Say Goodbye to Panic and Anxiety Attacks! The PanicGoodbye Program.

Agoraphobia is a very common anxiety disorder. It affects roughly 1 in 20 Americans in varying forms and degrees. The only disorder more common is alcoholism. This type of anxiety is fear based. You are afraid that you will be caught in a situation where it will be difficult or embarrassing to leave quickly if you have a panic attack.

Agoraphobia and panic attacks are really necessary companions because it really boils down to being afraid of attacks.

It is a condition that usually develops following panic. Since the panic was so frightening and made you so anxious you avoid situations that you associate with the potential to cause another attack.

Avoidance becomes a way of life and fear your middle name. People suffering from agoraphobia tend to avoid situations where escape would be difficult or embarrassing in the event of a panic attack.

For example, sufferers tend to avoid grocery stores, department stores and restaurants. They also don´t like confined spaces like tunnels, tents, buses, subways, bridges or even the hair dresser´s chair. Being at home alone can also be a great source of worry because who would help you if you had an attack?

Agoraphobia is a fear based phobia that can severely limit your travel and associations with other people. It can have an extremely damaging effect on your life and can continue to spiral out of control. Of course, becoming a recluse and a shut in, afraid to venture out of your home is a worst case scenario.

There are many stages well before this and the disorder is treatable. You can help yourself, control the attacks and reduce or eliminate it.

The two basic criteria for diagnosis are:

1. You have anxiety about being in places or situations that it is either difficult or embarrassing to leave or it would be difficult to get help if you had panic symptoms strike.

2. You avoid places or situations where you are afraid you might have an attack or experience significant distress and anxiety.

The concept of avoidance is the crucial component in a diagnosis. You may also have panic disorder or social phobia, which have common characteristics.

Agoraphobia is a particularly hard anxiety based problem to deal with because it goes to the heart of a person´s concern for their safety and security. With this disorder, particularly in more severe cases, it is hard to feel safe anywhere.

Elevators, theaters, sporting events, lines, the subway, the bus, shopping malls, airplanes, bridges, these all become problematic and thus, you don´t go there. You name it, you feel unsafe there, and you worry about a panic attack overtaking you.

What if you have a panic attack and no one is there to help you? Or worse, what if you have an attack and you have people staring at you, or you have to ask someone for help? That´s just too embarrassing!

Panic Disorder is a serious problem and a condition recognized by the American Psychiatric Association that affects millions of Americans. This condition takes a panic attack a step further. Not only must you have experienced two or more attacks, you must also have had those attacks followed by a prolonged period of excessive worry over the possibility of another attack occurring.

Anxiety attacks don't occur because you are obsessing over something but rather they happen spontaneously, out of the blue, in places and among people you wouldn't ordinarily associate with extreme apprehension. That is what makes these episodes so scary, the sheer unpredictability can be very troubling and cause the worry that turns these isolated instances into a disorder.

The loss of control and fear are major contributing factors in turning isolated attacks into a disorder. Once you have panic disorder, your worry over another anxiety attack becomes pronounced and helps to foster an environment and feeling where attacks may only increase.

In addition, avoidance tactics to prevent episodes may cause extreme harm to the normal functioning of your life. Some of the symptoms associated with this disorder include:

- Trouble breathing
- Racing heart
- Feeling faint or dizzy
- Numbness
- Hot or Cold Flashes
- Excessive fear of losing control, dying or losing your mind
- Muscle pain and discomfort
- Chest pain and discomfort
- Bowel Troubles

These are just some of the symptoms and certainly if you have this problem you could be experiencing some, all or different sets of problems than what are listed here. Many people with this problem consult doctors, which is a smart course of action.

These symptoms can be very scary and they may be an indication that you have a serious medical problem. Getting checked out by a doctor is important to rule out any physical problems and provide some small measure of peace of mind about your suffering.

While consulting a doctor may rule out the need for multiple bypasses, it does not solve your problem. Panic attacks are still ruining your life. You can pay big bucks for psychological treatment or prescription medications to treat your anxiety and depression.

