If you are experiencing panic attacks, then the first question you will ask the doctor is; can I be totally cured of panic attacks. You have to be prepared to mentally to take a negative answer because most doctors will tell you that it is just next to impossible to cure panic attacks. However, they will surely tell you that you can keep the panic attacks under control. For a person suffering from frequent bouts of panic attacks, keeping the symptoms of panic attacks under control is top priority.
Doctors are the best guides because they have the qualifications and the skills to help you control the panic or anxiety attacks. Most doctors will start with the basic treatment of anxiety attacks and prescribe few basic anxiety attack medications. The doctor then monitors the progress of these medications and may prescribe better medications if the symptoms of anxiety attacks are not under control. The treatment for anxiety attacks may take some time especially with the basic medications, so you need to be a little patient.
After the doctors give you the medication for anxiety attacks, you need to take the medications very diligently. Common medications that are prescribed for the treatment of anxiety attacks are from the class of medications called Benzodiazepines. One of the major advantages of using Benzodiazepines is that it shows positive signs for approximately 80 percent of patients. Common worries that patients have is the issues of overdoses. With Benzodiazepines, patients do not have to worry much about the overdose if it happens accidentally.
Most Benzodiazepines are quick acting and give immediate relief to the patients suffering from anxiety or panic attacks. However, taking Benzodiazepines for a very long period may have serious reverberations and cause loss of muscle coordination in some patients. Some patients may also show some cognitive impairment when they take Benzodiazepines for extended periods of times. Common side effects of Benzodiazepines are as follows:

o    Decreased mental sharpness
o    Drowsiness or lethargy
o    Decrease in coordination
During the Benzodiazepines treatment, you must reduce or completely stop the consumption of alcohol. Consumption of alcohol can add to the drowsiness that is felt during the Benzodiazepines treatment. Intake of narcotic substances is a big no during the Benzodiazepines treatment because there can be various drug interactions causing serious health problems. On the sexual front, Benzodiazepines may cause you to lose interest in sexual intercourse. This is the major concern amongst patients who are advised the Benzodiazepines treatment.
If you feel that the anxiety attack medication is not working for you and that you are becoming too dependent on the medications, then you can try out other alternative treatments. Common alternative treatments are yoga, meditation, breathing exercises, and hypnosis. Most of the alternative treatments will give you good relief from the symptoms of anxiety attacks, but you will have to devote a lot of time for such therapies.
Yoga is one very good therapy that is being widely used for the treatments of panic and anxiety attacks. You can join the yoga classes or get few VCDs or DVDs on yoga basics from video libraries. If you don’t have any yoga classes near your house, you can buy the VCDs or DVDs from online video stores and practice yoga on your own. Just watching the videos is not sufficient; you will have to spend some time regularly—either in the early mornings or late evenings.
After practicing yoga for few months, many people have got good relief from panic or anxiety attacks. Many would argue that yoga is the best treatment for anxiety attacks without any side effects. Getting good results from the yoga, does not mean that you practice or extended hours in a day. There have been instances where people have been hospitalized for doing yoga for hours together. You must know all the pros and cons of such alternative therapies before you start doing them.
Hypnosis is also a very good alternative therapy which has gained a lot of popularity these days. You can either go to a therapist who performs the hypnosis on you or you can do self-hypnosis at the luxury of your home. Both the ways, people have got good relief from the symptoms of panic or anxiety attacks.

Panic attacks occurring on adults are already bad and severe; imagine if it was on a child. A child panic attack is as serious and frightening as adults panic attacks and it could me much worse, for not only the child but the parents as well. For a parent with a child suffering from panic attacks, there are a few things they should learn to do to help the child in this frightening and confusing time. For children, the emotional issues such as panic and anxiety are much differently than that suffered by adults so educating them  as a treatment for anxiety is to react to these situations at a younger stage is vital and necessary, not to be taken lightly.

When children and teenagers experience panic and anxiety, they may develop and early fear of going to the places and doing certain things because of this. For them, engaging in a certain activity might trigger the panic attack and ultimately embarrass them. This affects teenagers a great deal because of peer and societal pressure of being labeled ‘weird’. There are many different types of child panic attack disorders as well as many ways of treatment of anxiety attacks.

