Help and advice
I suffered from agoraphobia and panic attacks for many years. I was unable to drive, standing in line at stores was usually more than I could take, eating out was a horror because I was afraid of choking, and eventually I could not even go to my mailbox.
With no warning, my heart would start racing; my hands would feel as if they did not belong to me, I would feel like I had risen up above my body, I would be terrified.
Many people do not realize that agoraphobia is a form of anxiety disorder that is quite common but highly treatable. Agoraphobia and panic attack disorder are closely in that an individually suffering from agoraphobia fears situations or settings where they feel out of control or fear the onset of a panic attack in public.
When a person suffers from panic attacks they run the risk of having these attacks in a public place. After the very first panic attack, the person might become fearful of having another attack in a place that they cannot control. Spending time in places where they might have a panic attack becomes impossible for these people and agoraphobia becomes the problem.
One of the easiest way of coping with panic attacks is to understand what causes these panic attacks symptoms. In fact, by understanding the causes, you can actually move yourself out of these attacks.
Here are 3 of the most common causes of anxiety disorder:
1) Drugs
2) Long term exposure to stress
3) Trauma
Abusing the use of sleeping pills such as benzodiazepines can cause agoraphobia. A sensation of nervousness felt in open space.
Long term exposure to stress can set the body response to “malfunction”, causing you to experience sensations of fear without true fear.
You Haven’t Died Yet! This is really the key to managing, controlling and curing your panic attacks. Anxiety disorders take such a powerful hold because we let them,
o we think the worst things
o believe the worst things
o feel the worst things
because we would have it so. Rather than believing the worst, try to believe the best.
Have your panic attacks killed you yet? No…. they haven´t! You may have thought you were dying the first time it happened, but once you figured out it wasn’t a heart attack and the doctor sent you on your way, didn´t you understand what it was the next time?
The terms “anxiety attack” and “panic attack” are used interchangeably in popular culture, but they have very specific and different meanings to psychiatrists, so I’d like you to know what the difference is too. It’s important to know whether you are having and anxiety attack or a panic attack because it will affect the type of treatment that you are likely to respond to (as I’ll discuss at the end of this article).
This article is mainly written for the professional treating anxiety panic attack via hypnosis, biofeedback, psychotherapy, psychiatry… However, the sufferer may use the information to guide his/her therapist.
Based on a stress management model, the technique is different than generally associated with main stream stress management training. Let me clarify. It is often assumed that a stress management model is synonymous with body awareness techniques that utilize inward focus. The other technique is outward focus initially used by Lacy, a psychologist. It is the one most effective for all anxiety/panic attacks. It likewise is effective for all other maladies, but because it is less defined, it is generally only used in more advanced training and left out of the protocols for initial training sessions.
A spontaneous panic attack is just that, it pops up, out of the blue, at a random time, in a random place. The problem with spontaneous panic attacks is that they create a great deal of uncertainty, leading to situational panic attacks.
If you have a panic attack in the nail salon, you then associate your susceptibility to panic attacks with being closed in and confined. Suddenly, you fear going to the hair salon, going to a concert, a sporting event or any place that doesn’t have an easy exit.
Are panic disorder and panic attacks the same thing or are they two separate conditions? In other words, does someone who suffers from panic attacks automatically get labelled as having panic disorder? The short answer to that question is no. Someone who suffers from panic attacks doesn’t necessarily have panic disorder.
First of all, throughout the world, every year, many people experience panic attacks first-hand. In a lot of cases, these attacks are isolated incidents and are usually triggered when the sufferer is experiencing extreme stress within their lives or when the person is faced with some heavy negative emotion. For example, following the death of a loved one etc.
Well, the short answer is YES… Here’s the details:
In the first place, chronic panic disorder can easily cause depression. This is most likely to occur in people who are exhausted from the chronic anxiety that can come with panic disorder, and also people who have developed agoraphobia (i.e. the avoidance of activities due to a fear of panic attacks) to such an extent that it is forcing them to retreat / hibernate from life (i.e. not going to work, not socializing with friends, no longer driving or leaving the house because of a fear of panic attacks). When panic disorder is clearly causing depression, patients often report that the panic and/or agoraphobia gets worst FIRST, then the depression comes later. They are also likely to report that if I could make their panic and / or agoraphobia go away, then they would no longer be depressed. Such patients would probably benefit from focusing on their panic disorder first rather then their depression per se (unless the depression is so bad that they are having serious thoughts of ending their life).
Generally, people have the perception that they have little control over an emotional event. When the events like stress, depression or panic attack occurs, people tend to ignore it or just let their feelings calm down naturally.
However, there are varieties of professional treatment available to cope with emotional events specifically panic attack and panic disorder. From the following list, you can decide which panic attack treatment works best for you.
o Consult Your Doctor or Psychotherapist
The most common way for people to deal with this problem is to consult their doctor or psychotherapist. Communicating with either one of them is an important part in the diagnosis and treatment of panic attacks and panic disorder.