However, these options are not appealing to many people. There are alternatives. There are relaxation techniques that can be utilized to calm the overactive nerves and release the tension.

Many people are able to achieve positive results through a consistent exercise program where they work off accumulated stress and fill the body with endorphins, creating a positive feeling for a body and mind so sorely in need of it.

Many people also find that mind exercises such as meditation work to channel the anxiety into more positive pathways and release the negative build up. Meditation is a great way to control your panic attacks because it is fully portable. It can be done anywhere, at anytime and it soothes a worried mind and releases a lot of angst.

Meditation is something that anyone can learn and it really just requires practice and focus to become proficient. Using alternative techniques to relieve your worry is a great way to avoid the side effects and expense of prescription medications and therapy.

Are you neat? Do you like to keep everything organized, orderly and tidy? While these are great character traits in the normal course for both your work environment and your home environment, they can become confining when taken to an extreme.

If you have obsessive-compulsive disorder, you take these tendencies to both an extreme and disruptive degree. If you spend so long organizing the pencils on your desk that you can´t complete the project you´re working on in a timely manner then obsessive-compulsive disorder or OCD has impacted your life.

As with any anxiety disorder, the key component to a diagnosis is the disruptive impact the condition has on your life.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder can manifest in many ways. Some people have to clean doorknobs or others avoid stepping on cracks in the sidewalk, check the windows and doors in the house multiple times, count or order everything they come into contact with or spend hours washing their hands, fearing they have been contaminated with germs or poisons.

For movie fans, Jack Nicholson suffered from OCD. He avoided cracks in the sidewalk, worried about germs, locked and unlocked his door a certain number of times and washed his hands until they were raw.

The impact on both your life and your physical and mental well being can be profound. At the root of obsessive-compulsive behavior is deep anxiety and often depression. It is important that you get help if you suffer from obsessions, compulsions or both.

There are two components to obsessive-compulsive disorder. The first element is obsessions. They are recurring ideas, thoughts, or images, and can range from an unshakeable feeling that you have hit someone with your car, to fear that every discoloration on your food is a poison waiting to kill you or a loved one will suffer harm if you don´t do something.

The obsessions are intrusive, unwanted and usually quite disturbing. Violent thoughts or images can continue to pop into your mind, your own death or the death of someone you love can figure prominently in your obsessions. They can also revolve around the more mundane, leaving the lights on, appliances running, doors open or the house unlocked.

Compulsions are behaviors or rituals that you undertake to reduce or eliminate the anxiety caused by your obsessions. The urges are actually a self-soothing technique. However, they can be taken to an extreme and irreparably damage your life. Things can start out small but have a snowball effect if left unaddressed.

Examples of compulsions can be checking your rearview mirror constantly or retracing your route to reassure yourself you didn´t hit someone with your car, or checking the stove over and over to make sure you didn´t leave it on.

You can have obsessions without having compulsions. Moreover obsessions often lead to depression. The thoughts can be so powerful and disturbing that not only do they cause depression but they also cause phobic avoidance. OCD sufferers who fear germs will avoid public bathrooms, touching door handles or interacting with the germ filled surfaces they so fear.

Unfortunately, if left unchecked or untreated, it is possible for the cycle of anxiousness and reactions to those feelings to spiral out of control. A fear of using public toilets can become a fear of using any toilet, even the one in your home.

Compulsion sufferers can be men or women, although the type of compulsion may vary depending on your gender. Women are more often cleaners and men are more often checkers and both can be counters. Obsessive-compulsive disorder affects both males and females relatively equally. It can crop up in childhood, early adolescence or adulthood.

Obsessive-compulsive sufferers are definitely not crazy and they certainly recognize the excessiveness and irrationality of both their obsessions and compulsions and are usually incredibly frustrated dealing with it.