The first type of anxiety attacks is called GAD or Generalized Anxiety Disorder. GAD is an anxiety disorder that is generally known and associated with the patient when they are experiencing excessive worrying about a series of events. These events can either be in the past, in the present, or in the future so the time has little to do with the amount of “logical worry” that is applied. Sometimes children or teens worry about past events, conversations they may have had, upcoming events, school, friends, family, functions or any other possibility. This is the result of experiences that they have witnessed either that has occurred to them or to others around them. Typically a child experiencing GAD cannot control the amount of time spent worrying about such things and this can give a prominent impact on the child’s growing, learning and socializing abilities.

The best way known in treatment for anxiety relating to GAD is through relaxation techniques and therapy. These methods is all about teaching the child to focus on other things that calm them down or make them happy. Parents are advised to talk to their children as a way of getting them out of their worrying as this method can work wonders. A trained mental health physician is usually the best prepared to encounter such a disorder and can help a child to properly handle worrying situations. Children are taught to use positive self-talk instead of the discouraging words of worry and are taught to engage in a dialogue with others to explore their feelings. This child panic attack disorder does not generally have a prescribed anxiety attack medication.

Another common type of anxiety disorder is Separation Anxiety Disorder. This type of panic attack is the direct result when a child is separate from a loved one. When a child is separated from a loved one or a comfortable environment, they may experience panic. The younger the child, the more severe this type is as the child is separated from the people and the places he or she is close to. The threat of separation from a parent or loved one often results in anxiety and occurs in cases such as when the child is left with a babysitter on a parents’ evening out on the town. When this happens, the child will more or less avoid the daily activities when separated, stop smiling and be happy and looked depressed most of the time as they are in constant worry mode when their caregivers are gone. Normally the therapy involved includes recognition of these emotions and a good dose of reality: that nothing wrong happens, etc. Children are also taught skills and ways to cope and to deal with the separation, often through role playing.

Most of these types of anxiety attacks for children require little or no anxiety attack medication at all. More often than not, physicians educate the child on coping skills; show them that there are no dangers present and so on. The child is coaxed a little by little until he or she comes out from the shell and is okay after a while when their parents leave even if it’s for a night out.

The world would assuredly be a better place without anxiety – ask any anxiety disorder sufferer and you would get the same answer. Ever recall those tense moments before an interview or a special date? Those butterflies in the stomach, that necessity to swallow more frequently than ever, that beating heart? You would certainly dislike to go back to them, if you are asked to.

Imagine then the plight of someone who may undergo these symptoms without an apparent cause and with far greater frequency than you do. These are the anxiety disorder sufferers.

This is a morbid disorder, presents as it does to the patient a view of himself as a mental patient. Many patients have tried to hide their ailment, and have suffered more as a result.

News to them – treatment of anxiety is possible.

Now it is up to them to avail themselves of it.

Sleep has been called ‘Tired Nature’s Sweet Restorer’ by some litterateur. And could he have expressed himself better? That the best treatment for anxiety is nothing other than a deep relaxing slumber will be borne out by the fact that most of the drugs used as anxiety attack medication have sedative properties.

However, the paradox here is that most anxiety patients are insomniacs, having great difficulty in sleeping properly. However, there are several possible remedies for that:

•    Massage – slow kneading of muscles helps ease the strain out of them. Removal of lactic acid molecules in the muscle cells is achieved by efficient massaging. Special massaging technique like Acupressure helps improve the flow of energy in the body. So does Acupuncture, that is a slight modification of acupressure for it involves insertion of pinpoints on certain fixed points of the body. Use of Ayurvedic oils and other aromatic oils for massage purposes also helps in relaxing the body and easing the mind into sleep
•    Long warm bath and/or Steam bath treatment – water has the immense capacity to cleanse a body. Enjoy long warm tub or shower baths. Get a steam bath if you can and sweat out the toxins from your system.
•    Exercise – Deep breathing exercises that are a part of Yoga or physical exercises like the Tai Chi serve to an attainment of peace and well-being. Avail yourself of those experiences. Even normal gymming leads to sweating and removal of toxins from the body, leading to better slumber.
•    Diet Control – lessen caffeine from your food. Caffeine is as potent a foe of deep sleep as anything. Take care you are not abusing alcohol or any drug
Overall, learn to relax – listen to music or follow your own favourite hobby. Relaxation is an art and has to be mastered
A psychologist has been referred to disparagingly as a shrink, comparing his activities with an ancient tribal act of ‘shrinking’ the heads of their enemies. For an anxiety disorder sufferer, there can be no better friend than one.

