Panic Attacks Information You Need To Know
Panic Attacks Information
Your heart rate is racing. Suddenly, you feel fearful for no apparent reason, you are chilled and beginning to sweat. . . . . You are having a panic attack; an experience shared by millions of people in the United States alone. There are quite a few additional symptoms you might have during one of these episodes, and different individuals will vary as to the type and severity of each. This reaction is an anxiety disorder, one of many which people experience.
These episodes will appear without warning and can be attributed, immediately, to some irrational fear you are experiencing. The individual switch which turned it on will be different for each person, but there are many common reactions to be shared, among which is the fear of the attack itself. Here is where having good panic attacks information is most valuable.
Suffering people report that they feel like they are dying, or are having or are about to have a heart attack. Initially, when one has such a panic attack for the first time, they are not going to understand what is happening. This adds to their dilemma. Most frequently, however, people can be greatly helped if they understand precisely what it means to be having a panic attack. After the first time one occurs, most sufferers will focus their fears on the recurrence of others.
Strangely enough, although there is a great amount of panic attack information available for treating them in many different ways, most people with such anxiety disorders don’t initially look for treatment. Techniques to deal with them range through meditation, drugs, relaxation techniques and therapy. When one undergoes behavioral therapy, they can learn enough to make it through their panic attacks with less severity, understanding better what they are. This approach is termed “interoceptive exposure.”
For example, one may be prompted to create one of the symptoms, such as increased heart rate, artificially, and focus on the sensations. Through this exercise is learned that the feeling alone of the symptom will not initiate the panic attack, and so it can be managed. Sometimes in this kind of therapy one will be exposed to actual, real fears they may have so as to become more familiar with them and to reduce their power to immobilize you and cause you pain.
Another approach is to learn relaxation methods, among which there are many. One technique is that when you feel a panic attack coming on, you begin by sitting comfortably and just relaxing your shoulders. By concentrating on this, you learn to become aware of the tension in your neck and how to relieve it. You then proceed down through the rest of your body, one area at a time, getting your muscles to unwind until you achieve total body relaxation. This is a simple first level approach to reacting to such an anxiety disorder.
One thing you need to remember while doing this is to bring down your heart rate which will usually be increased at these times. You can do that by focusing on your breath, inhaling slowly and deeply and then gently releasing the air in your lungs through your mouth, like with blowing out candles, slowly. Remind yourself during this exercise that a) you are not going crazy (you are not) and b) you are not going to die (you are not). These thoughts are the most culpable in making panic attacks get worse.
What we generally refer to as “panic attack” is, in effect, a generally recognized form of anxiety disorder. Panic attacks reveal themselves in many different forms with each individual. Post traumatic stress is a well known example which we often see happen to someone after they have experienced a severe emotional shock such as the death of a loved one, being physically attacked or abused, a terrible accident or even witnessing a horrible event.
There is also “obsessive-compulsive-disorder” or OCD which shows itself by the individual not being able to remove unwanted thoughts from their thinking. This is frequently reacted to with obsessive repetitive behaviors, rituals or routines, all of which serve in some capacity to ease their anxieties.
These are only a few of the most common types of panic/anxiety disorders. But in any case, the more you learn about them, the better your ability to deal effectively with them will be. This is one set of circumstances in particular where that adage “Knowledge is Power” really comes into play and having good panic attacks information is more than just interesting!
