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When you or someone that you love experiences an anxiety attack, perhaps the most scary thing is a loss of control. There are symptoms that can attack your body and it can be embarrassing or even dangerous. Take a moment to consider a few tips that will let you take control of this situation and even better.

1. Get a Lifestyle Change

Has there been some sort of change that has brought on your attacks? Whether it is a change in your personal life or your professional life, it is something that you need to address. Worrying a lot and having a lot of responsibility on your shoulders can drastically affect the way that you live and simply by making the time to rest and relax, you will find that it can lessen some of the symptoms right away.

2. It’s in your head

If you are someone who suffers from anxiety attacks, the last thing that you want to be told is that it is just in your head. The thing that you need to remember is that there might be a chemical component to your attacks and that your emotions can trigger it and they can make it worse. Learning to keep control of your emotions and figuring out what you need to do to stay on top of it is essential.

3. Look It Up

The next self help tip is to take the time to learn what happens during an attack and how you can deal with it during the actual attack. Even if you are on medication to prevent attacks, you can still experience one from time to time. For this reason, you want to know what to do to get rid of it as quickly as possible.

4. Learn to Breathe

When you want to beat anxiety attacks once and or all, the name of the game is control. Of course you already know how to breathe, but when you breathe directly and in a way to calm yourself down, you will be in much better shape in the long run. It will help you clear your head and it will encourage you to relax.

5. Get Some Exercise

Anxiety attacks are very much a build up of stress and a stress response is essentially a flight or fight response that has been stifled. Take some time and really consider how you can work off the stress response. You will end up feeling much more relaxed and in control of thins and it can also lead you towards feeling much calmer. What kind of exercise appeals to you and what is your favorite form of movement?

The primary reason for panic attacks isn’t fully comprehended however the thing which is known is that it could affect any person, without any reason, indiscriminate of their age which means a happy and healthy person has the same possibility of experiencing an attack as a person that is suffering from depression. A situation of panic attack could occur as you’re at home, sitting on your couch, observing TV, while driving, shopping or walking, while at your office, etc., and could actually occur while you’re sleeping.

In such situations, techniques of therapy could change from person to person, dependent upon their physical condition, symptoms, lifestyle, and frequency of attacks. Generally though, therapy entails psychotherapy, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and/or medication although different therapies which might be employed are meditation, breathing exercises, relaxation techniques and finally natural herbal therapy.

Anti-anxiety medications such as Ativan, Xanax and Klonopin provide quick redemption from the symptoms panic attack. Benzodiazepines render immediate results, usually in thirty minutes to one hour, they are however, very habit-forming and feature some intense withdrawal symptoms. Anti-depressant drugs (Paxil, Prozac, Zoloft, Lexapro, and Celexa) should be taken continuously before you begin to notice the effects, usually up to 6 months to a year even so, you cannot take anti-depressant drugs just in a panic attack. Additionally, because you can’t predict the time you’ll experience that kind of an attack, just the ones that are diagnosed with panic disorder (or recurring panic attacks could acquire those varieties of medications.

Scares, as well as panic disorder, agoraphobia and other phobias and related ailments can be addressed effectively using psychotherapy. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is established as an efficient method to reduce the effects of these attacks or eliminate this condition. CBT specializes in altering the thought process of the individual from negative thoughts to positive views as well as altering the way a person reacts or behaves when he encounters emergency or circumstances which may trigger an attack.

An additional intervention like CTB which is worth stating is known as exposure treatment which helps the person overcome their fear by letting them confront those perilous circumstances within a contained and secure manner. The result of this technique is that the person learns ways to act well on the things he thinks are fearful situations - moreover, through this experience, the person finds out that the circumstances that he is afraid of are not harmful and dangerous.

In most instances, medicine alone or therapy alone is enough to completely cure this ailment, however other cases call for both of these techniques to fully treat the complaint. Meditation, breathing exercises, as well as relaxation methods were found effective in reducing the odds of encountering an additional panic attack since they help calm the mind and will even relax the person’s muscle groups. Constantly practicing these exercises and methods would strengthen the body’s relaxation reaction.

Herbs such as bacopin, ginkgo biloba, passion flower, St. John Wort, hyperforin, 5HTP (5-hydroxytryptophan), chamomile, rhodiola, are almost as efficient since these contain natural anti-stress properties. In a few instances, using these herbs is good enough to combat panic attacks and lots of individuals react positively utilizing this kind of remedy. Fresh leaves can be made as tea with a few purchasable over-the-counter in oil, infusion, capsule, powder and tea. The greatest thing about those organic herbs is that they don’t carry any negative effects when compared to mainstream anti anxiety and anti depressant prescription drugs.

