The first time someone experiences an anxiety or panic attack they feel terrified and completely overwhelmed by the intensity of the physical and psychological symptoms. The most common assumption is that they are having a heart attack.

Symptoms:

• pounding heartbeat, heart palpitation with feeling of dread
• difficulty breathing, chest feeling tight, feeling you can't get enough air
• chest pains and choking with feeling of distress
• light-headedness, dizziness or nausea
• trembling, sweating, shaking
• hot flashes or sudden chills
• tingling in fingers and toes or even other parts of the body
• nervousness, shaking and stress
• feeling detached from reality, derealisation
• almost paralysing terror
• fear and deep anxiety often without any known cause
• fear that you are going crazy or that you are about to die.

 

Causes

There is a variety of known causes of anxiety attacks. Most common are the loss of someone close either through death or separation and an ongoing stressful situation in the sufferer's life which seems to have them trapped such as their job. Attacks can also be caused by other psychological problems such as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and phobias. A number of sufferers have a dependency on drugs, alcohol or tobacco. It is unfortunately even possible for a sufferer to have inherited a predisposition to panic attacks.

Treatments

After their first attack a sufferer will more often than not go to the emergency room where they are told that they were not experiencing a heart attack but a panic attack. If their attacks continue they will usually then go to see their doctor.

The diagnosis will likely be Anxiety or Panic Disorder. The doctor will prescribe either or both medication and psychotherapy which is usually Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. It is claimed that best results are achieved if the patient takes an indefinite course of anti-depressant drugs and learns coping techniques through CBT. Sometimes Hypnotherapy is thought to be helpful.

And that is about as far as the medical establishment is able to help. The anxiety-ridden patient is left facing a possible lifetime's course of medication with some coping techniques to get by with.

About the Author:

But there is another way! Check out my blog at http://www.myanxietyattacksstory.com where I describe how I beat my anxiety attacks and made them a thing of the past