How To Treat Agoraphobia And Panic Attacks

What causes panic attacks isn't always clear but the symptoms are intense. The victim begins feeling dizziness, chest pain, a choking feeling, hot flashes or chills, nausea, heart palpitations, sweating, shortness of breath, trembling and numbness. They may have a fear of being out of control, going crazy or even dying.

This panicked sensation might make them feel as though they need to escape the situation somehow, and yet they are paralyzed to inaction. Agoraphobia involves anxiety about being in situations that are hard to escape, the fear of being alone, the fear of detachment from others, a sensation of utter helplessness and the fear of losing control in public places. In a third of all panic disorder cases, agoraphobia and panic attacks are combined.

The treatment for agoraphobia and for panic attacks is aimed at helping individuals function better in everyday life. The success of treatment depends upon how bad the agoraphobia and panic is. Some people with agoraphobia begin to feel nervous in public, while others remain in their homes for weeks on end, absolutely petrified of the outside world.

The most successful treatment combines medication with cognitive-behavioral therapy. Cognitive behavioral therapy seeks to give the patient a newfound sense of control by helping the individual understand what is happening during panic and anxiety attacks and how to handle unwanted thoughts or physical reactions. The individual learns what is realistic and unrealistic and gradually learns to control irrational fear through continued exposure.

Serotonin Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitors are a class of antidepressant drugs used to treat agoraphobia and panic attacks. This panic attack medication increases the levels of the neurotransmitters serotonin and norepinephrine by preventing their reabsorption into brain cells.

Side effects include upset stomach, headaches, insomnia, sexual dysfunction and a slight blood pressure increase. However, the prevalence of side effects is greatly diminished compared to other medicines designed to stop panic, and SNRIs are often used as a first line defense against the symptoms of anxiety attacks.

If therapeutic treatment and medication are not sought, then the patient could suffer some severe consequences. Most often, panic attack disorder leads to severe depression, loneliness and sometimes even suicide. More than half of panic disorder patients with agoraphobia begin abusing alcohol or drugs in their attempt to self-medicate.

Agoraphobia and panic attacks make functioning in social situations and work settings nearly impossible. Patients should not overlook moroseness, low self esteem, feeling crazy or feelings of hopelessness. The earlier treatment is sought, the more successful it tends to be.

Discover the Anxiety Attack Symptoms , Top Therapies Methods

When the psychologist says that a person is anxious, the statement may be interpreted in either of two ways. It may mean that the individual is anxious at the moment, or it may mean that he is an anxious person. The two interpretations are quite different. The former refers to an immediate and probably ephemeral state, whereas the latter is a constant condition without a time limitation

Another factor affecting the degree of anxiety has to do with their anticipation of harmful consequences in a dangerous situation. These fears are relatively primitive and are closely related to the person's automatic protective functions.

The most beneficial and intensive cognitive restructuring interventions teach the client to revise probability overestimates for the occurrence of panic-related consequences (e.g., fainting, losing control) and to decatastrophize the perceived aversiveness of these feared events.

One study found that 40% of the patients in a cardiology practice were suffering from panic disorder.

Panic disorder is a distinct clinical entity manifesting the classical features first described by Freud in 1895, who called it anxiety neurosis (Freud, 1895). The symptoms vary little among patients. They experience overwhelming feelings of terror and a fear of dying or going mad. Acute somatic discomfort, which cart mimic a cardiac episode, includes chest pains, choking sensations, dyspnea, parasthesias, dizziness, sweating, palpitations, and hot and cold flashes.

Often the feelings of anxiety are lessened or avoided through drugs, alcohol, sexual promiscuity, or other reactive behaviors. However, many positive or constructive behaviors are also motivated by a need to control or avoid the psychological discomfort of anxiety. Such behaviors are usually accompanied by the illusion that what one chooses to do will be so pleasant and so rewarding as to keep the anxiety permanently at bay. This, of course, is wishful thinking. Behaviors engaged in to allay anxiety, whether judged positively or negatively, may actually prove effective in reducing the feelings of anxiety. However, at the same time, they will prove to be either functional or dysfunctional in terms of how they affect the general well-being of the individual. In any case, the motivation to act is provided by a need to move away from the present or potential discomfort of anxiety.

Persons close to the anxious individual can have considerable effect on how he or she responds in any given setting (Schachter, 1964). Many of a person's beliefs and values are handed down by significant adults in his or her life as they are growing up. In essence, the child accepts without question the opinions and beliefs of those who seem to have absolute power. After reaching adulthood, anxious individuals often reference childhood experiences and check how they are doing in a particular situation through comparisons with a personally created composite larger-than-life figure. This metaphorical internal judge is created from an endless array of beliefs, myths, opinions, shoulds, oughts, cannots, must nots,

views of personal potentials, and shortcomings accumulated over the years from parents and other significant relationships.

It is estimated that between 7 and 12 million individuals are agoraphobic, with 75% of these being women.

Finding a Panic Attack Treatment That Works

Finding a successful panic attack treatment can be a long and nerve-wrangling journey for people who are dealing with this enfeebling disorder. Panic attacks are infamously not easy to treat because doctors are not completely sure if the disorder is chemical, mental or a combination of both. What doctors do know however is that it takes a multifaceted approach to discover a solution that works for people who are afflicted by panic attacks.

The initial step for most people seeking panic attack treatment is to discuss their problem with a psychiatrist. Psychiatrists are quite pricey and not necessarily covered under Medical Insurance. The other problem lays in the fact that psychiatry doesn't fix everyone's problems. It works for some folk, it does not work for others.

When this fails doctors usually next turn to medicine to try to correct the disorder. Much like psychiatrists medicine does not work for everyone.

The main point is, don't be deterred. Millions of folk have to cope with panic attacks each year, and every year, and each and every one of them who are looking for treatment had to go of the process of trying different things until they find something that works. The main point is to never give up. If you are looking for a few to a couple of the more conventional treatments The stress Release Methodology offers inventive solutions for folk afflicted by panic attacks.

What Are the reasons behind Panic Attacks and the way to En

Do you wonder why you get panic attacks? One of the commoner treatments for panic and stress is to discover the triggers that set them off in the 1st place. For me, I am still not a hundred % sure what my panic attack triggers are, but I have found a really great idea that helps me overcome them, even not completely understanding where my panic attacks come from in the 1st place.

Panic and stress can first hit somebody for a variety of reasons. Stress, loss of a friend, even the way we eat can trigger our first panic attack. The 1st panic attack is always the hardest because it can leave a big impression on us. We now know we're capable of having a panic attack, so the fear of having more panic attacks takes control.

This is the stress "loop" that us sufferers of panic disorder fall into. As panic attacks become commoner in a persons life, certain scenarios will set them off, but it is not necessarily the fear of the situation itself, it can be fear of having a panic attack whilst in that situation. I could give an example from myself: One of my biggest fears was fainting around folks I am not sure. I worried I would not be able to get the help I required, or that I would embarrass myself before a bunch of strangers.

Knowing that exercise is a great help for stress, I elected to start walking everywhere for awhile. As I was taking a walk to the corner store, just a short trip from my house, I spotted a bunch of teens in front. Immediately my heart started to race, the world turned fuzzy, and I had to turn around and return home. I was so shocked of having a panic attack out front of this group of kids, that rather than what I required, I returned home and waited for my partner so that he could go and get what I needed.

I slid into the loop again. The fear of having a panic attack, causes stress, which just leads to more panic attacks. If you can break that loop, you can diffuse a panic attack before it even starts. It is that very concept which has helped me overcome my panic altogether.