If you constantly suffer from panic attacks, for sure you must be on the lookout for the best resources that can teach you how to treat panic attacks. Most certainly, you will find a wealth of information when it comes to this, especially when you begin your search on the World Wide Web, the only place where a borderless virtual library exists.

One thing that you should be cautious about — not all the resources that you can get online will be helpful to you. Sure there are plenty of articles, programs, ebooks and many others, which you can get on the internet; however, not all of them were done by ?real? experts.

First of all, how can we say if the person is a real expert? He should have a vast knowledge on how to treat panic attacks the proper way. He may have gotten this expertise by studying intensely about the disease, he may have also interviewed former sufferers; moreover, he himself might have been afflicted with it and with his struggle to find the right solutions; he was able to establish facts.

The stuff that you are likely to hear from these ?experts? are things that they have only heard from other people or from the internet. Probably, the most common advice that you will get is deep breathing.

Deep breathing is among the most common techniques that they will teach you. True it will make your body feel relaxed and it is not a bad practice at all, but it is not enough to help you fully overcome the attack. There is something more that you should do in dealing with the disease.

First and foremost, you need to know how what triggers the attack. There are factors that might have occurred and you need to identify what they are in order for you to know how to treat panic attacks.

There is often a fight or flight effect that occurs during a panic attack, and this is usually triggered by a perceived threat. During this time, all mental activities in the brain rush from the prefrontal cortex or the rational thinking area towards the mid brain, the seat of instinctual behaviour.

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Most people who haven’t themselves been plagued with nightmares, or watched a loved one suffer with nightmares, are probably under the impression that a person having any form of a bad dream during the night is having a nightmare. This is not strictly true; there are in fact nightmares and night terrors which occur at different stages of sleep.

Nightmares

Nightmares are disturbing, visual dream sequences that occur in your mind and wake you up from your sleep, are very common and can begin at any age. Nightmares are an indication of a fear that needs to be acknowledged and confronted and are a normal response to unacceptable levels of fear and stress. They are emotionally disturbing dreams that occur during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and provoke feelings of fear, terror, distress or extreme anxiety.

Night Terrors

Night terrors are fearsome waking experiences that can terrify even the strongest person; the word “nightmare” is often inadequately used to describe the suffocating, paralyzed state of a night terror which may leave the unfortunate sufferer with a conviction of suffocation, choking or entrapment. Night terrors, or sleep terrors, occur during deep, non-REM sleep, where the brain’s waveforms are long and slow, and it is also when sleepwalking, sleep talking and sleep screaming can occur. Often the person doesn’t completely wake up during a night terror which happens during the first half of the night, often about 1 to 2 hours after the person goes to sleep; sometimes it can occur almost immediately after a person goes to sleep if they are particularly disturbed at the time.

Health

In general, trauma, stress, fears, health problems, insecurities, feelings of inadequacy, marital problems, grief etc may all be reasons for having nightmares. In persistent cases, patients may be referred to a physician or mental health professional for further evaluation. It generally helps to deal with these bad problems in a healthy way to try and find some form of closure within ourselves and a healthy lifestyle, particularly some form of exercise such as walking regularly for around 30 minutes every day, does seem to help. However, if parents have any concerns about their children’s nightmares, especially if children are having other problems, it is best to consult their children’s health care provider.

Disorder

Panic attacks may occur during sleep in patients with panic disorder, anxiety, or depression and are experienced as nightmares. Sleep disorders are common among children of all ages and are hard on the children and their parents. When nightmares occur in the context of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), they tend to involve the original threatening or horrifying set of circumstances that was involved during the traumatic event. Nightmare disorder is characterized by repeated episodes of a frightening or unpleasant dream that disrupts the person’s sleep. Dream disorders may respond to medication, but behavioral treatment approaches have shown excellent results, particularly in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder and recurrent nightmares.

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Nightmares are disturbing, visual dream sequences that occur in your mind and wake you up from your sleep, and it is probably true to assume that most children and adults have had nightmares at some time in their lives. To most of us, a nightmare is a short-lived unpleasant experience that occurs every now and again and it is something more of an annoyance than any real problem; but to many people, nightmares are dreams that cause intense fear and anxiety and are often found in anxious people who have had their sense of security threatened and become much more significant in that person’s life.

