Tag: Symptoms Of Anxiety

Anxiety Attack Treatments

Anxiety attacks are frightening but the good thing is, episodes are generally harmless. In most cases, attacks rarely last for more than 30 minutes, with peak of intensity within the first 10 minutes. What make such attacks dangerous is if it becomes chronic and if it already affects the well-being of a person and already disrupts his normal way of life.

Several treatments are proven very effective in stopping anxiety attacks. Let us look at some of the more popular ones:

Breathing technique is one of the most effective ways in controlling anxiety attacks. Proper breathing helps slow down heartbeat and helps calm the tensed muscles as a result of the attack. Breathing also diverts the mind’s attention from the “trigger” and calms the self, thus, stopping the attack even faster. Proper breathing techniques are easy to learn and master.

Self-hypnosis is a great tool to alter your thought process as well as your body’s reaction to those fearful thoughts. During an anxiety attack, lay down on your back or in any comfortable position and try to process your thoughts. Identify the origin of such fearful thoughts. Know if it is real. If you concentrate enough in finding the origins of your thoughts, you will soon realize that they are really not a valid reason for excessive fear. It may sound simple, and it is. Psychiatrists now recommend self-hypnosis as a treatment for anxiety attacks and other anxiety disorders. (Hypnosis and cognitive-behavioral therapy can be used together by your therapist to stop symptoms of anxiety attacks.)

Meditation has long been credited to relieve stress and anxiety as it promotes the release of negative energy from the body, relaxes tensed muscles, and calms the mind, which in turn, effectively reduces irrational fear and apprehension. Meditation may not be for all because of the time required to master the technique, however, with proper guidance of an expert or a little bit of patience and dedication, you can reap its benefits.

Herbs (such as chamomile, passion flower, lavender, and ginkgo biloba) are very effective long-term treatment for anxiety attacks. Since they are all-natural, they posses no side effects. They may not be as aggressive as prescription drugs but they work just as effective.

Prescription medicines are a major help in stopping the symptoms of anxiety and episodes of anxiety attacks. Antidepressants are the most common anxiety treatment. They must be taken continuously, which may take as long as six weeks before noticing the effects. Beta-blockers are a type of drugs that prevent symptoms from recurring. SSRIs or Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors boost the level of serotonin in the brain which regulates and normalizes emotions.

Therapies are a very important anxiety treatment. These target the psychological aspect of anxiety. CBT or the cognitive-behavioral therapy is used to alter the way of thinking converting negative thoughts into positive ones. Techniques used in CBT include role-playing and relaxation technique. Exposure therapy exposes the person to the physical sensations of panic in a safe and controlled environment. Through repeated exposure, patients gain greater self control and more confidence in facing fearful situation.

Prescription medicines and therapies, when combined and used at treatment, are very effective. Medical studies show that the response rate of patients is much higher if both methods are used compared to those that are treated using either method.

Teen Anxiety Attacks: Signs, Symptoms and Remedies

All teens, just like any adult, feel anxious from time to time as a normal reaction to stressors. Going on a date, speaking in public, meeting new people, competing in sports, performing on stage, and taking exams are some of the things that make us feel apprehensive. However, some teens experience severe anxiety than others. Some even feel severe anxiety by just thinking about the situation that has yet to happen. And when someone experiences episodes of panics or develops irrational fear over certain events or problems, it is known as anxiety attack.

When is too much anxiety too much?

Excess anxiety is when you feel worry, anxious and afraid for no apparent reason at all. Under normal circumstances, teens worry because of specific things (like what was mentioned above). But there is an obvious difference between healthy anxiety and irrational anxiousness. Teens during an anxiety attack tend to react disproportionately over simple things or events that seem not to cause any excessive anxious reaction to others. In other words, too much anxiety is an unusual reaction over simple or trivial things.

What are the signs and symptoms of anxiety attacks?

Different people react to situations differently. Hence, there are really no uniform symptoms of anxiety attack that are present to all. Nonetheless, teens may show some or all of the following signs: shortness of breath, chest pain, heart burn, smothering sensation, sweating, shivering, chilling or shaking, numbness in the head and face, neck and shoulder pain, palpitation, derealisation or depersonalization, hyperactivity, dry mouth, fear of going crazy, headaches, stomach pain, and other body pains.

Take note that some of the mentioned signs and symptoms can be caused by other medical, psychological, and physical conditionals. They can also be the effects of current medical treatment, side effects of certain medications or the body’s natural reaction to stimuli.

What are the available remedies for anxiety attacks?

Medication
Severe cases of anxiety attacks may require prescription drugs to control or reduce its symptoms. Prescription drugs may be antidepressants and benzodiazepines. Antidepressants may take some weeks to take effect so it is important to continuously take medications and not just during an attack. Benzodiazepines, on the other hand, have quick relief effects, usually within 30 minutes, but they are highly addictive, thus it should be used with caution. Remember that medication should not be the first treatment option as there are other effective ways to combat the effects of anxiety.

Therapy
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is one of the most effective ways to treat anxiety attacks or any anxiety disorder for that matter. CBT focuses on the thinking pattern of the patients and replaces negative thoughts with positive ones.

Exposure therapy exposes the person to the physical sensations of panic in a safe and controlled environment. Through repeated exposure, patients gain greater self control and more confidence in facing fearful situation.

Natural Remedies
Proper diet, regular exercise and sufficient sleep bring balance to the body, which help reduce the episodes of anxiety attacks.

