Anxiety Cure – For Peace Pure

•    Excessive worry, occurring more days than not, for a least six months?
•    Unreasonable worry about a number of events or activities, such as work or school and/or health?
•    The inability to control the worry?
Are you bothered by a least three of the following?
•    Restlessness, feeling keyed-up or on edge?
•    Being easily tired?
•    Problems concentrating?
•    Irritability?
•    Muscle tension?
•    Trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, or restless and unsatisfying sleep?
•    Does your anxiety interfere with your daily life?

These yes-no type questions are part of a standard self-test questionnaire engineered on the basis of Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders (IV) to help you check if you are suffering from anxiety disorder or not.

Anxiety disorder is becoming alarmingly common in our hassled, stressed world. The causative agents of the malaise are multiple – genetic, acquired and environmental – and that serves to complicate the treatment further. Studies based on twin siblings have proved that genes at least predispose an individual toward anxiety.

It is of the essence to stop panic attack. We cannot allow its life-disruptive symptoms to affect millions without doing something about it.

The best help, though, that a generalized anxiety disorder patient can get is self-help. Anxiety is essentially a disease of the mind – our fears, experiences and traumas set the background for the malaise to set in. Hence, it is by controlling the mind, that the patient can control the disorder.

This is exactly what the psychotherapist orders – strong will power and as much of positivity as possible. The patient is suggested to sift his thoughts into the absurd and the astute and to do away with the absurd. He monitors his thoughts to try finding the basic causes of his panic attacks. On the occasions of the onset of an attack, he may use his positive energy to control his body’s reactions. This is clubbed under the category of Cognitive and Behavioural Therapy (CBT).

A further part of CBT is Biofeedback. Biofeedback involves making a patient aware of the changes in the quantifiable parameters of his body as his thoughts mount into the panic attack. This is enabled by attaching the measuring instruments to the patient’s body. The visual impact of his own body’s changes affects the patient strongly. He now begins to make an effort to control his functional reactions – by practice, it is possible that to some degree this control shifts into the realm of voluntary actions.

CBT together with Biofeedback is one of the most potent anxiety cures available.

If there is one word that spells the complete opposite to stress and anxiety and panic, it is Relaxation.
Total relaxation is a rara avis in the world of today. However, as a strong anxiety cure it must be searched for.

The problem with today’s world is that we have forgotten to look for relaxation inside us. A positive effort should be made to adopt a happy disposition and to take things lightly. More of laughter and hanging-out with friends lessens anxiety. Pets and children ease our minds.

We must take time out for these activities. There is Yoga and other such exercises that yield to us more serenity and calmness. An exploration of spirituality and meditation also goes a long way in healing our senses.

Even something as simple as a long hot shower or a sauna bath may help relax mind and body alike.

A trifle dietary control is also conducive in lessening stress – alcohol intake must be controlled, drug abuse avoided at all costs and caffeine containing food like tea, coffee, chocolates and soda brought down in consumption – and lo and behold! Anxiety attacks may well come down.

Panic attack medication is also available in the market. Most of these are tranquilizers. The major groups of drugs involved are – Benzodiazepine, Busprione and Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRI).

However, medication alone is usually not employed to stop panic attack – it is used in accompaniment with other anxiety cures and always prescribed by a licensed psychiatrist.

The trouble with anxiety disorder is that it enters into a vicious cycle – it causes lack of sleep and insomnia in turn leads to more stress. It may be caused by high alcohol ingestion, and the patient may get so disturbed by his symptoms that he takes in more.

The real challenge in its treatment, therefore, is to be able to break this chain.