Anxiety Attack Treatments – Which One’s For You?

Only people who have had the unpleasant experience of anxiety attacks will know how much they want the ailment to be cured permanently.  Getting help with panic attacks does not have to be as complicated as one might think.  However, everyone must remember that, as with all other medical diseases and conditions, you must be properly diagnosed by an experienced medical practitioner before pursuing any form of anxiety attack treatments.

As with most psychological disorders, anxiety attacks always have a trigger.  For some people, there may be more than just one trigger.  The types of triggers, however, are divided into two main types:

1.    Acquired triggers are those that have only just entered the patient’s life recently.  Often, this is due to some traumatic experience like a near-fatal car crash, death of a loved one, war or rape.

2.    Inherent triggers are traumatic experiences that occurred quite a while back but have either been suppressed or ignored in silence by the sufferer.  These could pertain to childhood abuse, an abusive marriage or parents’ divorce.  For more sensitive children, these triggers may take root after observing a distressing or traumatic scene like being in a plane crash and surviving while their loved ones perish before their very eyes.

When diagnosing the disorder, the psychologist or doctor must also decipher the trigger or triggers, as the case may be.  This is because anxiety or panic attacks are the physical, visible signs of a real and often unseen psychological condition.  In order to revert back to normal life, the psychological condition is the actual ailment that needs to be addressed and treated.

Anxiety attack treatments can be diverse, depending on the details of the disorder and the doctor’s own medical practice – some doctors believe in the power of holistic approaches while others may pooh-pooh it as unimportant the healing process.  Whatever treatments that are employed, however, are always accompanied by some amount of counseling.

Counseling sessions are seen as a central part of any form of help with panic attacks.  These help the psychologist to delve into the psyche of their patients so the triggers can be dug out and explored.  Once these triggers are identified, the patient can then face them.  This is extremely important in getting rid of anxiety attacks permanently as these triggers are the ones that carry the insane fear that will be manifested in typical anxiety attack symptoms.

In so facing their fears, patients can then address the issues connected to them and if possible, get rid of them.  This may not always be possible, however, in which case, the medical practitioner’s task would be to help their patients to live with these fears and manage them when they strike.

Aside from identifying and managing triggers and fears, anxiety attack treatments are also designed to help patients manage the actual attacks as and when they occur.  These may or may not include medications – while some doctors easily prescribe pills to help their patients calm down for use “when necessary”, many doctors prefer not to prescribe unless the panic attack signs appear severe and poses a danger in public.

Apart from medication, anxiety attack treatments also include more holistic approaches which have been proven to be more effective in dealing with such attacks.  These include:

-    Deep breathing exercises where the patient must remember to physically slow down his breathing.

-    Repetitive chanting is another good way to regain control of a patient’s emotions.  The patient will be given a set of positive phrases to use during the attacks.  They will be phrases akin to “this too will pass”, “I can overcome this” and “I am not afraid of this”.  These positive phrases are designed to empower the patients with inner strength and incite feelings of calm until the wave of panic passes.

-    Yoga and meditation.  Together, this is one of the more powerful permanent anxiety attack treatments.  In the long run, the gentle yoga poses improves blood circulation and forces the patient to focus attention on achieving the poses.  Meditation is a strong weapon to calm the mind and helps in ensuring the patient has control over emotions when it is needed.

-    Hypnosis.  Touted by some psychologists as a sure way of digging out stubborn triggers, hypnotherapy is usually reserved for patients who are facing severe symptoms or want a quick identification of triggers for a quick cure.

It is also proven that a change of lifestyle like regular exercise and getting enough sleep quickens the healing process.