Stress

Nightmares may be triggered by major psychological traumas, such as those experienced by patients with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) which has occurred after a serious accident, rape, or a horrific scene such as experienced by soldiers in wars. Stress and / or PTSD are thought to be the most common cause of nightmares. A continual bombardment of nightmares, sometimes several per night, can cause our stress levels to climb rapidly and then even small problems in life escalate to major stressful problems. The culmination of severe stress is a mental breakdown where a person cannot cope with anything, by which time they need professional help and care.

Anxiety

Panic attacks may occur during sleep in patients with panic disorder, anxiety, or depression and are experienced as nightmares. They can be stimulated by anxiety during the day, highly emotional events, and by anti-depressant drugs. Nightmare disorder, which is also called dream anxiety disorder, is characterized by the occurrence of repeated dreams during which the sleeper feels threatened and frightened. Such symptoms of fear or anxiety as increased heart rate, dilated pupils, and sweating are not as dramatic in patients with nightmare disorder as they are in patients experiencing sleep terrors. You should see a sleep specialist if your nightmares cause you great anxiety or often disrupt your sleep.

How to Deal with Nightmares

Certainly by reducing the stress in our lives by techniques such as yoga, meditation, going out for long walks, and adjusting our diet to cut back on sugars, fats, caffeine, and alcohol, the nightmares will become less frequent and we can start to feel more in control of our lives again. There are many ways of relieving distress from a nightmare, such as writing it down or thinking of a happy ending to the dream. Talking can resolve stressful issues and keep them from building up in a person’s mind.

Imagery rehearsal therapy for chronic nightmares in sexual assault survivors with PTSD is said to be quite effective - the affected person actively tries to think about the nightmare while they are awake, and alter parts of that nightmare in their thoughts and by repeating this many times, the mind starts to be retrained in its recollection of the trauma.

Standing in line at the grocery store you start to feel your heart race. Within moments your hands are sweating, your breathing becomes short and rapid, you feel hot, dizzy and overwhelmed with a sense of fear.

What is this sensation? Where is it coming form? If you have experienced similar sensations in the past and especially if you have begun changing your life and routine in the fear of experiencing it again, you may be suffering from Panic Attacks.

WHAT ARE PANIC ATTACKS?

Panic is a physical reaction that is a response to stress. Often called the ‘fight or flight’ response, panic is a normal response to danger and is actually your body’s cue to get out of harm’s way. However, when panic sets in when there is no source of danger it can be linked to two causes - stress or possibly, a panic disorder.

The following symptoms are common during a panic attack:

- rapid heartbeat

- shortness of breath or inability to breath

- dizziness or nausea

- sweating, shaking or trembling

- a sense of fear or dread

- tingling sensation in the fingers or toes

- chest pain

- hot flashes or chills

- thinking you are going to die or go craz

WHAT CAUSES PANIC ATTACKS?

Stress in our lives is not usually caused by a physical danger; in fact most stress is caused by completely normal daily activities and is not harmful to us. Too much stress, however, is dangerous to our body and in some cases it can cause panic attacks, particularly if we have experienced an additional trauma or burden such as the loss of a loved one or big change such as a new job or move. While normal stress can cause anxiety, when panic attacks become regular a panic disorder may be the cause.

Panic disorder may or may not be directly related to over stress. Some researchers are linking the panic attacks caused by panic disorder to a physical cause. If this is the case you need to seek professional help in dealing with the symptoms.

Sadly most individuals suffering from panic disorder do not get properly diagnosed. Many begin to suffer the physical and psychological effects of changing their lives, their jobs and their recreational activities to accommodate their panic attacks before finding a physician that can properly diagnose their condition. The symptoms of panic attacks may also lead a person to believe they have a dangerous physical condition and seek treatment for various unrelated diseases and conditions.

CAN PANIC DISORDER BE TREATED?

If you think you have been experiencing panic attacks you will need to be diagnosed by your physician or referred to a psychiatrist. While the physical symptoms may not be connected to a mental condition, often the fear of having panic attacks in public leads to phobias that may need to be treated as well.

A combination of medication and therapy may be used to combat the panic attacks and help a person to overcome related phobias.

The good news is that panic disorder responds very well to treatment and those who receive treatment can lead healthy, normal lives.