Anxiety Attacks - Is This What You"ve Been Living With? Here Are Your Options
Are you living with anxiety attacks also known, more descriptively, as panic attacks? The following are the most common physical symptoms of these attacks:
There are also the emotional symptoms:
It is the overwhelming fear and panic that makes these attacks such awful episodes for each sufferer.
It is no wonder that people living with anxiety attacks are in a constant state of worry about where and when the next attack will strike.
I say strike rather than happen because for many sufferers these attacks come out of the blue.
The usual treatments are a combination of medication and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.
The medication is either benzodiazepines or antidepressants and perhaps beta blockers.
The downside to these medications is that they often produce unpleasant side effects and they aren't a cure.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is claimed to be very helpful for anxiety attacks sufferers.
The approach is to explore your negative thought patterns and irrational beliefs that are the hidden causes of your anxiety.
Once you've discovered them the next thing to do is to challenge them.
This is known as exposure therapy.
You confront whatever it is that you fear from a safe place such as in your imagination or at a safe distance.
The effect is to reduce your anxiety each time you do this.
There are other things you can do to back up the treatment: Exercise is known to be great for reducing stress and anxiety and you should aim for at least half an hour's aerobic exercise three to five times a week.
If you can, do an hour's exercise on most days.
Hypnosis can help when used alongside Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.
While you are deeply relaxed the therapist helps you face your fears and look at them in a different way.
Relaxation and breathing techniques can also help reduce the stress and tension which feed your anxiety.
If you are so inclined you could try meditation too.
It is said that sufferers being treated with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy can start to get relief from their anxiety in anything between five and twenty weeks.
Obviously it depends on the individual as to just how long they need.
- Heart racing or pounding
- Difficulty breathing
- Choking feeling
- Feeling tightness across the chest
- Dizziness and nausea
- Stomach cramps
- Headache with shooting pains
- Sweating and hot flashes
- Chills
- Trembling or shaking
- Tingling sensations
- Feeling light-headed
- Feeling detached from reality
There are also the emotional symptoms:
- A surge of uncontrollable panic
- A fear of losing control
- A feeling of great dread
- A fear of dying
- A fear of going crazy
It is the overwhelming fear and panic that makes these attacks such awful episodes for each sufferer.
It is no wonder that people living with anxiety attacks are in a constant state of worry about where and when the next attack will strike.
I say strike rather than happen because for many sufferers these attacks come out of the blue.
The usual treatments are a combination of medication and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.
The medication is either benzodiazepines or antidepressants and perhaps beta blockers.
The downside to these medications is that they often produce unpleasant side effects and they aren't a cure.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is claimed to be very helpful for anxiety attacks sufferers.
The approach is to explore your negative thought patterns and irrational beliefs that are the hidden causes of your anxiety.
Once you've discovered them the next thing to do is to challenge them.
This is known as exposure therapy.
You confront whatever it is that you fear from a safe place such as in your imagination or at a safe distance.
The effect is to reduce your anxiety each time you do this.
There are other things you can do to back up the treatment: Exercise is known to be great for reducing stress and anxiety and you should aim for at least half an hour's aerobic exercise three to five times a week.
If you can, do an hour's exercise on most days.
Hypnosis can help when used alongside Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.
While you are deeply relaxed the therapist helps you face your fears and look at them in a different way.
Relaxation and breathing techniques can also help reduce the stress and tension which feed your anxiety.
If you are so inclined you could try meditation too.
It is said that sufferers being treated with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy can start to get relief from their anxiety in anything between five and twenty weeks.
Obviously it depends on the individual as to just how long they need.
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