Anxiety and Panic Attacks

Understanding Anxiety

While everyone experiences stress and anxiety at times, generally this anxiety can be traced to a known trigger. Unfortunately, for some people this is not the case. Their chronic anxiety takes over and makes it next to impossible for them to live a normal, healthy life.

It is unclear what pushes a person from normal levels of anxiety into an anxiety disorder. Possibly the part of the brain that controls fear response is somehow over or under developed, thus causing an inability to control the level of fear experienced in day-to-day life. Whatever the neurological cause, there is a clear tendency for anxiety issues to be passed on from generation to generation, suggesting a genetic link. On the other hand, anxiety may be purely a learned disorder, where inadequate methods of coping with anxiety have compounded into a debilitating problem.

When a person has a General Anxiety Disorder (GAD) he experiences ongoing tension that is severe enough to interfere with his ability to cope with life on a daily basis. The constant worry incapacitates the person suffering a GAD, resulting in a variety of physical complaints such as headaches, insomnia, shakiness, and general muscle tension.

What are Panic Attacks?

At times a person with anxiety issues may suffer panic attacks. A panic attack is an unreasoning wave of fear that usually arises without evident cause. The symptoms can be so severe that the affected patient feels as though he might die. In some cases the patient might mistake a panic attack for a heart attack because the symptoms are so severe.

A patient experiencing a panic attack may experience some (or all) of the following symptoms:

• Heart Palpitations
• Chest Pain
• Nausea
• Difficulty Breathing
• Hot Flashes or Chills
• Loss of Touch of Reality
• Overwhelming Terror

Panic attacks are overwhelming, and are one of the most distressing things a person can experience. In fact, after experiencing a panic attack a person can become so afraid of a repeat attack that he develops a phobia of the situation that triggered the panic attack.

Treatment of Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety disorders can be truly debilitating. Worse, they can creep up on a person without him realizing that there is anything wrong with him. Without treatment, anxiety can take over a person’s life, gradually cutting him off from everyone and everything around him.

There are seven different anxiety disorders:

• Generalized Anxiety Disorder
• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
• Panic Disorder (with or without Agoraphobia)
• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
• Separation Anxiety
• Social Anxiety Disorder
• Specific Phobia

While each disorder has its different characteristics, treatment for anxiety disorders remains similar for all types of anxiety disorders, usually a combination of medication and psychotherapy.

One of the most common psychotherapies used for anxiety disorders is Cognitive Behavior Therapy. This therapy works to change the patient’s way of looking at things, correcting distorted thoughts and replacing them with a healthy world-view. In addition to this cognitive restructuring the patient is taught the skills required to change his behavior. When combined with medication to ease the level of anxiety, Cognitive Behavior Therapy has a high success rate in reforming patients with anxiety disorders.

For more information about anxiety disorders try visiting the following websites:

Anxiety Disorders Association of America
The American Psychiatric Association