Archive for the ‘health’ Category

Standing in a supermarket queue, it’s been a long wait but only one customer to go before you make it to the cashier. Wait, what was that sensation? An unpleasant feeling forms in your throat, your chest feels tighter, now a sudden shortness of breath, and what do you know- your heart skips a beat. “Please, God, not here.”

You glance around to make sure you are safe however; there are several strangers behind you and one other customer in front. You realize you are beginning to have a panic attack while your skin begins to prickle all over as a rush of doom washes over you.

Your breath catches as in your mind you are now contemplating this being the big one you have feared. Stop, now focus: Calm down and remember what you have learned, you should apply these coping procedures right now. As your physician has advised, begin with your deep breathing, your mind and body needs air. In through the nose and out through the mouth.

Slowly now, remembering to think relaxing thoughts and again, while inhaling, tell yourself to relax then exhale. However, it seems that you may be feeling very self-conscious of concentrating on breathing and even more stressed than before.

Then you should move on to coping technique two, which is the gradual relaxation of your muscles. Begin by tensing your shoulders and holding for ten seconds and then release, try this again. However, you still find no comfort or relief. The idea of running out of coping techniques worsens the feeling of dread you now hold. You panic as you wish for an understanding friend to be close to your, as you feel you can make it through this attack if you were not alone.

A dreaded Read the rest of this entry »

You may begin breathing very rapidly and complain that your “heart is jumping around in your chest.” Then, within about an hour, the symptoms fade away. Would a panic attack treatment benefit you?

What is a panic attack?

Reacting to anxiety, panic is a physical reaction. Called the ‘fight or flight’ response, panic is a natural response to danger and is actually your body’s signal to get out of harm’s way. When there is no basis of a hazard and panic sets in it can be linked to two causes – tension or possibly, a panic disorder. Panic attack treatments will lessen the problem.

A panic attack is a distinct phase of controlling dread or discomfort, in which four (or more) of the following symptoms developed rapidly and reached a climax within 10 minutes:

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 crazy, trembling or shaking, feeling of choking, de realization (feelings of unreality) or depersonalization (being detached from oneself).

Reasons for panic attacks

According to one theory of panic disorder, the body’s normal “alarm system,” the set of mental and physical mechanisms that allows a person to respond to a threat, tends to be triggered unnecessarily, when there is no danger. Scientists don’t know exactly why this happens, or why some people are more susceptible to the problem than others.

Problems with some medications

Some medications used to care for anxiety have an addictive element. You may be at risk using some of the following drugs. These Anti anxiety Read the rest of this entry »

Copyright (c) 2007 Mary Ann Copson

If you have ever had a panic attack, you don’t want another one. The “fight-or flight” response in your body is involuntarily turned on and your nervous system signals your adrenal glands to start pumping out stress hormones to get you ready to either run away or turn and fight.

Your muscles tense, your heartbeat speeds up, and your breathing becomes more rapid. You might feel like you are smothering, claustrophobic or you may experience an urgency to get away. On top of that, you may get hot flashes, sweating, and/or chills and trembling, plus numbness, tingling sensations, dizziness, and nausea.

You become overwhelmed by an extreme sense of fear and impending disaster and you lose your ability to think calmly and clearly while experiencing a distorted sense of time and a feeling of unreality.

In the face of a physical threat, accident, or natural disaster, this type of response is normal and can be life-saving. But panic attacks that occur unexpectedly in the presence of normal events can be debilitating. They may happen with no forewarning, at any time of the day or night, and last several seconds or more than half an hour.

The triggers for panic attacks are unpredictable. Most panic attacks are set off by some minor or major stressor. But panic attacks can also be triggered by changes in emotions, or as a response to certain drugs, foods, allergies (including hidden food allergies), hypoglycemia, and illnesses.

A panic attack is an example of an acute anxiety disorder and can affect teens to middle-agers and beyond. Women are reported to experience panic attacks twice as often as men but some believe that is only because men are more reticent to report panic attacks.

Read the rest of this entry »

Anxiety disorders are very common these days. Many people experience these attacks in small ways when faced with everyday stress. For instance, when a student has not studied properly for an exam, she might feel “anxious” about taking the test. These feelings are perfectly normal and usually fade quickly. But this type of everyday anxiety becomes abnormal when we develop an aversion to normal life situations, and the problem begins limiting our life in lots of ways. This is normally what we mean when we say someone has a “problem” with anxiety panic attacks.

Anxiety-related panic attacks are unintentional, unpredictable and groundless. They can become chronic, and can occur anytime during the normal course of the day. Symptoms of anxiety vary from person to person, of course. One sufferer may get anxious going to parties; while another may be terrified to drive a car, or travel beyond their “comfort zone.” But all anxiety tends to have one common factor: a persistent fear of facing otherwise normal life situations.

Emotions play a great role in anxiety. Emotional symptoms include apprehension towards certain events or places, or difficulty concentrating–even embarrassing physical symptoms such as irritable bowel syndrome are often associated with anxiety and panic attacks. Other common emotionally-based symptoms include heart palpitations, rapid heartbeat, perspiration, migraine headaches, fatigue, shortness of breath, flu-like soreness and a tingling sensation in the arms and legs.

Anxiety attacks are usually triggered by something, even if they feel like they “came out of the blue.” But often, the initial cause of the attacks is not easy to discern. Anxiety and Panic Attacks can become a chronic problem that build up over time, so it may not seem obvious in the moment why you are experiencing the symptoms.

