Panic Disorder – Help Is Just A Step Away

Most people never realize that suffering from panic disorder is a serious medical condition that should be addressed as soon as possible.  One of the main reasons why this is so is probably because the majority of us think that feeling anxious and nervous is part of everyday life, particularly in today’s often stressful conditions.

Suffering panic disorder is different from experiencing fear or anxiety.  Unfortunately, unless one is acutely observant, it is possible to not recognize it in someone we are close to unless we are with them every minute of the day.  Most sufferers also tend to hide their symptoms as they are often embarrassed to admit that they have panic disorder – a medical condition often considered harmless but can render its sufferers totally incapable of any self-control.  Thus, getting anyone seeking help for panic attacks usually have to be proactive themselves to obtain a diagnosis and subsequently, medication and/or therapy.

Panic disorder comprises, for the main part, panic attacks.  These are, as their name suggests, sudden occurrences of anxiety and fear that is as unexplained as they are unexpected.  This is one of the main reasons why it is difficult to ascertain if someone we know if just feeling abnormally anxious or if they are suffering from panic attacks.  One way of making a quick, albeit inaccurate diagnosis, is to calculate how many known times the sufferer shows symptoms of such attacks.

To see the severity of such occurrences and confirm if it really is a panic attack, check for these signs:

1.    Physical trembling.

2.    Breathlessness or breathing difficulty.  Sufferers of panic disorder often show a difficulty in catching their breath and when they do, it is in the form of quick, shallow breaths that escalate in speed and shallowness.

3.    Total loss of control over emotions.  Victims may refuse to listen to reason or be in a dazed-like state, as if in another world.

4.    Mental incapability.  People going through panic disorder often are unable to think straight or even continue behaving normally.  During a typical attack, sufferers will literally be unable to work, drive or think in a rational manner and may even stop dead in their tracks as the strong emotions take over.

5.    Quick reactive motions of shielding.  During the attack, victims often quickly duck for cover or want to find shield themselves from “harm”, even when alone at home or in relatively safe surroundings, like a supermarket, sidewalk or in the office.

When getting help for panic attacks, a proper diagnosis has to be done first.  This can be done through a licensed physician who may or may not refer you to a psychotherapist.  From here on, we may be given the right panic disorder medications or psychotherapy, whichever the medical practitioner thinks will be more effective for us.

One of the main objectives in getting cured of panic disorder is to (re)gain control of our mental capabilities.  To effectively treat this, we need to understand the disorder better and this can be done through a committed and continuous series of counseling and therapy.  These sessions may or may not be complemented with the appropriate panic disorder medications.  It has to be said, however, that, on their own, the medications cannot stop panic attack as wholly as therapy can.

To effectively stop panic attack and get it treated as permanently as possible, it is always best to root out the problem.  Finding out the triggers for such panic attack will be a good start.  Most psychotherapists believe that help for panic attacks can only be done if the sufferer is willing to investigate its source by delving back into his or her past.  Most of the time, panic disorder is borne out of some prior traumatic experience.  It could be something witnessed or actually experienced – an accident where a loved one dies, for instance, or an abusive past.

If this is the case, then the sufferer must be willing to root out the trauma through cognitive therapy.  This means a lot of counseling sessions where the trauma is discussed in great depth.  Most sufferers also testify to the effectiveness of hypnotherapy – where they are transported back to the moment when the trauma was experienced.