Article by Von Kelly

Panic disorder is one of several anxiety disorders that involve an intense, abrupt and oftentimes debilitating period of discomfort and fear. Panic disorders affect millions of men and women of all ages, and can be triggered by several situations or circumstances, real or imagined.

Gerald Klerman of the World Psychiatric Association and author of the book, ?Panic Anxiety and Its Treatments? points out that there are several DSM-III-R diagnostic criteria that must be fulfilled in order to classify someone as having panic attacks.

Read the rest of this entry

Read the rest of this entry

Article by John Scott

Putting aside all the pointless arguments about whether people should get so anxious, the practical reality is that they do. If this seriously disrupts their ability to lead normal lives, then something should be done. Common humanity requires that society makes reasonable provision for their treatment. The pharmaceutical industry would have us believe drugs are the best answer to all our problems and, when it comes to dealing with anxiety disorders, our doctors have a mass to choose from. We start of with antidepressants. Yes, the name apparently suggests their function is limited to treating depression, but they can be just as useful in treating anxiety disorders. So now your doctor decides which variety to try out on you. There are the SSRIs and the tricyclics, and do not forget the MAOIs. Then we get into the anti-anxiety drugs, most often derived from the benzodiazepines. If those do not take your fancy, there are always the beta-blockers. The cabinet in your bathroom can be filled to overflowing (subject to deciding whether all these options are covered by your health plan).

But, for all this choice, there is one inconvenient truth. All the independent research evidence (that’s the research not paid for by the pharmaceutical industry) shows psychotherapy to be more effective than medication. The problem with trying to treat an emotional problem with a pill is there cannot be a conversation about why you are feeling the emotion and how you are going to deal with its consequences. Talking through the problems with a mental health specialist has the best success record in restoring quality of life and avoiding a relapse into an anxiety state. For a start, it treats you as a human being. You become the focus of attention. People listen to you and advise you on how to improve the quality of your life. In the current healthcare market, you see your doctor for a few minutes, collect a prescription and pick up the bill on the way out. People respond well when they believe their interests are being taken seriously. Their treatment is progressed rapidly if the advice they receive is seen to be useful. There is no point in advising people out of books. This has to be a hands-on approach to changing each person’s attitudes and habits. The best form of psychotherapy is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). “Cognitive” because you want people to understand their emotional responses to different situations. Only if they understand why they feel anxious can they begin the process of changing their responses. “Behavioral” because the therapist will train people to change the way they behave. This means forcing people to confront the situations in which they feel anxious or fearful, and teaching them how to react more positively.

Read the rest of this entry

Article by Charlotte Wilson

Anyone who has ever experienced panic attacks shudders at the thought of it. It is such an intense feeling that you may sometimes compound it as a heart attack. Even though medical practitioners refer to panic attacks as nothing more than sudden adrenalin rush through your body, you can only feel the symptoms that prevail like dizziness, racing heart, illusory feelings, feeling uncontainable, hyperventilation to name a few. It is very important to seek help for panic attacks at the very initial stage.

In most cases it happens that a person, who has had the first bout of panic attack, is so terrified, that the inherent fear may trigger the probabilities of subsequent panic attacks. Although it is important to evaluate the causes that led to panic attacks before dealing with panic attacks, patients sometime complain that they aren’t too sure why they felt that way. Some even make a particular place or the situation responsible for their anxiety. Seeking help for panic attacks .

Read the rest of this entry

Read the rest of this entry

Article by Anuradha Thakur

We are very well aware with panic disorders. The millions of people are suffering from the dangerous disease. Many people often seem to acknowledge about panic disorders. The person suffering from it has regular panic attacks. Some times it happens that people afraid of being crazy, though they are not in actual. It is the anxiety disorder most common in majority of people. It is the most serious of other psychiatric disorders, such as agoraphobia and other general and social anxiety disorders. Generally people are not taking in consideration of these types of disease till it becomes severe. It is very important to consult a doctor in very easy stages of anxiety disorders. The suicidal attempts are the result of anxiety and depression so it is more serious then other panic disease.

Once you experience the symptoms, the proper treatment should be started. There are number of medication available for the panic disorders. To undergo the best treatment you must know about the drugs and its side effects. The proper care may save you from this condition and may not come gain in future. The medical professional you are consulting must know how critical your disorder is. One of the most prescribed medicines for panic disorder is Zoloft.

