They can affect their ability to drive a car, go to public places, be with friends and family and in some cases even can prevent people from leaving their homes. They also have physical and mental effects that can help to create other negative conditions and should be treated to allow the patient to resume a normal life.
Most experts agree that psychotherapy is the best option for treating people with panic disorders and attacks. Psychiatrists and psychologists use specific techniques to treat patients with these conditions and are specially trained to help people understand their conditions. Cognitive behavior modification therapy is one of the most successful tools doctors can use. It teaches the patient to focus on the specific things that trigger their attacks, and to learn how to modify their behavior and responses to these triggers. These types of treatments can also be used with medications to achieve the desired results.
Anti-depressant and anti-anxiety medications are often used to alter how the person’s brain chemicals work. They work by changing how the brain’s neurons absorb certain normal brain chemicals and chemicals released by the body due to stress. They achieve better results when they are used in conjunction with psychotherapy treatments. Medications may have side effects and should be fully discussed with a doctor before they are taken. The two most useful types of medications used to treat panic attacks are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI), and selective serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SSNRI). Examples of these are Zoloft, Prozac, Xanax, Effector, Cymbalta and Paxil.
Living a healthy lifestyle is also important to treating panic attacks. A balanced diet, limiting caffeine intake, getting proper sleep and routine exercise is a good way to keep your mind healthy. Some herbal supplements such as Kava may also help relieve some of the symptoms of panic attacks, but always be careful with supplements that may have drug interactions or poor regulation
Panic attacks can appear without warning and can completely debilitate the person having the attack in seconds. They may last over 10 minutes and cause the person to experience chest pain, heart palpitations, dizziness, nausea, and extreme feelings of terror and dread. They are so bad the person having the attack often fears that they are dying. Panic attacks are a form of anxiety disorder that will affect 20% of all Americans at some point in their lives.
Panic attacks are essentially a malfunctioning trigger of the body’s natural alarm system, a blend of mental and body reactions. This alarm system, known as the fight or flight response, is there to allow us to respond to life threatening situations, it is a tool for self preservation. In certain cases however, this emergency response system is triggered for no apparent cause and has extreme effects. The causes of panic attacks are not really known.
There are several factors that may cause them, but there is no specific known cause or definitive answer of who will experience panic attacks. People with a family history of anxiety related problems often will have them too, but this is not always true as people with no family history can get them as well. People with a history of childhood abuse or serious illness also seem to be susceptible to panic attacks. Overly sensitive, anxious people and perfectionist’s personalities are also susceptible.
These attacks may also by symptoms of other mental disorders, such as Posttraumatic Stress Disorder or schizophrenia, or they may be reactions to substance abuse withdrawal. Panic attacks can also be directly caused by a panic disorder, where the person is so afraid of having another panic attack that they trigger an attack to begin. Certain medical conditions like thyroid abnormalities or enema may also cause panic attacks to occur. There is also the possibility of food additives (like aspartame), certain types of food dyes or even some nutritional deficiencies that may cause people to experience panic attacks.
Panic attacks are a serious medical disorder that requires treatment to overcome. With treatment however, it is possible to live a normal attack free life.
When a person experiences the extremely terrifying symptoms of a panic attack, their levels of anxiety and fear can grow. Panic attacks are part of an anxiety disorder and cause sudden physical and mental attacks that can completely incapacitate the person. These panic attacks are so consuming that people often develop panic disorders from them.
During a panic attack, which the causes of are not directly known, the person may associate certain places or things with irrational fear. This can cause a panic disorder to form, where the patient develops phobias and then will attempt to avoid them. Often these symptoms build on one another until the person cannot perform daily functions or live a normal lifestyle. Extreme fear of a panic attack can actually cause a panic attack to occur. Panic attacks that happen more than once are a symptom of panic disorder.
A major symptom of panic disorder develops from phobias of specific places, people, objects or sensations. The person will then begin avoidance behavior and may develop agoraphobia, or the inability to leave the house, drive a car or perform other normal daily functions. Someone who develops agoraphobia will begin to have their entire life consumed by fears.
The increased anxiety levels shown by people suffering from panic disorders can have other negative effects as well. Panic disorders increase the likelihood of the person developing depression, claustrophobia, and substance or alcohol abuse and may increase the thoughts or actions of suicide. Depression and increased anxiety can also allow other psychiatric disorders to develop such as schizophrenia and delusions.
Getting help for the symptoms of panic disorder is essential to having a healthy life. Over 19million people in the United States suffer from panic disorder and specific phobias. You are not alone, there are many treatment options to panic disorders, you just have to take the first step and realize that you have a problem.
Anxiety attacks are a debilitating condition that affects over 6 million people in the United States. They cause extreme feelings of fear and dread and often have severe physical symptoms that can completely incapacitate anyone suffering from them. The causes of this serious medical condition are not exactly known, but there are several risk factors.
