The ‘What is’ Guide to Anxiety and Panic Attacks
What is Anxiety?
Anxiety is t he sense and feeling of fright or fear that we will all experience when placed in a dangerous or harmful position. Anxiety is there to assist the human body in avoiding threatening situations and acts as a defence mechanism which kicks in when faced with danger.
What is Panic?
Panic is better described as a sudden rush of anxiety which again is a part of a natural defence. Panic gives the overwhelming impulse to escape any potentially dangerous or worrying situations.
What are Phobias?
A Phobia is generally an irrational (or unfounded) fear of either: something, someone or somewhere. Those of us who have a phobia are generally never really faced or afraid of a situation that presents us any real threat.
When any of the above conditions become overbearing – they can have a massive impact on our lives and how we lead them.
What are the causes?
Our Genes – research suggests that some of us are just naturally born with more anxiety than the next person. This over anxiousness can be passed down to us through the genetic line. However it’s not only those genetically predisposed to worry that can suffer from anxiety. Someone who is not a natural worrier can, if placed under enough stress, become dangerously anxious and tense.
Our Circumstances – often it’s pretty plain to see what the cause of your anxiety may be. When any particular cause is removed – then in turn, so is the anxiety. There can be however situations that are so traumatic to the recipient that the anxiety experienced can continue in the sufferer for a great deal of time after the event. Some may remain anxious and tense for years. This is more commonly referred to as PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).
Drugs – (not medicines). Substances such as ecstasy, Acid (LSD) and speed (amphetamine sulphate) can cause panic and anxiety as a side effect. Caffeine in coffee or soft drinks can also be enough to trigger tension in some of us!
Changes to our lifestyles – having a bad or traumatic experience during one of the more common change to our lifestyle. These can be things such as a new job, moving home, pregnancy or marriage.
What are the Symptoms?
For Anxiety these can be:
Feeling constantly worried or anxious
Feeling tired
Being Irritable
Insomnia
Lack of concentration
Increased heart rate
Sweating
Tense and painful muscles
The shakes
Heavy breathing
Dizziness
Bad digestion or diarrhoea
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The above are only compounded more in anxiety sufferers – as they may see the symptoms above as indicators of a more serious illness (which is possible – but should be checked out by your local health professional). The worrying on this however can make one even more anxious as a result.
For Panic these can be:
Quick breath
Pounding heart
A sudden feeling one has lost control accompanied by an overwhelming fear
Sweating
Dry Throat
Hot flushes
An ‘out of body’ feeling or sensation
Some sufferers have described the feeling of a panic attack as feeling like you are about to die
For Phobia these can be:
The feeling of anxiety or panic when faced with a potential situation of meeting that leaves you feeling afraid. E.G. if you have a phobia of spiders (picked a common one here) then you will immediately feel tense and anxious if faced with a spider, but in all other instances are fine and calm.
Avoiding situations (mainly social) that can make you feel nervous. Instead making excused to avoid these meetings. This will make the phobia worse and increase the effects through time.
Your life is engulfed by all the measures you have to undertake to make sure you avoid the situations that are affected by the phobia
You know the phobia is trivial or based on no facts or negative experiences at all. You may feel foolish, but are still unable to take control and the phobia starts to rule your life.
More often than not conditions such and panic and anxiety are also associated with depression.
What treatment is available?
Self Help
There are course and book available that will teach you relaxation techniques in addition to classes or groups run by professional therapists. You can teach yourself at home with CDs or DVDs and if these are practiced on a regular basis you can equip yourself with the techniques to use to help you clam down when you most need it.
There are Self-Help course available online, some for free and some as subscription, that will help you to look into cognitive therapy methods and more to help combat your anxiety.
It’s difficult to open up – especially when you are already feeling nervous and anxious. Try however talking to your family and/or friends about how you are feeling, someone you know will listen. Often you will find that others have had similar experiences and will be able to advise the best course of action, or alternatively be able to sympathise with you on your condition.
If you can’t find any help from family and friends, there are groups available to join in most towns and cities. Talking your issues through in a group of people who understand exactly what you are going through can be great. They may be able to suggest alternative methods of coping. There are groups that focus on anxieties and phobias and there are also more specific types of groups that may apply to your circumstances, such as bereavement groups, ex forces groups, alcohol and substance abuse groups or women’s groups.
Therapists
These are treatments based on talking your problems through and looking (generally) for a trigger or common factor at the heart of the anxiety. They can be a one on one session with a health professional or a chaired group therapy. They mainly focus on cognitive behavioural therapy.
Medicine
Anti depressants and tranquillisers (such as valium etc) can give light relief in the short term to an anxiety sufferer but should be used sensibly die to their addictive nature.
They may also cause nausea, constipation and make you over drowsy in some instances (mainly anti-depressants) and so again should be used sensibly.
In some more extreme cases Beta Blockers can be subscribed for anxiety. Primarily designed to combat high blood pressure they are also effective in reducing the physical shaking experienced during serious bouts of anxiety.
Hopefully this has all been of use – and will help to identify which (if any) of the above you may experience or suffer from – and how best to combat the symptoms and causes of Anxiety and Panic.
To read more on panic attack and anxiety attacks, their parent conditions, how to recognise the symptoms and how to get started on the road to recovery – come along and visit http://www.panicandanxietyselfhelp.com and start to learn more on self help methods that will get you up and away from your current anxiety issues.
Article from articlesbase.com
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