Sometimes our anxieties have petty reasons in our subconscious minds – we are unaware of the thief sitting in the recesses of our brains, instigating the terrifying panic attacks. A session with the psychiatrist, where you talk your heart out and he listens attentively, can several times succeed in pinpointing this elusive cause. Once the reason has been obtained, it would be a short way toward cure.
There have been cases of trained shrinks carrying out hypnosis on the willing patients to try understanding the cause(s) of their anxiety bouts. The psychotherapist also motivates the patient to try curing himself by positive thinking and use of his strong will power. This involvement of the patient in his own treatment has been called Cognitive and Behavioural Therapy.

Sometimes the reasons for the patient’s anxiety may not be petty at all and may be quite in the forefront of his mind – the after effects of a traumatic experience include panic attacks. This has been called as Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in medical jargon. The treatment for anxiety in such cases has been nominated as Exposure therapy. The patient is exposed to his phobia-causing agent, under controlled conditions and in the presence of a trained therapist. Presence of fear factor, but absence of danger or death helps stop panic attack in the patients.

In addition to all this, anxiety attack medication is also available in the market. Most of these belong to the Benzodiazepine and Buspirone groups. Another alternative group is the Selective Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibitor (SSRI). However, only medication is not advisable in most cases – they are used in conjunction with one or more other curative methods.

“I am so worried” may well be the most used phrase of our century. Work pressure, family issues, personal tendencies and unfortunate experiences in life – they all contribute in the creation of that seven-letter long multi-headed monster – ‘Anxiety.’

Anxiety is not altogether an alien emotion. We all have experienced the palpitating heart and those sweating palms before exams or interviews or before popping that question to the loved one.

Wait a moment, though! Do you feel anxious all the time? Are you experiencing tachycardia or suffering from giddiness and dryness of mouth very often? For longer than six months? Is your reason for the anxiety a valid one? Are you even aware of the reason?

Not a pleasant surprise, but the anxiety and panic disorder may well have you in its clutches. Often classified as the most common mental disorder, Anxiety disorders have even sneaked into the Davidson’s.

Yet treatment of anxiety is not far and away –
1.    Cognitive and Behavioural therapy (CBT) – Anxiety is a disease of the mind, and it is the power of the cerebrum that is needed to combat it. Full co-operation from the patient is sought in this therapy. He is asked to analyze his thoughts and to recognize their rationality, or, as may be the case, the lack of it. CBT often becomes an exercise in will power. The patient has to make a positive and conscious effort on his part to cleanse himself of his worries.

Another part of the CBT is the Biofeedback. It is so arranged that the values of the physiological parameters like pulse rate, body temperature, sweat gland activity, muscle tension and blood pressure become known to the patient at regular time intervals. The cognizance of the magnitude of the patient’s own body’s reactions gradually moves the control of these activities from the unconscious to the conscious mind, albeit only partially.
He now wills to control and his heart rate, and does it to some extent, too.

No wonder, CBT is the best possible treatment for anxiety. “Drag your thoughts away from your troubles… by the ears, by the heels, or any other way you can manage it.” So said Mark Twain and CBT followers are bound to agree.
2.    Controlling food intake – reduction in the intake of caffeine containing food helps control anxiety
3.    Relaxation & Exercise – The antithesis to anxiety is relaxation. Several techniques for the same are available, some of which are –
a)    Deep Sleep – the easiest vehicle of relaxation, which in turn is the best treatment for anxiety
b)    Long hot baths, steam baths, spa treatments – water has the capacity to remove negativity. Even sweating it out detoxifies the system.
c)    Massage – trained masseuses knead the stress out of your muscles and the anxiety out of our system. A wide variety of aromatic and ayurvedic oils are available in the market. Specialized massage techniques from the orient, viz., the Acupressure and the Acupuncture also help relax mind and body.
d)    Yoga and Thai Chi are forms of physical exercises that help in the treatment of anxiety.

