Understanding Panic Attacks

Panic attacks and anxiety attacks are branded as irrational fears because of the symptoms that a person may experience like an increased heart rate and breathing patterns, chilling and becoming sweaty. Although there are many symptoms of panic attack, these symptoms are mainly noticed during an attack and each person may experience a rather unique experience in terms of severity of the symptoms. It is also possible that a person may suffer from a panic attack without a warning and this mainly because of the so-called irrational fear of the person. Although each person may experience different triggering factors, yet the there are always similarities in experience and that is the fear of a panic attack. Panic attack sufferers complain of a felling like dying or the state of having a heart attack and this is mainly because of what they feel from within. Although people who experience panic attack for the first time may not understand it, other people however may help them understand what a panic attack really is. When a panic attack has taken place and they have survived, their next concern now is the fear of future attacks.

People suffering from panic attacks can actually get a variety of helps, but many of them do not even bother to seek professional treatment. Of the many treatments available today, therapy, medications and relaxation techniques are among the common method of treatments which are being used to rehabilitate a person. The aim of behavioral therapy is to allow the person to feel for himself the symptoms of panic attacks and to help him realize that there is nothing to worry about having symptoms. This is called interoceptive exposure in behavioral therapy. An example of this is that a person is asked to bring out some of the sensations of panic attack, like an increased heart rate. The person later on learns that having feelings of panic attacks is not always a guarantee of possible panic attacks and the fact that they can handle the situation. In behavioral therapy, people may undergo real-life exposure, like for example, they may be introduced to objects and situations that they are most afraid in order that they will get accustomed to them.

In the relaxation methods, which can be performed in various forms, the person is first asked to relax his shoulders whenever he feels of a panic attack. The awareness of the tension around the neck area may lead the person to learn how to relieve the tension. He may then be asked to relax his muscles with the aim at reaching a total body relaxation. One of the most important elements in the relaxation process is slowing down the person’s breathing to counter the increasing heart rate and breathing brought about by panic attack. The person may then be asked to exhale using his mouth with the aim of calming him down. The person also needs to understand that mere panic attacks will bring them to death or being crazy. This kind of fears will only make him prone to panic attacks.

Panic attack is another form of a panic disorder, which is caused mainly by anxiety. There are many ways of manifesting signs of anxiety, mostly through a panic disorder. Post traumatic stress disorder is usually recognized in individuals who encountered a traumatic event like the death of separation of a loved one, physical attacks, abuses and being able to witness a traumatic event. A person may also be diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) which involves having thoughts or obsessions which can hardly be removed from a person’s mind. The OCD attacks often result from repeatedly doing actions and behaviors to ease anxiety.

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