Suffering from panic attacks can be an extremely traumatic experience. With symptoms such as chest pain, difficulty of breathing, and a feeling of impending doom, a panic attack may not be as simple as it is thought to be. It does have physical symptoms, which is why it is necessary to cure panic attacks. Panic attacks are serious medical conditions that need appropriate treatment through therapies and anxiety treating medications. Good thing there are different options for therapies and varieties of anxiety medicine available in the market nowadays.

What is a panic attack? A panic attack is a sudden overwhelming feeling of unreasonable fear. It is classified as an anxiety disorder. There may be times when it is triggered by something, like a claustrophobic person riding in an elevator for instance, but it has no clear reason most of the time. It just happens, and sometimes even more than once.

Though it is classified as a psychological condition, the symptoms of panic attacks resemble those of a heart attack, which means that it can be a life-threatening condition. Thus, the need to cure panic attacks becomes more pressing than ever. The good news is, panic attacks can be treated. The sooner you visit a medical facility to have it treated, the better.

You have two choices when it comes to treating anxiety. The first one is through the use of therapies, and the second one is through anxiety medications.

If you want to undergo the conservative treatment, then you can choose between two anxiety treating therapies that will best suit your preferences–the cognitive behavioral therapy and the exposure therapy. Research shows that undergoing therapies is the most effective option. Unlike anxiety medications which are given to reduce symptoms, therapies look into the cause of the problem and treat it. Therapies also help you learn ways on how to cope with the panic attack effectively, which medications cannot give.

The first type anxiety therapy is the cognitive behavioral therapy, which is the best treatment option when it comes to curing panic attacks. It mainly focuses on the thinking and behavior patterns that trigger panic attacks. In other words, it helps you realize your fears, and overcome them eventually. Cognitive behavioral therapy points out that the thoughts of the person that affect the way they feel. Different people perceive similar situations differently, and some people’s perceptions of normal occurrences can be the trigger for a panic attack.

One process in the cognitive behavioral therapy is thought challenging, wherein the person consciously challenges himself to replace his negative thoughts with positive ones. This comes as a three-way process: identifying negative thoughts, challenging them, and eventually replacing these negative thoughts with more positive and realistic ones.

Other things to be learned in cognitive behavioral therapy include recognizing the symptoms of a panic attack, developing coping, problem-solving, and relaxation strategies, and confronting your fears.

The second type of therapy is the exposure therapy, wherein the person is exposed to the physical symptoms of panic so as to learn healthier ways of coping. It must be noted though that an exposure therapy must be done in a safe and controlled setting. An example of exposure therapy is when you are asked to hold your breath, giving you a feeling that you cannot breathe. The longer the therapist exposes you to a certain stimuli, the more you can control yourself and become less afraid.

A type of exposure therapy is systematic desensitization, which is a gradual exposure to a thing that you fear most. This is mostly used for people suffering from phobias.

Therapies may be long-term treatments for anxiety. If you want to relieve anxiety symptoms right away, they you can opt to take an anxiety medicine instead. In fact, therapies and medications are used simultaneously for best results. Below is a list of classes of anti-anxiety medications, also called as anxiolytics, with a short description for each:
•    Anti-convulsants – enhances GABA, effective within 2-4 weeks, causes sedation
•    Azaspirones – enhances the activity of serotonin, less sedating but works slowly
•    Benzodiazepines – enhances GABA, fast-acting but addictive, should be withdrawn slowly to avoid life-threatening withdrawal symptoms
•    Beta Blockers – reduces adrenaline, fast-acting, originally used for cardiac and vascular problems
•    Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors – prevents breakdown of serotonin, effective within 2-6 weeks, has food-to-drug interactions
•    Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors – increases serotonin, improvement shows after 4-6 weeks, has fewer side effects
•    Tricyclic Anti-depressants – regulates serotonin and norepinephrine, improvement shows after 2-6 weeks

With all these options in curing panic attacks, there is no reason why people should still be suffering from it.