There are many factors that may cause someone to begin experiencing extreme anxiety. Heredity and family history may play a role. People with anxiety disorders will often have family members who have anxiety issues as well. An abusive or neglectful childhood history can also help to create problems with anxiety and coping as children grow up. People who suffer from mental illness often have anxiety problems associated with their illness and the difficulties it may add to their lives. This can also be true for people suffering from long term medical illnesses, where thoughts and fears about their illness can create worry.
Traumatic events can also help create anxiety problems, which is a big concern for returning soldiers. In fact, 7.7 million Americans suffer from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. These problems don’t just affect military personnel however; anyone who experiences a traumatic event can develop anxiety symptoms. It is often a way for the brain to attempt to cope.
Continual stress is a major reason why people can develop anxiety attacks. Long term stress causes the brain to release cortisol and corticotrophin hormones into the bloodstream. These hormones keep the body’s stress responses going and if the stress remains in the person’s life then their ability to cope properly can diminish. Anything stressful can affect the way the brain copes, and different people have unique coping methods.
Stress that can lead to anxiety can be caused by financial and workplace difficulties, martial trouble, problems at school or with relationships, a death in the family or any major life changes. Substance abuse is another factor that may lead to developing anxiety related problems as drugs can alter the brain’s function and create emotional changes.
Panic attacks cause feelings of fear, dread and panic and cause serious physical effects such as heart palpitations, sweating, problems breathing, nausea, dizziness and fainting. These attacks can completely debilitate you and negatively affect your personal and professional life. This problem can even become so severe that you may not want to ever leave the house, or you may choose to avoid many situations that cause you to panic. Panic attacks are a serious mental and physical disorder, but there are many ways to cope with them and lead a healthy and normal lifestyle.
The first and most important step to learning to cope with your panic attacks is to recognize that you have a problem. Panic attacks can be caused by many factors and affect over 6 million people in the United States. Recognizing that you may have an anxiety disorder that controls your life if a lot easier if you know that you are not alone. Once you recognize the problem the second step to get some help to learn to deal with it. With treatment it is completely possible to live a normal and panic attack free life. The sooner you seek help the better off you will be.
Psychotherapy and cognitive behavior therapies can be extremely useful in learning how to recognize the triggers for your anxiety and learning appropriate ways to deal with them. There are also many types of medications available if a doctor feels they are right for your specific symptoms. Support from family, friends, a church or even support groups is very important as well. You need to know that you are not alone.
Coping with panic attacks means you should learn about what triggers your fear and how you respond to these triggers. Learning to separate real risks and problems from ones that exist in your mind, telling yourself the differences between the two will help you feel calm in stressed situations. Learn to deal with the things you can change and accept the things that cannot be changed. Take steps to relax; yoga, meditation and aromatherapy may help.
Reduce your daily caffeine intake, exercise daily, get plenty of sleep, eat a balanced diet and work every day to reduce your negative thoughts and stress levels. With some hard work, you can control your anxiety levels and live a life without panic attacks.
Easy Calm is one of the most popular programs on the market for dealing with panic attacks and anxiety. One of the reasons why this program is so popular is the fact that the whole course is delivered via video. I have not had a chance to watch the whole series, but I watched the first chapter that Jon Mecer provides for free and was quite impressed by it. You can watch all 26 minutes of the first chapter of Easy Calm below:
In this video Jon Mecer gives a good introduction to the Easy Calm course, but he also gives some good tips for dealing with panic attacks and and anxiety, as well as some interesting background on the causes of it. Even if you don’t buy the rest of the course, I definitely recommend that you watch this video.
Based on my own research and experience over the years I have found that there are 2 very different approaches to effectively dealing with panic attacks and anxiety disorders, both of which has a very good success rate.
Facing the Fear
The first approach is to learn to not be afraid of your anxiety or panic by facing the fear head on. If you are not afraid of a panic attack or the symptoms of one, the attacks will go away altogether, it’s as simple as that. This technique is very simple, effective and has fast results, but it also requires some courage and is probably not suited for everyone. Joe Barry has perfected this approach with the popular “One Move Technique” that he teaches in his Panic Away program. This is also my recommend method for dealing with panic attacks.
>> Read Full Panic Away Review
Diversion
The second approach is all about diverting the attention of your subconscious mind to focus on other things than that which causes panic attacks and anxiety. The concept is simple - using specific diversion techniques you can effectively focus the attention of your subconscious mind on something other than the thoughts that cause panic attacks and in doing so eliminate the attacks completely. This approach requires much less courage to implement, but it takes slightly longer to achieve results and also requires more patience. The Linden Method is by far the most popular program that uses this technique.
>> Read Full Linden Method Review
It is important to understand the difference in these approaches in order to make an informed decision that best suits your own needs. Both approaches work very well, but the approach you choose will all depend on your personality and specific circumstances.