The two most common phobias are agoraphobia and social anxiety disorder. These two conditions can detrimentally affect a person´s ability to live a normal and productive life. Dealing with excessive worry like this can lead to physical and emotional complications as well because you are cut off from interacting with others and engaging in activities. The source of fear is usually caused by a combination of hereditary, biological and environmental factors. These contributing factors lead to a confused an inappropriate response to certain situations, people and activities. For them, their fight or flight response is triggered unnecessarily and the struggle to restore their body and mind to order is usually debilitating.

The fight or flight response is our body´s natural way of protecting itself from the dangers of this world. If a wild grizzly bear is chasing you, you run. Your body does it automatically. If your child is drowning, you jump in after them. You don´t think about it, your body just goes into action.

Your body determines whether it´s best to fight or react or run. For people who have this adrenaline surge triggered, it is normally in response to appropriate situations. For phobia sufferers, this response kicks into action inappropriately, triggering panic attacks. The anxiety episodes are so upsetting, that many people strive, regardless of the consequences, to avoid a repeat performance.

This is what keeps phobic´s from engaging in life; the fear. The extreme, unchecked and inappropriate response of their bodies is upsetting and humiliating and very few people want to knowingly expose themselves to an increased chance of a panic attack. Therefore, caution, no matter how silly or intrusive, is usually the most common path taken when confronting this problem.

Social phobia which is also referred to as social anxiety disorder limits a person´s social interactions and causes intense, uncomfortable sensations when a person is exposed to social situations. This problem can prevent you from speaking in front of others, attending cocktail parties or receptions or even eating in front of other people.

The fear for a sufferer is that they will be perceived as strange, stupid or completely crazy. These fears are often completely unfounded but still overwhelming and profound.

Social phobia can be generalized and extend to a wide array of social situations or it can be specific. A specific problem, that is fairly common, is paruresis. These sufferers find it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to go to the bathroom in front of others or within earshot of anyone else.

Agoraphobia is another common and potentially very serious condition. Agoraphobia is technically the fear of open spaces but it really is the fear of having a panic attack in a place or situation where you do not have help or assistance readily available. Agoraphobia is a condition that frequently develops in panic attack sufferers because they are worried about going places or doing things where they will have an anxiety attack.

Agoraphobia sufferers fear leaving home or the places they are familiar with. They don´t want to be alone in tunnels, on bridges or in any exposed venue where help will be hard or humiliating to attain. In its most extreme form, agoraphobia sufferers will refuse leaving their home, terrified of what will happen to them if they do.

The subjects that social phobia and agoraphobia suffers fear are common in a lot of people. Many people would prefer not speaking in front of a crowd; many people are afraid of bridges and tunnels and get nervous in these places. For most people these feelings are transitory and also easily conquered.

They push those feelings aside and go on with their lives. They stumble through the presentation, the speech in front of the crowd, the drive across the bridge. What separates these people from anxiety sufferers is the intense desire and need to avoid these situations at all costs.

Taken to the extreme, avoidance can lead to loss of your job, disruptions in your family life and leading an unfulfilled and scared life. This is not an appealing way to live and every effort should be taken to address your fears. Finding relaxation outlets for your stress will be one great step forward in addressing the needs of your body and mind and ending your battle with apprehension, angst and depression.

Abdominal breathing is the foundation on which your body functions. By utilizing this valuable method of breathing, you are using your lungs to their capacity and enabling your body to receive more oxygen. You will feel better and look better by utilizing this technique and it is a great way to decrease anxiety and reduce panic attacks.

We are a nation of shallow breathers. Why? It is unclear. When we begin life, we are all deep breathers, inhaling from our abdomen but over time we seem to lose this ability. Look at babies and very young children, see their stomach rise and fall, their chest expand and contract.

They fill up their lungs when they inhale; getting the full benefit of the oxygen that is delivered throughout the body. Perhaps this is why they seem to have boundless energy. After the age of 2, something seems to happen and children take on the shallow, chest based breathing of adults, which only partially supplies the body with the needed oxygen.