For this reason, one of the best methods of overcoming anxiety is to make small but consistent changes in your everyday life. This is a proactive approach which recognizes one little-known but critically important fact: anxiety panic attacks are NOT a “condition” or “disease,” they are a symptom of an imbalance in your life.

Because of this, self-help strategies can prove very useful in overcoming anxiety problems for most sufferers. Developing a more balanced (and positive) outlook towards life is a good first step, and even small improvements in your daily “thinking habits” can lead to very noticeable results.

Medications, including drugs like benzodiazepines or anti-anxiety SSRI’s (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) are often used to control anxiety–with mixed results. Medication can be helpful, especially when the individual is dealing with a severe and critical situation; but many experts feel that the use of medications is not a viable long-term treatment, and recommend less invasive options like practicing meditation, yoga therapy and mental relaxation exercises etc.

These types of treatments can be empowering for many anxiety sufferers because they encourage self-reliance and help foster a sense of confidence that the individual can cope with the inevitable stresses of life, without relying on medication or other “quick fixes,” which do nothing to restore balance to life long-term, or lessen the chances that the individual will experience anxiety panic attacks in the future.

Many people all over the world suffer from anxiety disorders and these disorders often cause panic attacks. If you are one of those people, then you know anxiety panic attacks can cause a rush of different emotions; each one more overwhelming than the last.

To properly deter an anxiety panic attack you have to first know what they are and what causes them. This article is going to explain what these attacks consist of and how to deal with them when they occur.

An anxiety panic attack is a symptom of different anxiety disorders. If you suffer from them, then it’s important to understand what they are. An attack is when a person’s anxiety and stress levels balloon to a point where they cannot control it. They quickly begin to fear their surroundings, fear they are dying, having a heart attack, or are going crazy.

It is a cognitive episode where your mind will tell your body it is experiencing discomfort that likely doesn’t exist and can last from one minute to fifteen minutes. Often an attack will cause a person to live in fear of the next attack, which only worsens the symptoms.

If you are unlucky enough to suffer from anxiety panic attacks, then you will want to know how to control them. There are several ways you can control your panic attacks no matter what the symptoms are. The first thing you should do is to identify if your attacks have a configuration.

There is a chance that there is a stressful situation happening that is triggering your attacks. If you cannot hold off the anxiety panic attack, then there are ways to get it under control. The first thing you should do is relax. Your thoughts should remain positive while telling yourself that you’ll be fine and that what you are feeling is not real.

There are plenty of other ways to get your anxiety panic attacks under control. Consider using something like yoga, which is not only good for your body but good for your mind as well. Tai Chi is also good for stress management. There are many other simple things that can help put your mind at ease, such as listening to calming music or reading a good book.

All of these can help and if you learn to institute them as soon as you feel an attack coming on, then you may be able to avoid an attack all together. Panic attacks don’t have to take over your life, especially if you take them over first!

Treating panic attacks has never been easy, for years experts have been looking for treatment options that can actually cure the symptoms of anxiety panic attack. Many results have derived from these analysis and tests.

However, people have started having an affinity for natural methods of treatment off late. There are several reasons behind this. Some are mentioned below:

a) Natural treatments are safe

b) These treatments do not produce any side effects

c) These treatments are 100% effective

d) These treatments are widely available

e) Natural methods are gentle

For anyone who has actually experienced anxiety panic attacks, these attacks are terrible and cause a lot of discomfort. These attacks can be really debilitating on an individual’s emotional as well as physical health. One who has already experienced this state is ready to do and face almost anything to get away from it.

If you start looking for different ways to cure anxiety panic attacks, you will find that there are several different natural methods available for dealing with anxiety attack.

There are also people who want to use certain medications such as benzodiazepines or SSRIs. These medicines work towards reducing the frequency of anxiety panic attacks. However, there is a dark side to these drugs.

These drugs work towards solving the problem only on a temporary basis. Once the patient stops taking it, the attacks tend to get worse. With time, your body also tends to develop a kind of tolerance to these medicines. Last but not the least, these medicines do not get to the root cause of the problem.

Experts feel that when it comes to treating anxiety panic attacks, one needs to get to the root problem.

These days, several natural techniques and methods are available for dealing with this problem and most of these have been really effective. Here are some of the natural options to get you back on the track.

a) Deep breathing exercises

These are very effective when it comes to carrying you down during a panic attack. You can get a control over things in life. The best part is that you would be relieved from the problems such as finger tingling and tightness in the chest. The exercise is extremely useful in relieving you from hyperventilation.

b) Meditation techniques

These can help you a lot during on attack. You can also use it as a preventative tool. You can meditate in various ways. Recitation technique is one of the most popular and effective way for people who seek instant relief from anxiety panic attacks.

c) Vitamin and herb therapy

The therapy is really effective in providing maintenance for different symptoms via minimizing the frequency as well as the intensity of panic anxiety attacks. You may trust certain B complex vitamins and foods that contain inositol like beans, cantaloupe, oranges and nuts.

These fruits are extremely helpful in improve your overall mood. Intake of these fruits will also enhance the nerve cell communication inside the brain. Herbal preparations including Vaterian root, passion flower, St. John’s Wort and Kava Kava can effectively treat these attacks via facilitating your body and mind to relax, allowing you to sleep sound, reducing the strength of attack and reducing stress.