Panic Attacks Help – How to Stop Panic Attacks
Searching the American Journal of Psychiatry website results in more than twenty-five thousand articles that speak to panic disorder and panic attacks. That statistic says a lot about the prevalence of this disorder and how many people are seeking panic attack relief. There is a Panic Disorder Severity Scale (PDSS) that was developed in 1997 by M. Katherine Shear, M.D., of the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which can be administered by a clinician in about five to ten minutes. As the first step in determining how to stop panic attacks for individual patients, the PDSS is used widely by the medical community by measuring the following seven factors: panic frequency; distress during panic; panic-focused anticipatory anxiety; phobic avoidance of situations; phobic avoidance of physical sensations; impairment in work functioning; and impairment in social functioning.
Anyone who has experienced panic attacks, most certainly recognizes at least a couple of these factors as things that negatively impact their life. Even if a person has been evaluated with the PDSS, it does not decrease the symptoms of a panic attack, or lessen the fear of having another attack. This article will focus on how to stop panic attacks based on psychiatric and psychological treatment.
First, Understand What Panic Attacks Are
We must first, before discussing how to stop them, look at what panic attacks are, what causes them to occur, and why medical professionals think they happen. A panic attack is a terrifying experience that is the core of panic disorder. The following symptoms can all be experienced by someone having a panic attack: choking or smothering sensations; fear of losing control, dying, or “going crazy”; feeling unsteady; feelings of nearly paralyzing terror; nausea or stomach pains; numbness or tingling in fingers or toes; shortness of breath; and sweating. Knowing this, it becomes easy to understand why some people take themselves to the emergency department, fully believing that they are having a heart attack.
The first panic attack generally strikes a person when they are between the ages of 25 and 30. Unfortunately, the first attack may be mistaken for something else, but has really been triggered by a life-altering event such as divorce, the death of a loved one, or even an impending marriage or the birth of a child. When a panic attack is not immediately associated with its trigger, it can result in a delay in treatment and make it difficult to determine the cause.
There are times when a person believes they can pinpoint the triggers that cause their attacks, and this can lead to that person starting to avoid places and things, which can lead to them having agoraphobia, or other types of phobias. It is important to get treatment to avoid having this cycle become a slippery slope with the symptoms growing worse over time. Once panic disorder is identified, it can be treated, and it is encouraging to know that right around 90% of sufferers end up living panic-free and healthy.
What Are the Medical Treatment Options?
The first treatment option is psychotherapy and consists of a couple of different types of therapy – Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Exposure Therapy. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy starts by teaching a patient about their disorder, and how to learn to keep track of their episodes, which can help identify their personal triggers. The patient will learn breathing techniques so that he or she is able to control the attacks they experience. This method of therapy assumes that outside influences do not control the patient, but rather their own thoughts are in charge, and teaches the patient how to master his or her thoughts in order to overcome the catastrophic feelings they have while they are having an attack. In the medical community, this type of therapy is thought to be the quickest way to get panic attack relief.
Exposure Therapy is a form of CBT that exposes the patient to the triggers that cause their attacks. Triggers can be anything from thoughts or memories that spark an attack to traumatic experiences the patient has been through, or even certain situations. To start with in this form of therapy, the patient and the therapist together attempt to determine what those triggers are. This, obviously, is not always an easy thing to do. Once the trigger (or triggers) has been determined, the therapist then introduces the patient to that situation, thought or memory in small doses; forcing them to face up to the very thing that causes them to have panic attacks. The underlying theory is that if you can face your fear, you can overcome your fear.
Medicinal Therapies
In addition to psychotherapy, many times certain drugs are prescribed to help the symptoms and occurrence of panic attacks. Drugs prescribed for this purpose will fall into one of four basic categories: Tricyclic Antidepressants; Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs); Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors (MAOIs); and Benzodiazepines.
Having over twenty different side effects are Tricyclic Antidepressants, which can cause irregular heartbeat, muscle breakdown and dry mouth, among other things. Because of their toxicity, Tricyclic Antidepressants are in the process of being replaced by SSRIs, described below.
To explain it plainly, Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors are drugs that increase the level of serotonin in the body. You would think that because it is a neurotransmitter, an organic compound that regulates mood, that these drugs would be easier on the body, but not so; they have twenty-two side effects, including erectile dysfunction, decreased libido, liver or renal impairment and at the mild end of the scale, headaches.
The third category of drugs are the Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors, which are used chiefly as antidepressants, and to help with smoking cessation. These are seriously strong drugs and usually not used unless really indicated because of the way that they interact with many foods and other drugs (sometimes causing death).
Amnesia, hostility, irritability and disturbing dreams are just a few of the side-effects of Benzodiazepines , which the Drug Enforcement Agency has classified as depressants, and which can act, in high doses, as hypnotics. Although the long-term effects should not be overlooked, these have been shown to help control panic attacks.
While these are some scary facts about drug therapies, many people have found them to be very effective when seeking panic attack relief. Doing your homework before starting any type of therapy is critical, and you should discuss with your doctor all concerns you have about drug therapy before you start.
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