Read the rest of this entry

Article by John Scott

People are different and so are the symptoms of any condition including anxiety disorders. However, there’s a general set of signs that can help you learn about the problem, and the following symptoms will make it easier for you to identify anxiety problems.

The feeling of fear and anxiety are nothing strange for most of us, as we all experience anxiety from time to time. Writing an important exam, going to a serious business meeting or attending a job interview – these are just examples of situations where most people experience anxiety. And you certainly remember the emotions and sensations that you go through at moments like these. It’s perfectly normal to experience such things when the circumstances are stimulating such a respond. But things go wrong when anxiety appears for no apparent reason.

Read the rest of this entry

Article by John Scott

People are different and even the same health problems can manifest through different signs from one person to another. Fear and anxiety are quite common in our everyday life. It’s very hard to find a person who never experienced anxiety and worry before an important meeting or exam. Remember your feeling before going to a job interview, or simply walking down a dark street in the middle of the night. Anxiety is the most common companion in such situation and it keeps us on alert for things unexpected.

However, normal anxiety does not pose any interest for mental health specialists. Things get dramatic when the anxiety response occurs for no apparent reason and stays for much longer periods of time than it usually does in normal circumstances. If anxiety becomes frequent in its nature and occurs periodically for a long time, it is automatically transferred to the state of a disorder.

Read the rest of this entry

Read the rest of this entry

Article by Peyton Prime

These anxiety sessions may lead to other situations as when a person refuses to leave the house for fear of a panic attack. This is fundamentally the answer to what is a anxiety disorder.Anxiety disorders can impact close to ten % of the population at any given time. Ladies are almost twice as likely as men to encounter anxiety attacks, especially females aged 45-54, while the gap in between males and females narrows sharply in older age groups.Anxiety disorders are more typically related with depression than any other disorder. 50 percent the individuals with a depressive condition also report some form of anxiety.In anxiety disorders individuals experience frequent, intensive and irrational anxiety.The various kinds of anxiety disorders are:? Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)· Social Anxiety/Social Phobia· Panic Anxiety Disorder· Agoraphobia· Obsessive-compulsive Disorder· Post-traumatic Stress DisorderWhat is a anxiety disorder? Well| here are the descriptions of the previously mentioned.Generalized Anxiety Disorder, typically known as GAD, is a persistent, irrational, uncontrollable anxiety with extreme worry about specific occasions or activities in every day life. GAD is deemed to be the most common psychological anxiety disorder that affects older adults.Social anxiety, also recognized as social phobia, is the strong, irrational, mind-boggling fear of specific social situations. Panic anxiety disorder is the condition of regular attacks of intensive fear and feelings of doom or terror. When the attack transpires, the sufferer could really feel like he or she is about to have a heart attack, feeling symptoms such as chest pains, palpitations, profuse sweating, clammy hands, among many others. Whatever the nature of the panic anxiety attack, it will cause a set of very disturbing symptoms often causing| the sufferer to fear having another attack – a fear which can in turn cause them to actually have one.Agoraphobia is the fear of being in or circumstances from which escape may possibly be difficult. Individuals with agoraphobia usually find themselves unable to depart their because of their overpowering fear that the anxiety attack might occur again.Obsessive-compulsive disorder is marked by recurrent obsessions which are persistent thoughts or ideas, and compulsions which are acts performed in response to an obsession. These compulsions are extreme and they interfere with a individuals standard development as a social being and with everyday existence. Such compulsions may possibly be – abnormal washing and cleaning; excessive checking and rechecking of things like on-off switches, locked doors, etc; always putting things in order and organizing things; violent undesirable ideas of hurting themselves or a loved one; paralysed fear of always needing things and hence never throwing things out etc. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is marked by flashbacks and recurrent thoughts following a person experiences or is exposed to a terrifying traumatic occasion. The traumatic events leading to PTSD have been defined as when a individual experiences or witnesses events that involve death or the threat of death or a significant injury of self or others. The definition goes on to state that the person’s response was one of intense emotions of fear and helplessness.Once you have decided the type or sort of anxiety that you believe you are suffering from, you will need to immediately make an appointment with a physician in order to properly be diagnosed.Keep in mind, you do not have to live with anxiety!

About the Author
Read the rest of this entry