Ways to Stop Panic Attacks From Re-Occurring

In America alone, 40 million people have been diagnosed with impairment because of anxiety conditions while only 4 million have received panic disorder medication and of those, only 400, 000 have received proper treatment. Several research conducted have shown that to overcome anxiety disorders, most people have ended up with a high propensity of drug abuse and addictions with 65% of North Americans taking prescription medications daily and 43% taking mood altering prescriptions regularly.

Anxiety attacks can push people to even commit suicide. Jane Goody, the controversial contestant of a reality TV show who allegedly made racist remarks against Shilpa Shetty, the Bollywood actress who was also a contestant of the show, reveals that she nearly committed suicide in the midst of getting treatment for depression. Goody was going through a period of anxiety attack and was close to breaking point during which she was sent to Priory clinic to stop panic attack and refused to take off her coat the whole time she was admitted. She was quoted as saying in Mirror.co.uk as “It was the worst thing in the world. I sat on the bed and I did not take my coat off because I thought, ‘If I take this off it means I’ve got to stay here’. So I had it on the whole time. I was on suicide watch because that’s how bad I was.  “I can’t speak for everybody – but I just think there are so many people out there who are hungry to live and want a life. I just think that it’s a very selfish thing to do.”  Anxiety attack patients have been known to suffer some form of abuse when they were children, and Goody is no exception. She spoke about the beating she endured from her mother saying, “I don’t hate my mum for beating me. I understand that she was frustrated and took it out on me.”

Anxiety attacks are no joke. These attacks alter a person’s life at varying degrees from being pretty mild to severe reactions. Anxiety attacks normally happen to people who are constantly worried, a perfectionist, socially avoidant or those who have encountered some form of abuse in childhood. Hereditary also plays a part in this disorder. Feelings of being trapped, helplessness and fear wash over those who are affected- this is a real and life threatening problem. Imagine being trapped in a box with no clear sign of exit, no light and no direction of leaving the box. You are trapped forever with no way out. Imagine this feeling ten times more severe.

According to researched in the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), three brain areas of a patient with panic disorder lack a key component which is a chemical messenger system that regulates emotion. Following a series of brain scans done on panic disorder patients to find panic disorder medication, it is revealed that a type of serotonin receptor is reduced by nearly a third in three structures straddling the center of the brain. The finding published in January 2004 in the Journal of Neuroscience, is the first in living humans to show that the receptor, which is pivotal to the action of widely prescribed anti-anxiety medications, may be abnormal in the disorder, and may help to explain how genes might influence vulnerability. This research was conducted by Drs. Alexander Neumeister and Wayne Drevets of the NIMH Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) has been used to stop panic attack.  CBT is a form of psychotherapy carried out by trained therapists and it involves assessing the reasoning behind a patient’s thinking. This is based on the idea that abnormal thinking is a direct result of abnormal reactions. The goal of this therapy is to change this abnormal behavior. Anxiety cures such as benzodiazepine tablets help give the sufferer short term relief due to stress related anxieties.
Overcoming panic disorder takes quite awhile as it depends on the severity of the case. Normally, medication is continues for a year or longer and then decreased gradually over several weeks. In some cases, panic attacks tend to occur after medication is stopped; hence doctors will continue the medication for a few more months for you just so that you can keep the symptoms under control. Most medical practitioners would advice and recommend patients to seek for therapy and self-relaxation techniques before administering medication to them. This is because once medication is given; the patient might be depended on the drug. Self relaxation methods come in the form of yoga and pilates. A walk on the beach and even jogging can help cope with panic attack and stress. Apart from that, patients are advised to join a group therapy in order to talk their feelings out and share with one another as well as help other people overcome their problems.