Panic Attacks

That's an arresting stat I came across in an article by Ravi Singareddy, an assistant professor of sleep research and psychiatry at Penn State.

All told, 2.4 million people in the U.S. suffer from panic disorders, according to studies by the National Institute of Mental Health

Panic disorders are clearly not uncommon. They have serious socioeconomic consequences, such as poor quality of life, increased absenteeism from work or school and loss of a job. People with panic disorders usually start by suffering from unexpected, episodes of fear and anxiety known as panic attacks.

A panic attack manifests itself in anxiety or nervousness to the extent that breathing becomes difficult, trembling and shaking is experienced along with sweating, chest pain, dizziness, and both hot flashes and sudden chills.

Panic attacks can occur in any situation, but often occur in seemingly harmless situations. They can even come during sleep.

When individuals start having recurrent panic attacks, they end up being continually worried about having another panic attack. And so the cycle continues. When you have recurring panic attacks that interfere with your day-to-day life, you are diagnosed with panic disorders.

Because of the symptoms, panic disorders are very often misdiagnosed. If you turn up at the doctor with complaints of symptoms such as cardiac or heart-related symptoms (pounding heartbeat, chest pain or shortness of breath), gastrointestinal complaints (nausea, belly pain or diarrhea) and neurological symptoms (headache, dizziness or lightheadedness) you run a significant risk of being misdiagnosed. Sufferers of panic attacks may see a dozen physicians before they are correctly diagnosed.

And yet, of all anxiety disorders, panic disorders are the most treatable. According to the article by Professor Singareddy, individuals with panic disorder in most cases can be successfully treated with certain medications or a type of talk-therapy (psychotherapy) known as cognitive behavioral therapy.

To read the full article by Ravi Singareddy go here. For information on a widely accepted cognitive therapy treatment, go here.

Social anxiety can be expected to increase as we approach Christmas, according to a survey by credit guru Dun and Bradstreet.

The firm has just released a survey in New Zealand that indicates the global credit crisis is about to impact on personal spending behaviors, creating an environment for stress-related issues.

Over 30% of middle income earners and younger people in New Zealand expect to be forced to use their credit card to make ends meet.

Those aged 18 to 49 are most likely to suffer from problematic credit card use. Roughly 31% expect to use their credit card to cover otherwise unaffordable expenses in the next three months.

These are worrisome conditions for those susceptible to stress and anxiety. The combination of traditional Christmas pressures and debt-related concerns is a breeding ground for social anxiety and anxiety disorder.

The same age group has the highest credit card demand, expecting to make a new credit application.

Six percent of low and middle income earners believe they will miss bill payments between now and December.

Now, this may be far away but the pressure on personal credit can also be expected to increase here in North America.

As we approach Christmas, a traditional boom time for consumer spending, people are going to have to be careful in managing their credit capability.

This is particularly important for younger people and middle income households which, in New Zealand at least, are already showing signs of debt stress.

"Payment defaults are listed on a consumer's credit file for up to seven years," says Dun & Bradstreet New Zealand general manager John Scott. "In the current environment, where banks are only willing to lend to those that don't have adverse information on their record, missed payments could cause problems should the need to access credit arise."

If you already suffer from stress and anxiety disorder, go here for more information. about a leading, drug-free treatment. If you want to read more about the New Zealand situation, go here.

Americans are feeling more stress than they did six months ago according to a new national study.
I came across this conclusion on the phsychcentral blog this morning (see below). The survey was conducted by Booth Research and focused on stress and methods for coping with stress.

Out of a survey of adult 1,000 men and women 47 percent feel more stress than they did six months ago.

And, really no surprise today, the main source of stress is financial. Almost half of the respondents cited personal finance concerns as the cause.

The study also illuminates the effects of stress, and the link between stress and physical health. By far the majority of those completing the survey felt that stress weakens their body's immune system.

According to the survey, females are more likely than men to be aware of the connection that stress can have on immune health.

"Stress can take a serious toll on the human body if unmanaged," according to immune health expert Mark Moyad, M.D., University of Michigan.

Over half of survey respondents said that the ability to get a good night's sleep was a major symptom of their stress. One-third reported that stress was having an effect on their physical health, and almost as many said stress affects their personal relationships.

To find out about a drug-free cure for stress go here for more information. . To read more of this article, go here for more information.

Normal feelings of anxiety are not bad. We respond to real danger by becoming anxious and this can be a motivating force at work and at home. But for people
with generalized anxiety disorder, or GAD, the problem spins out of control and takes on a life of its own.

Anxiety disorder is the most common mental disorder in the United States According to studies, 6.8 million adults suffer from GAD, a syndrome characterized by excessive or unrealistic irrational worry. Generalized anxiety disorder affects about twice as many women as men.

If you have GAD, you feel anxious most of the time, even though there is little or nothing to provoke it.