4.    Counselling – Some anxieties are caused by the undue secrecy that we attach to them – we keep them within our mind. It has been felt often that speaking out about the worrisome subject has led to a reduction in the anxiety quotient. It may well be the most convenient treatment for anxiety.
5.    Hypnotherapy – Hypnosis may not work always, as people with strong will power cannot be hypnotized. Alternative, strong-willed people may not need it either as they may use CBT. However, in selective cases, hypnotherapy carried out by experts does help the patient face his fears and ado in a new way.
6.    Exposure therapy – Often, people who have undergone some traumatic experience in their lives develop related phobias. For such people, exposure therapy may help stop panic attacks. In the course of this therapy, patients actually face their private fears in the presence of someone responsible and under a controlled environment. When no harm comes even though one’s private monster is in front, it creates a psychological nullification of fear.
7.    Medication – anxiety attack medication is easily available in the market. Most ‘anxio-lytics’ fall into the category of Benzodiazepines and buspirone. Ordinarily, medication by itself may not really cure the patient as anxiety disorder is more of a psychological malaise and CBT may be required as the principal step of the therapy. However, some anxiety disorders are caused by physiological malfunction, such as a diseased thyroid gland. In such cases, only specific anxiety attack medication can be used. Perhaps, even surgery may be required.
Our time and age is one of stress and strain and anxiety is an unavoidable by-product of it. Self- counselling is the best way to slay this new-age demon.

Panic attacks and anxiety are not pleasant sensations. However, there are a number of treatments you can try in order to stop them. The best way to stop panic attacks is by regulating your responses to a situation which causes these feelings in you. For instance, when you are in a situation which causes such attacks, you can control your responses to it by regulating your thought processes. There are two ways in which you can deal with a treatment of anxiety and panic:
•    Behavioral adjustments- under this mode of treatment, the patient is isolated and made to identify a particular situation that is causing these attacks. Though it may sound easy, in reality it is not so. The actual reason why these attacks are occurring may be quite different from what the person supposes. Once these are understood, the patient is either advised to avoid them or to learn to deal with them.
Panic or anxiety attacks seldom have a biological reason behind it. In patients who do have a physical reason behind these attacks, the culprit is often a thyroid disorder or a problem of the heart. Once these conditions have been ruled out by the doctor, he can teach the patient how to deal with the attacks.
Panic attacks occur when there is a surge of adrenalin in the body due to a fear reaction. However, the degree and reason for these attacks vary from person to person. If you have a mild form, the doctor will ask you to go for psychotherapy as a treatment for anxiety. Here, you will be taught deep breathing to relax your muscles and calm your heart. The therapist might also train you on stopping the negative thoughts that flood your mind at the time.  For instance, most patients feel that they are having a heart attack when in reality they are just having a panic reaction. So, your therapist will guide you on stopping these thoughts the moment they start. This is an effective treatment for most patients.
Once you have managed to stop negative thoughts, you will also be guided on reinforcing them with positive ones. Most therapists will teach you how to talk to yourself and reduce your panic reactions. The most important thing to remember is that acknowledgement of your condition is the first step towards finding a treatment of anxiety. You should accept that you are having an anxiety or a panic attack- nothing more or nothing less. Being in denial about your condition does not help.
•    If your symptoms are severe enough to hamper your daily activities, you doctor might put you on some anxiety attack medication. These medications will help you in controlling your reactions. The medications prescribed by your doctor may include anti depressants, mild tranquilizers, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSRIs and / or benzodiazepines. Your doctor may also suggest anticonvulsants and beta blockers. Other common medications used include monoamine oxidase inhibitors and tricyclic antidepressants. If your attacks are severe, you may be prescribed Xanax, Ativan or klonopin.
•    The most important thing to remember with these medications is that you should always take them under the supervision of a doctor. Your doctor should be informed about any medical condition you might be having before you start these medications. Also let him know about any medications you are taking. While you are taking the anxiety attack medication, you should constantly be monitored by your doctor. Most of these medications may have side effects like nausea, dizziness or headaches. It may also have other side effects that are dangerous. The safest thing to do would be to inform your doctor about any physical discomfort you are experiencing, even if you know they are being caused by your medications. Also, these medications may take some time before you start feeling the benefits. So, do not stop taking them simply because you do not feel the difference immediately.
•    Most experts agree that medications alone cannot cure these attacks permanently. However, a combination of both medication and cognitive behavior therapy has been found to be most beneficial in these conditions.