When I admitted to myself that I was suffering from the symptoms of anxiety panic attacks and went in to the doctor to seek professional help, I believed that the struggle was almost over. I believed that the treatment of anxiety would be a simple and straightforward thing. I could go in, get some medicine, and start to get better. Little did I realize that it was not that simple. As a matter of fact, I was not even half way there. There are many treatments for anxiety, and some of them appear to be miracle cures, but the people selling them are pretty deceptive. Anyone who tells you the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder is easy is deceiving you. In fact, it is a difficult, involved process.

The treatment of mood disorders is always difficult. You see, it requires several different stages. If you suffer from severe anxiety as I did, the first stage is to get your symptoms under control. The First stage is all I thought there was to the treatment of anxiety – the administering of medication. Basically, the doctor gave me some sedatives and an antidepressant that would help treat my anxiety. This would somewhat alleviate my symptoms and get me into a space where I could be responsive to therapy. Therapy, however, was much more involved.

I had wanted the treatment of anxiety to end with pills, but I understood why it didn’t. You see, treating anxiety with medication helps you suppress the symptoms, but it does not address the underlying causes. Most anxiety panic disorders stem from some psychological factor. There was something about me that was making me have severe anxiety attacks, and it was important to get to the root of it. In the meantime, the doctor could treat my symptoms so that I could approach the problem rationally, but if treating the outside symptoms was all he did, I would have to be on sedatives forever. Eventually, whatever it was that was causing the anxiety would find another way to rear its ugly head.

Fortunately, the treatment of anxiety didn’t only consist of therapy. There were a lot of other practical steps that I could take to help treat my anxiety, steps that were immediately effective. Through exercise, meditation, and maintaining a healthy social life, I could keep my anxiety at bay on a daily basis. It would still come out periodically, but if I didn’t let myself shut down I could keep the upper hand. I am still undergoing my treatment of anxiety, but it is better than it has been in years.

Just ask anyone who has ever suffered from an anxiety panic attacks just how horrible it feels. Many of us have probably had one and just didn’t know what it was. According to statistics by www.anxietypanic.com, one out of every seventy-five people worldwide will experience anxiety panic attacks once in their lives. Anxiety is a normal reaction to stress, but when anxiety becomes excessive, even routine situations become dreaded. At this point, it has become debilitating; anxiety is now panic with sudden surges of overwhelming fear that occur without warning or reason. Palpitations, hyperventilation, dizziness, chest pain, headache, tingling of the hands or arms, feeling sweaty or nauseous, and the immediate need to get the heck out of where ever you are and fast, are just a few of the most common symptoms of a panic attack.

These feelings of impending doom are not easy to get rid of once they start, especially when you’re sitting in a room full of people, or when you’re in the middle of Wal-Mart screaming silently in your head. Depersonalization and derealization can also occur with panic, like you are living in a dream, feeling that you are not really a part of what is going on around you, that you’re detached and looking from the outside in. As symptoms continue and intensify, avoidance behavior develops which can produce agoraphobia, causing the sufferer to restrict social interaction and retreat to safety until total withdrawal occurs. It’s important for people with anxiety panic attacks to learn all they can and be knowledgeable about the illness and the available treatments. There are many theories about what causes anxiety and panic disorder; is it biological, psychological or psychodynamic, that is, is the disorder caused by a past experience or trauma?

The most commonly used treatments for anxiety, panic attacks, and phobias is a combination of medication and psychotherapy, including cognitive therapy to change negative thought processes and behavioral therapy to change daily habits. There are also drug-free therapies to induce relaxation, release tension, lower blood pressure, slow heart rate and breathing, in addition to meditation, hypnotherapy to overcome specific phobias, and other alternative therapies. For the most recent research and more about anxiety panic attacks and related topics, go online to National Panic & Anxiety Disorder News at www.npadnews.com. Information is updated regularly about new conventional and alternative treatments for anxiety disorders. If you feel like you have, or could be developing anxiety panic attacks, go online and take a self-screening test at one of many informative sites to see if your symptoms indicate an anxiety disorder.