How To Treat Panic Attacks
Anxiety is a severe problem, and one of the most serious of the anxiety symptoms are panic attacks. Anxiety and panic attacks can vary in severity, but it is common for them to grow more frequent and more overwhelming as time goes on. If anxiety is not treated, it will not resolve on its own, and in fact ignoring the problem will usually cause it to accelerate even more rapidly. Finding a treatment method that works for you is essential if you are to get past anxiety.
Finding the treatment that you feel comfortable with is very important in the treatment of anxiety. There are several effective options available, and it is just a matter of finding the one that is the best fit for your situation. If you find one treatment ineffective, you will likely find another an ideal solution. There is something out there for every patient.
Feeling positive and hopeful in regards to your treatment is a good indicator of the level of success it will have.
Here are the main options for the treatment of anxiety:
Medications Prescribed for Anti-Anxiety
Quite a few different drugs are prescribed for the treatment of anxiety. These drugs are most often ones that are made especially for anxiety, and include Klonopin, Ativan, and Valium. Normally, the prescribed dosage is “as needed”, but sometimes your doctor will have you take a daily dosage for mild anxiety problems. Sometimes, anti-depressants are prescribed for anxiety problems because they can have a positive effect on stress levels, but such drugs were not made for this purpose.
While drug-based anxiety treatments can be helpful there are two major drawbacks. Firstly, drug treatments address the symptoms of anxiety but not the root causes of anxiety. Secondly, there is a high risk of becoming dependant on (addicted to) some commonly-prescribed anti-anxiety drugs.
Hypnosis – Hypnotherapy
Hypnosis is a completely natural and for many, highly effective option for treating anxiety. Hypnotherapy combats anxiety by inducing deep relaxation, allowing underlying causes to be explored and responses to be retrained through hypnotic suggestion.
Unfortunately, anxiety tends to prevent hypnosis from working in many cases. Anxiety sufferers have a hard time allowing themselves to be “put under”, due to the fear of losing control. Hypnotherapy does not tend to have a high success level in dealing with panic attacks. Hypnotherapy will usually not be enough to combat panic attacks unless it is accompanied by another aggressive method of therapy, such as CBT, aimed at eliminating the panic attacks.
Self-hypnosis exercises practiced in the safe and familiar environment of home can provide some relief from anxiety but again, does little for acute anxiety expressed as panic attacks.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
In a nutshell, cognitive therapy treats anxiety (and many other disorders) by identifying and changing dysfunctional thinking. The idea is that thoughts determine our emotions and behavior. By changing the way a person thinks about a situation, their responses to it ? their emotions and behavior ? will also change.
CBT can be effective for anxiety and panic attack patients, but it is a long process. Typically, CBT involves a series of mental exercises that must be performed regularly. While it does take some dedication on the part of the patient, this is a quite effective treatment. CBT allows panic and anxiety to be truly eliminated, so it is a cure rather than a short term fix.
About 3 million people in the US have suffered from unexplained panic. Panic attacksare poorly understood. Get further information on methods to stop anxiety episodes and get your life back.
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