Panic Attack Treatment
What are Panic Attacks?
- A panic attack is an intense short period of anxiety without an obvious explanation such as an external threat or a medical reason. As noted in the Wilkipedia description of panic attacks they may last approximately 10 minutes or sometimes less. Panic Disorder is a form of Anxiety Disorder - for more information, see article on Anxiety Disorders.
- According to the UK Mental Health charity Mind, as many as one in three people can expect to have a panic attack at some stage in their life (see Mind's Information on panic attacks).
- Panic attacks can develop into agoraphobia - a tendency to avoid situations where escape might be embarrassing or difficult.
Panic Attack Symptoms
Panic attack symptoms can include:
- breathlessness
- faintness
- nausea
- chest pains
- irregular heart beat
- feeling terrified
- fearing that you are about to die or are experiencing a heart attack
Panic Attack Causes
By definition panic attacks do not have an obvious external cause. After the first occasion of panic (where you may have had a genuine reason to panic or an explanation such as a fear of embarrasment in a specific situation), what often causes subsequent panic attacks is actually a fear of having a panic attack. This fear creates physiological symptoms in the body such as those described above, as you experience a 'fight or flight' response but without an external situation to justify it.
Treatment for Panic Attacks
The following are initial tips for coping with panic attacks:
Relaxation and Stress Prevention
- For some people, an underlying level of anxiety may increase the risk of panic attacks, therefore practising relaxation techniques such as diaphragmatic breathing can help you to reduce or control your overall level of anxiety as well as helping when you experience an attack.
- General stress management tips can also be useful, such as reducing your consumption of caffeine or alcohol which can affect your mood and increase anxiety.
- Tackling the causes of anxiety that you are experiencing in your life may also help if part of the background to your attack is heightened pressure and anxiety. If you have are having difficulty in coping with a particular situation or in seeing options to deal with it, then coaching support can help you to address the stressful situation.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
As said above, the main trigger in panic attacks is often actually the fear that you are going to have a panic attack. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy or Coaching, offers ways of identifying the thinking patterns that are reinforcing this belief and causing you to panic, and then retraining yourself to cope with the irrational fear of panicking, so that you can begin to take control of the situation, both:
- Increasing your ability to cope with panic attacks if they happen
- Improving your chances of stopping a panic attack occurring in the first place
Cognitive Behavioural Techniques which can assist include:
- Cognitive Distraction - focusing on something specific in your environment when the panic attack is looming, to take your mind away from the negative thoughts;
- Reminding yourself that the panic attacks are caused by your own fear of an attack rather than an external cause and that you are able to to cope with the situation;
- Setting yourself small goals when a panic attack occurs - e.g. to get through the next 30 seconds, or the next minute, or the next two minutes.
Further Information
For information about a program for Dealing with Anxiety using CBT methods and an eBook explaining CBT techniques, click below: