Someone in your family, a close fiend, or a co-worker is probably suffering from panic attacks or generalized anxiety and you may not even realize it. Whether you know of or suspect someone you know has this condition, you should educate yourself and be ready to provide support and encouragement, not judgment. 

You may or may not have realized it but there are countless people around you who suffer from panic attacks and horribly debilitating anxiety problems. It is often a source of extreme embarrassment and humiliation and it leaves many people unable or unwilling to talk about their problems even with family and close friends.

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Generalized anxiety and panic attacks can make your life miserable. It can alter your career path, affect your friendships and lower your self esteem. Don´t let what happened to Violet, happen to you.

Violet had always had stage fright, that´s why she was never in the theater club at school and why she always avoided giving presentations in class. She couldn´t help herself; she just got nervous and froze when she had to speak in front of people.

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Finding your relaxation method is a building block towards conquering your anxiety, panic, fear and depression. Finding what works best for you is far more important than settling on any particular technique. 

If you want to overcome anxiety of any sort, you need to find a way to relax. This is a foundational building block of any method or strategy utilized to overcome anxiety or panic attacks. 

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Your anxiety, panic attacks, stress and depression will all benefit from a more relaxed mind. Deep relaxation isn´t easy to achieve but it is a necessity.

So many coping strategies for anxiety, panic attacks and depression rely on the ability of the sufferer to achieve a sense of relaxation. When you are relaxed your heart rate slows, your breathing slows, your blood pressure drops and your muscle tension eases. 

These are all the direct opposite effects of what you experience during a panic attack or anxious moment. The ability to counteract your body´s panicked tendencies will help you confront, overcome and resolve your fears. But you can´t deal with your problem if you can´t get your body and mind into a relaxed state. 

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The process of visual or real life desensitization requires gradual exposure to the thing that sparks your anxiety. Creating a hierarchy of steps to confront your fear is a great way to break down the fear into doable steps and chart your progress.
 
In order to desensitize yourself from your fears, you will have to work a program of gradual exposure through visual or real life contact with your fear. Most people do this through visuals, gradually exposing themselves in their mind to their fear.

Some people prefer to do real life exposure and some a combination. The method you choose depends on the level of your anxiety as well as the practicality of confronting your fear in real life. 

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Confronting and overcoming an anxiety disorder can be challenging. You need the help of a trusted friend or family member to help support and reassure you as you encounter your fear and work to overcome it. 

Many anxiety, panic attack and particularly phobia sufferers find having a support person to help them while they are exposing themselves to anxiety provoking situations is a great comfort and assistance.

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Confronting and overcoming a phobia or other anxiety disorder takes motivation and planning.  You need to understand the willpower it takes to overcome your mind´s negative anxiety feedback loop. You need to set goals and develop a plan of action in order to achieve success. 

Samantha was suffering from agoraphobia. This phobia can be so destructive that it can turn you into a virtual recluse. While this was not yet the case for Samantha, her life had already been changed in profound ways.

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Panic attacks can lead to other anxiety conditions such as agoraphobia. Phobias are often defined by extreme avoidance to certain situations that the sufferer fears will spark a panic attack. 

Samantha has struggled with agoraphobia for years. It started simply enough with a panic attack that shocked her by its presence and overwhelming power. She was so frightened by this occurrence and so confused by it that she felt like she was in shock.

She went to the doctor, describing her symptoms convinced that something was seriously and terribly wrong. The doctor didn´t have any answers for her and after giving her an examination and some blood tests sent her home. 

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A couple of questions to help you determine if you are struggling from anxiety and some additional information to help you understand your condition. 

Generalized anxiety, panic attacks or phobias can have devastating effects on your life. But sometimes it´s hard to tell whether this is really the problem you are suffering with.

If you are concerned about your anxiety levels, consider the following questions and your responses.

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Desensitization to your phobia is achieved in small, incremental steps. An effective relaxation method, exposure plan and patience are the keys to your success.   

Phobia sufferers can eliminate their anxious responses to certain situations through desensitization. Depending on the nature of your fear, desensitization can be accomplished through visualization or real life exposure. 

The type of desensitization that you do depends on the practicality and ease with which you can confront your phobia in real life. Moreover, many people who can do real life desensitization begin with visualization to help them better cope with the situation when encountered in real life. 

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