Massage, aromatherapy, relaxation and breathing techniques promote wellness, relax muscles and ease muscle tension.

Herbal treatments naturally relieve stress and restlessness associated with anxiety, thus solving anxiety problem.

Thinking positively and talking to a supportive person help stop the occurrence of anxiety attacks.

Symptoms of Anxiety Attacks

Everyone worries, gets nervous and concerned, feels certain fears, and experiences apprehensions. To a certain degree, anxiousness is healthy as it enables the body to react to certain stimuli and take into action or perform better. As long as the feeling is relative to the situation or problem at hand, it is normal. However, when anxiety gets severe, chronic and irrational, you might already have an anxiety disorder and experience episodes of anxiety attacks.

Common symptoms include:

Fear of going crazy When under tremendous pressure, a person may feel that he is going crazy. This, however, is more evident during anxiety attack, but rest assured that you are not going crazy. This is because going crazy is not a conscious act; people who are suffering from mental illnesses do not even know that they have one. Again, if you are experiencing excessive fear or irrational thoughts, you are not going crazy.

Dry mouth This is a natural occurrence during anxiety attack as fluids are diverted to other parts of the body. To counter dry mouth, sip water or suck sweets to stimulate the production of saliva. In severe cases, doctors may prescribe you with liquid.

Shaking and shivering These two are necessary functions of the body as it constantly tries to keep the body temperature normal. When the body temperature drops from normal, the muscles spasmodically contract, creating friction between muscles and body tissues, thus increasing the body temperature. During anxiety attacks, shaking and shivering are normal.

Heart palpitation or the feeling that the heart is missing beats is caused by the release of adrenaline into the bloodstream during an attack. This is perfectly normal and cannot harm you in any way. However, it can cause discomfort.

Body pain such as neck, shoulder, jaw, mouth and stomach pains, as well as head headaches. When the body is under stress, parts of the body usually get tensed, which results to pain.

Chest pain is a normal body reaction to anxiety attack because of muscle tension. Sometimes, chest pain is misinterpreted as a heart attack, but it is important to identify from one another as the latter can be deadly.

Shortness of breath is the most distressing symptom of anxiety attack as it almost feels that the chest cannot expand to accommodate the necessary air that the body needs. Sometimes, it feels that someone is pushing a pillow into your face. Three important points to remember are you will not suffocate, stop breathing or pass out.

Feeling detach or unreal is a symptom of anxiety attack which alters the way you experience yourself or see reality. It makes you feel that everything around you is like a dream, foggy and unreal.

Recognizing the symptoms of anxiety attacks need not require you to understand the physiology of the human body. What is required is your awareness on each symptoms and the danger they have when ignored.

Different people manifest different behaviors when experiencing anxiety. The intensity of prevailing symptoms differs either. And since the term “anxiety disorders” is coined to refer a group of related conditions rather than a single disorder, symptoms may look different on every anxiety attack. It is important, therefore, to consult a health professional so that it will out any possible condition apart from anxiety.

Escalating Symptoms Of Anxiety

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The Impact of the Escalating Symptoms of Anxiety

Escalating symptoms of anxiety impact up to 40 million adults in the US per year. While it’s perfectly expected to feel nervous or anxious in certain periods of your life ( graduating from school, first-hand a new job, losing a loved one, etc., individuals with anxiety disorders feel often and excessively worried for no apparent basis. The symptoms of anxiety can start innocently enough with just a worrying thought but often they progress fast to more physical discomforts such as a pounding heart, heavy chest pain, lump in the throat, weakness, and dizziness.

Often referred to for panic attacks, escalating symptoms of anxiety may be diagnosed as a phobia, panic disorder, post traumatic stress disorder, generalized anxiety disorder ( GAD ), obsessive compulsive disorder or other types of anxiety disorders. While each of these conditions are characterized by otherwise symptoms, all of them are marked by an irrational and unwarrented dread and / or fear that usually worsens very quickly and leads to more severe physical symptoms.

The symptoms of anxiety can make you feel like you are completely losing control or ” going crazy “. Those who have suffered these symptoms will relate them as feeling like world is coming to an spire, he / she is having a heart attack, or that he / maiden is going to die. What’s even more unfortunate, is that once you existence a panic attack in this magnitude, it can very easily become part of a viscious circuit which consists of the panic attacks themselves and the very – present fear of having major panic attack.

These anxiety symptoms can also lead to a multitude of phobias which render some individuals nearly totally disabled. One such phobia is agoraphobia, the fear of being trapped in a setting that makes the implement feel extremely ill – at – ease and unable to escape. For this reason, the concept may not even venture outside of his / her home. Because this type of anxiety can lead to such utmost disability, it is relevant to treat anxiety symptoms before they are allowed to climb the ladder to another disorder.

The causes of anxiety are still not pleasant. But professionals do swallow that it is likely that many factors contribute to a persons chances of developing the condition. Scientists have broken down the potential causes into three groups, genetics and early learning, brain biochemistry, and the fight or flight mechanism.
Sometimes the cause is a chemical imbalance in the accomplishment which impairs the way messages are sent. Two of the primary neurotransmitters that affect a persons feelings are serotonin and dopamine. When there is an imbalance of these chemicals, a person can feel depressed or anxious.

Anxiety disorders also tend to run in families, so if a persons mom, dad, or other suffocating relative has anxiety, they have a higher occure of developing anxiety themselves both because of genetic factors and learned environmental factors.

The above information about the escalating symptoms of anxiety does not act for medical advice given by a health professional.

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