Consult A Psychiatrist If You want To Cure Anxiety Attack

Panic is a normal reaction to fear. You need treatment for panic only when you do that without any apparent reason and that too to such extend that it not only disables you, but also makes you feel that you are going to die any moment. Such a feeling of fear that almost engulfs you without any reason and that accompanies trembling, sweating, hot and cold flashes etc are termed panic attack. Such panic attacks are followed by a period of at least a month of fear that another attack is going to occur.

Panic attacks are horrifying to say the least. You may be enjoying a TV show or just a chat with your loved ones, when you may just feel a mental bloc! Then you begin to tremble and perspiration begins to run down your face. You choke and feel that you are going to die, that you may be having a heart attack or something.

In most such cases, the patient is referred to the emergency department. In deed, it is necessary to see that the patient does not have any real physical ailment. The symptoms of panic attack are almost same as that of cardiac patient. If you indeed have a panic attack, you will have four or more of the following symptoms, which will develop abruptly and reach its peak within 10 minuets:

1.    Palpitation, pounding heart or accelerated heart rate

2.    Sweating

3.    Trembling or shaking

4.    Sensation of shortness of breadth

5.    Chest pain or discomfort

6.    Nausea or abdominal distress

7.    Feeling dizzy, lightheaded or faint

8.    Feeling of unreality (derealization) and feeling of being detached from one self (depersonalization)

9.    Fear of losing control or going crazy

10.    Numbness or tingling sensation (paresthesias)

11.    Fear of dying

12.    Hot and cold flashes

People often refer to panic attacks as anxiety attack. Strictly speaking, the two attacks are similar, but not same. An anxiety attack needs a stressor. It needs something like a particular sound or sight to trigger the attack. You hear a knock on the door and start shaking. It may be your mom calling unexpectedly. The panic attack does not need any stressor. It comes out of blue. In panic attack, you are more concerned with your own body, with what is happening to you. In anxiety attack, you are disproportionately worried about something in your life.

However, both of them can be tackled with exactly the same kind of treatment. In order to cure anxiety attacks, it is important to have it diagnosed first. You should first make sure that what you have is not any physical ailments. Extensive medical examination can eliminate such a chance. If you are free from physical illness and are suffering from the above symptoms, go to a psychoanalyst who will refer you to a psychiatrist, if necessary. Remember, a psychoanalyst is not a doctor, but a psychiatrist is. The job of the psychoanalyst is to analyze your condition and provide psychotherapy if necessary. Only a psychiatrist is can prescribe medicines, if the need arises. A psychiatrist can provide therapies too.

Psychotherapy is the best treatment for panic or anxiety attacks, although the use medicines may be necessary, at least in first stage. Between the two most popular psychotherapies, the cognitive behavioral therapy or CBT seems to be more popular. It is a combination of cognitive therapy, which deals with the thought process and behavioral therapy, which deals with the behavior. CBT will teach you to recognize the false beliefs that give rise to the attack at its onset. It will then teach you how to analyze such thought and divert it into safer channels. It also teaches you to control your behavior. If you have been avoiding certain situation out of fear of recurring attacks, CBT will also teach you to approach it by stages.

Another popular psychotherapy is panic-focused psychodynamic psychotherapy. It makes panic disorder patients become aware of the unconscious conflicts and fantasies and the defense mechanism, which is responsible for the attack.

The two groups of medicines that are used in treatment of panic or anxiety attack are antidepressants and benzodiazepines. Antidepressants take a long time to act and must be taken for a long period. The selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSRIs are the first line of medicines, followed by tricyclics. The panic attack patients should be started with a very low doze of antidepressant because they are more concerned about their own body.

Benzodiazepines act fast but can make the patient depended on it. Often it is introduced along with the antidepressant in the beginning and then tapered off in two weeks while the antidepressants continue. However, the mode of treatment will depend on your psychiatrist. Find one who is either a MD or a DO.