Panic attacks can be so overwhelming and life changing, it’s easy to think that you will never overcome them. However, the fact of the matter is that hundreds of people who feel the exact same way are cured of their panic attacks every day, so don’t despair. With the proper guidance and a step-by-step plan of action provided by programs like Panic Away, you can eliminate panic attacks from your life for good.
Today I would like to share some quick tips that can bring immediate relief:
Breath Deeply and Slowly
One of the first things that happen with most people during a panic attack is that they breath faster and shallower, which causes an imbalance of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the body. This brings on various other physical sensations that just makes you even more anxious. You will be amazed at what a difference it makes when you just focus on taking slow, deep breaths during a panic attack or when you feel that an attack is eminent.
Exercise to Get Rid of Excess Adrenaline
One of the effects of a panic attacks is a general anxiety disorder that is always present, because your body produces excess amounts of adrenaline in order to continuously prepare for the “fight of flight” response. Physical exercise helps a lot to reduce the excess adrenaline and remove anxiety sensations and it also helps you to focus your thoughts on something positive. Just playing a sport or going out for a walk can really make a big difference when you feel some of those anxiety sensations coming on.
Don’t Fight The Sensations
One of the key steps in getting rid of panic attacks is to learn to not be afraid of the sensations you experience. A panic attack normally starts with a negative thought, followed by one or more physical sensations. These sensations scare you, because you are worried that a panic attack is on its way. This just causes the sensations to intensify and before you know it you experience a full blown panic attack. In order to get rid of panic attacks you need to learn to stop fighting the sensations and break this cycle of fear by not allowing yourself to be afraid of them. The One Move Technique from the Panic Away program is one very effective way of achieving this and I definitely recommend that you try it out yourself.
In addition to the above points it is also very important to educate yourself and learn more about how panic attacks work, what the reasons are for the common sensations you experience during a panic attack and what the common methods are for treating panic attacks. See my Top 5 Panic Attack Programs page for more information.
Many people who experience panic attacks have no idea what is happening to them and end up thinking that they either have a heart condition or that they are going insane. If you are unsure about whether or not you are having panic attacks, then I hope that this article will clear up some of the uncertainty for you.
A panic attack is a period of intense discomfort and fear that lasts only for a few minutes (although it feels much longer). The symptoms that accompanies a panic attack differs from person to person, but the following 5 are most common:
Shortness of breath / having trouble breathing
A tingling sensation or “needles and pins” in your arms or legs.
Chest pains or a tightness in the left side of the chest.
An intense feeling of dread or impending doom.
A sense of unreality or being disconnected from your surroundings.
When experiencing these symptoms, it is very common to fear that you are going crazy or busy dying, but it is important to understand that the above things are all just sensations that result from the body’s “fight or flight” response and that none of these sensations are physically harmful.
The first step in eliminating panic attacks is to understand how they work and why you experience the above sensations. Once you understand what is happening inside your body during a panic attack, these sensations will be less terrifying and you will already be over the first hurdle towards completely eliminating these panic attacks from your life.
There are many panic attack resources available online that can help you with this, but the one that I have been most impressed with is the Panic Away program by Joe Barry. Panic Away is a self help program that explains how panic attacks work in great detail and how to eliminate them using the popular “One Move Technique“.
I know from experience that the above sensations can be terrifying, but I can assure you that it is possible to eliminate panic attacks from your life completely, no matter how severe they are.
There’s a lof of information about panic attacks available and while there are different schools of thought on the topic, most experts agree that panic attacks are caused by high anxiety. To understand how this works we need to take a closer look at what anxiety is and how it can result in a full blown panic attack.
Anxiety can be defined as a state of fear or apprehension that results from the anticipation of a real or imagine threat, situation or event. All people experience anxiety at some point in their lives, but in some cases this state of fear can escalate to such a level that a full blown panic attack occur. The mechanism that starts a panic attack is known as the “Fight or Flight” response, which in basic terms is a series of signals that the brain sends to the body in order to prepare it to either fight or flee from a dangerous situation.
These sensations feel perfectly normal when we are in obvous physical danger, but when the threat is imagined (for example when it’s a fear of public speaking), it can be an extremely terrifying experience, because there is nothing that we can fight or flee from.
In my opinion the biggest problem with panic attacks is that they are rarely isolated events. In most cases the experience of a panic attack is so terrifying, that the person is left with an intense fear of having another panic attack afterwards. This fear of having another panic attack results in more anxiety, which is exactly the thing that results in the next panic attack. When this cycle of fear, anxiety and panic continue over an extended period, a person is diagnosed as having a panic disorder.
If you experience panic attacks it is important to understand that you are not alone. There are thousands of of people who go through the exact same sensations every day. It may feel like something that can not be cured, but there are the fact is that there are proven techniques that you can start using today to eliminate panic attacks from your life completely. See my Top 5 Panic Attack Programs page for more information.
