Treatment for Panic Attacks

The dictionary definition of panic is "a sudden over powering fright, especially a sudden tenor often inspired by a trifling cause or a misapprehension of danger and accompanied by unreasoning or frantic efforts to secure safety."

Surprisingly, the millions who experience panic disorders might agree that the causes of their sudden overpowering symptoms of anxiety can be "trifling." They know that they should not sense danger from such low-level annoyences as disagreeing with their spouse, standing in line at the supermarket, or giving a public speech. Their bodies
should not react with symptoms that prevent them from functioning nomally. Yet anxiety and panic disorders are a fact of life. The most recent National Institute of Mental Health report indicates that one in nine adults harbors some kind of phobia, making it the most common mental health problem in the United States, even ahead of alcoholism, and many professionals believe that a large percentage of alcoholics are "closet" phobics who mask their problems with drink or abuse of other substances.

Phobias and other panic disorders do keep people from living nomally. They do interfere with personal relationships and open the door to more serious illnesses. Never has anyone who suffered from an anxiety or panic disorder not want to get rid of it. The problem is that most people don't know how. Here's a way to Cure Your Anxiety Now.

The method for preventing anxiety or recovering from panic disorders which is based primarily on behavioral psychology, but it also includes the principles of positive thinking, cognitive restnrcturing (or rational thinking, in layman`s tenns), and the creative use of the unconscious mind. Some of these techniques are taught at various top notch Phobia Centers. These psychotherapists and other professionals have helped more than thirteen humdred people overvome all kinds of phobias. Since many people have completely recovered from agoraphobia, the most serious kind of panic disorder, they serve as living proof that a retum not only to a normal life but to a better life is possible. They can show you how you can recover, too. You should be able to gain some insight into the situations in your life that are triggering your anxiety by studying certain principles and answering questions and checklists available. Although you may not be able to alter the situations, you can change your reactions to them. Whether you are experiencing simple anxiety or a complex panic disorder, you can use these aids to regain control over your Life. Not only can you Control Your Panic, you can end it forever.

Poor self image and irrational fears also cause panic. Some the panic that can be experienced is a flashback of a fear that wasn't irrational, such as service in a war. Does this fit into the definition of a person who has a panic disorder?

This is where a person can suffer from a specific kind of panic disorder which psychologists call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). War veterans are not the only ones who develop PTSD. Women who have been raped; children who have been emotionally, physically, or sexually abused; anyone who has witnessed a violent crime or bloody accident; and even patients who have undergone disfiguring surgery are subject to it. Some people handle these traumas without developing PTSD because they deal with the horror gradually. Others suppress the trauma, but it doesn't go away. Later, when something happens to remind them of it, they literally erupt with panic, fear, and nightmares. Then they may feel overcome with guilt and depression.

Although this fear may not have been irrational at the time death and destruction was seen in a war, it is certainly irrational to experience panic years later because of it. As with any phobia, one can recover from PTSD through desensitization. They re-live the fear-producing events in the presence of others who are supportive. Many war veterans and rape or incest victims talk their way out of PTSD in support groups made up of other victims who understand and can demonstrate that they care. Others go for one-on-one therapy.

Absolutely. Of a set sample of thirteen hundred phobic patients seen at a Soutwestern Phobia Center over a period of ten years, 75 percent had recovered, and these patients function normally. Every year thousands of other people desensitize themselves to their fears and learn new ways of thinking which permit a total cure. Some people who claim to be recovered agoraphobics will say, "Yes, I can leave my home. I can go shopping, I can go to a restaurant or a party, but I still don't enjoy doing these things. I always have that little bit of fear in the back of my mind that I'm going to have another panic attack." The most these people hope for is to realize that the panic attack isn't going to kill them if it comes and to grit their teeth and make themselves go to those places that they must.

A bare minimum existence like this is part of the process of desensitization and a necessary stage for retraining your mind. But it is not the place to get stuck. One may be tempted to think negatively during a crisis, but they don't. The difference between the way they live and the way a lot of "recovered" agoraphohics exist is that they found a way to keep from giving in to the self-destnrctive thoughts that lead to anxiety. They don't have to deal with such temptations nearly as often as they used to. Most of the time they feel perfectly comfortable and at ease. They can truthfully report that they feel better than they ever did before they had agoraphobia.

One can actually say that the day they had their first panic attack was the best day of their life. Their panic disorder forced them to learn how to eliminate negative thinking, build self-confidence, and use the extraordinary powers of their unconscious to eliminate anxiety and panic. Everyone who has a panic disorder can recover as completely as that. The first step is simply to understand thoroughly how your body and mind work together to produce the fear that causes these terrifying physical symptoms.

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