Retraining yourself, to breathe the way you originally did, will have amazing physical and mental benefits. You will feel better, be able to do more, and if you suffer from panic attacks, soothe your anxiety. Abdominal breathing enables your lung lobes to fill completely with oxygen and transfer that oxygen through your blood to all your body parts. Your muscles feel better because they have a sufficient supply of oxygen, your chest will not be tight, your heart will beat slower and you will feel healthier.

Many other cultures understand the importance of breathing deeply and correctly. Meditative practices and yoga practitioners all focus on the power of the breath. The focus, strength and peace that you can obtain from abdominal breathing is limitless. This type of breathing can be done by anyone and only takes practice to learn and retrain yourself.

Abdominal or belly breathing is a great solution for anxiety and panic attack sufferers as well as for anyone who just wants to feel healthier and better.

To begin your breathing practice, get into comfortable clothes and find a comfortable place to sit on the floor. If the floor is uncomfortable for you, you can always sit on a chair. Now focus on your regular breathing pattern. Do you feel any action in your belly area? Do you see your stomach rising and falling? Probably not!

If you look at your chest, you will see that this is where your breathing is occurring. If only your chest is moving up and down it means that you are not using the full capacity of your lungs. What a shame to waste such useful space! Now touch your stomach with your hands and concentrate on breathing from your belly. Don´t just push you belly out but actually breathe from deep down. If you do it correctly you will see your stomach expand and contract.

You will feel it expand and contract with your hands and will you appreciate the increased amount of oxygen that you are sending throughout your body. Abdominal breathing is slower than chest breathing. This is of course because it takes longer to fill up the lung lobes to their capacity and release them. Aim for 5 or 6 breaths per minute to start and reduce that to 4 or 5 breaths per minute.

You will experience a noticeable drop in your anxiety level and reduce panic attack susceptibility by using this technique.

Trigger the relaxation response is an important way to counteract the fight or flight response that results from the daily pressures and stress of life. You can deal with anxiety and even panic attacks by practicing progressive muscle relaxation or PMR. This technique involves tensing and releasing distinct muscle groups throughout the body.

Your body is holding a lot of stress! How could it not be? Everyday, we hear more depressing news about the stock market, our retirement savings, our livelihoods and our jobs. We are internalizing all this stress and the sudden shocks to our financial well being may be triggering a more serious anxiety disorder.

So many of us do not realize how stress and worry are affecting us until it is too late and we have had a full blown panic attack or some other crisis. Stopping these problems before they overwhelm you is vital. One of the great ways to relieve mental angst is to attack your physical angst.

We often don´t realize how much worry we are holding on our shoulders. Muscles in your back, shoulders and neck can be turned into knots of worry. While most of us are familiar with these sensations, we often don´t realize that muscles throughout our body are tensing up, responding to our feelings. It is instinctive to preserve ourselves, the survival instinct is alive and well in all of us.

This desire dates back to our caveman ancestors who had to deal with wild animals daily and do things most of us could never contemplate to survive and eat. Along with this valuable instinct comes the fight or flee instinct which determines the best way for us to survive in certain distressing situations. Do we run like crazy or prepare to fight? Either way, your muscles throughout your body tense up in preparation.

Most of us don´t even realize that our body is doing this. We may be upset about a negative review we got, but we aren´t going to run for our lives or attack our boss. Your body doesn´t realize that and tenses up anyway, creating stress and anxiety and fueling potential panic attacks.

A great way to trigger the relaxation response is to try Progressive Muscle Relaxation or PMR. It is a great way to return your anxious body to its normal state. It can provide almost instant relief to an aching body and an overwhelmed mind.

PMR involves tightening your muscles to their fullest extent, filling them with tension. You hold this tightened position for 10 seconds and then release your muscles. Your muscles will return to a looser, freer state than where they started. By doing this to discrete muscle groups throughout your body, you are triggering the relaxation response, the signal that your body is not in danger and that you don't need to run or fight.

This technique should begin with the right foot, then the right foot and ankle, then the right foot, ankle and lower leg and so forth. You will then need to switch to the other leg and then proceed up the body to the neck, head and face. With practice, you will see positive results to your physiological as well as mental and emotional well being.