Anxious thoughts keep cycling through your brain, causing physiological changes in your body. The worry stays with you all day long. GAD is internally generated and self-perpetuated. It can be mild and manageable or severe.

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We don't really know what causes GAD. It starts slowly, somewhere between childhood and middle age and, not surprisingly, becomes most acute during times of natural stress such as a divorce or a bereavement. It is thought that hereditary influences may play a role.

It also affects people in very different ways. Some people can cope, but others have troubles even doing the simplest activities.

Today, with the old stigma attaches to anxiety disorders and panic attacks slowly going away, more and more people are being diagnosed with this problem. In fact, the label GAD itself is not that old, but arises from the many diagnoses now being formally classified.

It is important to get treatment for GAD. Although you might think that most of the time you are able to cope, in fact you are most likely a lot less productive than you could be. This obviously can lead to poor performance assessments at work and, at best, slowing down your career path and, at worst, coasting you your job.

There is a link to one of the most popular and successful treatments for anxiety disorder at the end of this article, or you can get more information here. This is a behavioral therapy that is completely drug-free.

It is definitely time to seek help when your anxiety becomes a disability. The treatment referred to is good, but a visit to your doctor is also recommended, to ensure that your symptoms are not caused by a medial condition such as hypertension.

Here are a handful of things to look for. If you have combinations of these symptoms on an ongoing basis, it's a sign it's time to take action.

- Trouble concentrating
- Restlessness
- Being short of breath
- An accelerated heart rate
- Difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep
- Not being able to relax
- Being easily tired or fatigued
- Tension or muscle aches
- Being constantly irritable

In general terms, if you suffer from GAD you are going to be someone who worries about things that you know other people don't worry about. What's more, you are constantly anxious because you seldom arrive at a solution for whatever is worrying you.

In fact, even when things are just going along swimmingly, you are likely to be worried about now being worried !

But you really can get a grip on this, truly. Find out more by clicking this link and make your own conclusions. At the very least, you will be taking a positive step to getting your anxiety disorder under control.

Good luck!

A person suffering this can feel nausea, inexplicable feelings of terror and shortness of breath.

Clearly, stress attacks can appear in a variety of ways. Such attacks can be part of a normal reaction but often they indicate a need for treatment either now or soon. If you suffer this way, learn how to recognize your anxiety attack symptom.

An anxiety attack is an episode or occurrence where an individual feels anxiety and stress and wants to leave a place or event immediately. One panic attack cause that is familiar is when you are about to perform or talk publicly. When this happens more often than it should, people come to realize that they have a social anxiety disorder and try to look for ways to manage or control it.

One way to start controlling or managing a social anxiety disorder is to distinguish each anxiety attack symptom and look for a solution. Anxiety attack symptoms can sometimes be very tolerable while others are full blown and can scare the wits out of you.

Some people report getting excessively excited as if they needed to run away from something. Many people may experience this at some point in their lives but repeated occurrences usually indicate some kind of anxiety disorder.

Your Anxiety Attack Symptom

A rapid increase in your heart rate or heart palpitations can send a warning of an oncoming anxiety attack. Such an anxiety attack symptom can make you believe you are having a heart attack -- that's how sudden and intense the pain can feel in the chest region. Because of this, some sufferers often are taken to a hospital

Another anxiety attack symptom is sweating profusely and shaking. Now, trembling knees and shaking hands are frequent when about to make a speech or maybe get married. Some people do get these bouts of nervousness. But if it is actually a panic attack cause, you are one of those people with social anxiety disorders who simply cannot get used to being stared at or being in public view often.

Shortness of breath and feelingof choking is also an anxiety attack symptom. Hyperventilating when anxious often results in a person becoming lightheaded or dizzy. Another anxiety attack symptom is getting a tingling feeling in the toes and face or body, blushing or going pale, hot and cold flashes, abdominal soreness and the sudden urge to urinate or defecate.

There are many more symptoms but the ones listed above are the more generic. Often, all you can do is to try and supervise them in order to manage your anxiety attacks.

Once you get the feeling of dread starting, you can try talking to yourself and convincing yourself that all is well and that this is just another anxiety attack. Once you have a full-blown anxiety attack symptom, try to manage your episode, breathe evenly and properly, and try to slow yourself down in general, not moving around too much as this will add to the agitation.

If you really have a difficult time managing your anxiety attack symptom you should look into treatment. There are several options open to you, including both herbal and prescribed medication. One of the treatments that many people have claimed success with approaches the problem by seeking to modify the behavior that causes it.

This behavior therapy has none of the downside of medication and can be learned onm your own by following a specific treatment process. If you suffer from an anxiety attack symptom, you might want to read more about this treatment here..

There is a group of people who suffer from severe anxiety and treatment for it doesn't really enter their minds. Which is a huge pity because there is a treatment that can help them cope with every day life.

Social anxiety disorder, a very prevalent form, often affects people from the time they are teenagers. These are often difficult years for a lot of people, but those with social anxiety disorder have immense difficulties.

This condition often comes from a combination of genetics and environment. Medical researchers have learned a lot about this problem and these experts have developed patterns for anxiety attack treatment to help individuals with this condition.

Anxiety disorders such as social disorder and panic attacks affect about 15 million people in the U. S. yearly, making them the third largest mental health problem in that country today. Despite this, social anxiety for example is not as yet well understood by both the public and the medical profession.

Even if the sufferer does summon up enough courage to seek professional help, the relative dearth of knowledge on the subject could pose a difficulty in getting at a correct diagnosis, making the situation worse. This is compounded by the fact that this type of anxiety is unlikely to just disappear.

How to recognize anxiety
Usually, signs associated with this disorder are considered primary signs, such as trembling, profuse sweating, nausea, etc. Before these signs appear, though, be aware of secondary signs that could be pointing to anxiety attack treatment.

An example would be something as subtle as a fear of writing in public. The person fears that the people are watching him and might see that his hand is shaking. Another is an aversion to eating with other people.

Anxiety Attack Treatment Helps Cope With Fears
People suffering from anxiety disorder should consult with their physician who should provide them with the assessment of the anxiety and treatment that has been developed from the years of research.

Anxiety and treatment should almost always include cognitive behavioral therapy. This therapy helps people to change how they think about situations. Their fears are the result of what they are thinking and so, if they change their thoughts, they can change their behavior.

This certainly is the reasoning behind one of the most successful approaches to anxiety and treatment of it, which is very simple to understand and easy to apply. You can read more about this right now and also review the experience of others.

The statistics concerning anxiety and treatment have made this a hot issue today. In the United States alone, roughly 40 million people aged 18 and over suffer from some form of anxiety disorders.

And how many kids are freaked out at the hands of negligent or abusive parents?

There are several anxiety disorders such as general anxiety, OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder), panic, PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and phobia.

Here's a quick overview of four anxiety and treatment options. For more details, go here.

Option #1. Herbal remedies have shown to offer both short- and long-term relief without the side effects frequently associated with prescription drugs.

Option #2. Drugs are frequently prescribed as anxiety attack treatment, but many people are not aware that clinical research has shown that prescription drugs are no more effective than natural alternatives.

Option #3. Cognitive Behavior Therapy is becoming an overwhelming choice for anxiety and treatment of it.

Option #4. Exercise has demonstrated that it can prevent relapse after regular treatment.

Want to know what sets panic away in the first place? Or why it suddenly takes over?

No matter whether it is a fear of driving, of flying, of being interviewed, of speaking in public, you name it. Doesn't matter what it is. It's always the same thing. What starts the panic cycle is the fear of the next time it bites you.

That's right. The anticipation of a panic attack puts the wave of anxiety in motion. The setup for your next attack is in place hours before it actually hits you. And then it just takes some tiny thing, like driving down a dark road that brings back bad memories, to set panic away on a full blown attack.

After you have your first panic attack, it can have such an impact that it is imprinted somewhere in your brain. This causes you to have an unnatural anxiety about having it happen again. And sure enough, it becomes self-fulfilling, the anxiety turns into fear and some small trigger sends the fear into another attack of panic.

In fact, findings published by University College London last year demonstrated that when people experience extreme anxiety or panic, the activity in their brain moves from the front of their brain to the midbrain.

The front of the brain (prefrontal cortex) is where decision making and rationalization takes place. The midbrain (periaqueductal grey area) is where survival mechanisms such as fight or flight originate from.

What this tells us is that for people suffering panic attacks, the anxiety moves activity to a part of the brain which results in heightened fear and panic. And that's why deep breathing and other conventional forms of calming the body down in a panic attack are ineffective. Your brain is where the change needs to take place.

I didn't learn this from a doctor. I learned this from reading a guy called Joe McDonagh. He suffered from panic attacks, too. He had a hunch it involved cognitive behaviour and studied some of the leading psychologists for clues how to get panic away from this cycle of repetition.

His "aha!" moment came when he realized how putting panic away for good depended on attacking the reasons why it generates itself in this vicious cycle. He developed a technique along the lines that, if you extinguish the fuel for the attack, then you eliminate the recurrence.

That was over 10 years ago. It is a distinctly logical approach to fear that has nothing to do with drugs or medication. Joe's technique has now been acclaimed by thousands of people in 30 countries. It might just be the most successful remedy for finally pushing panic away and returning life to normal.

It is surely the best value. I have heard of people who have spent thousands trying everything from support classes to drugs to counselling and nothing worked. But if you read the hundreds of testimonials, Joe's technique did.

If you are a sufferer, I would urge you not to waste one more minute. Find out more right now by clicking this link. You owe it to yourself and, besides, it costs nothing to find out.