What Is The Cure For Panic Attacks?

What Is The Cure For Panic Attacks?

Is there a cure for panic attacks? It all depends. Panic attacks are sudden brief episodes of intense fear or anxiety that trigger a variety of physical reactions—rapid pulse, shortness of breath, chills and hot flashes, stomach pain and digestive upset, etc. The mystery lies in what provokes the attacks. Some theories hold that like [...]

Getting Help For Panic Attacks

Getting Help For Panic Attacks

One of the biggest obstacles that stops people from seeking help for panic attacks is the embarrassment and even shame they feel. Human beings have an instinctive tendency to minimize or conceal illness, especially if it strikes in a public or social situation. When the illness itself is fear, fear multiplies and heightens that instinct. [...]

Identifying The Panic Attacks Cause

Identifying The Panic Attacks Cause

If you’ve ever experienced a panic attack, you know what it is—a sudden, apparently unmotivated episode of extreme anxiety accompanied by a whole list of unpleasant physical sensations, such as racing heart, cold sweat, breathlessness, dizziness, etc. In fact, the physical sensations of a panic attack are remarkably like the natural and essential “fight or [...]

Anxiety Disorders Treatment You Can Count On

Anxiety Disorders Treatment You Can Count On

If you think that you may be suffering from an anxiety disorder, what anxiety disorders treatment are available for your help? You have probably studied the symptoms of anxiety disorder and feel that they fit your experience pretty well—you have been worrying about a number of things for a long time, and can’t seem to [...]

Treating Anxiety Disorder The Right Way

Treating Anxiety Disorder The Right Way

If you’ve been experiencing episodes or extended periods of anxiety that are beginning to interfere with your life in serious ways—if you’re finding it hard to concentrate on your work or get enough sleep, if you feel constantly irritable and jumpy or possibly even depressed, if you find yourself trying to numb your fears with [...]


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What Is The Cure For Panic Attacks?

What Is The Cure For Panic Attacks?

Is there a cure for panic attacks? It all depends.

Panic attacks are sudden brief episodes of intense fear or anxiety that trigger a variety of physical reactions—rapid pulse, shortness of breath, chills and hot flashes, stomach pain and digestive upset, etc. The mystery lies in what provokes the attacks.

Some theories hold that like depression, panic attacks are caused by a chemical imbalance or malfunction in the brain. In some families, a tendency to panic disorder appears often enough to suggest that it can be an inherited trait, indicating that genetic factors may be involved. In such cases the problem often emerges at a fairly early age. At present, panic attacks that stem from such causes can’t really be “cured” in the common sense of that term–that is, the underlying chemical or genetic flaw cannot be permanently repaired.

Other people, however, develop panic attacks and panic disorder only later in life. It appears that these may be “learned” responses. Just the right—or wrong—set of circumstances can combine to induce a panic attack in someone who has never had one before or shown any tendency in that direction. And panic attacks tend to be self-perpetuating. A panic attack is such a frightening and disturbing experience that the fear of having another one often becomes the trigger that starts the cascade of symptoms.

For people who have “learned” to have panic attacks, there is a good chance that their attacks can be cured through a process of “unlearning,” or reconditioning their response patterns to the identified stimuli through behavioral or cognitive behavioral therapy.

Further research may someday determine that panic attacks can only be learned or induced in people who do share some of the underlying chemical and/or genetic factors that are believed to cause panic disorder, though perhaps to a lesser degree than more severe cases.

If we cannot yet cure panic attacks, there are three main approaches that can effectively treat them.

  • Self-help or self-treatment
  • Behavioral or cognitive therapy
  • Medication.

Self-treatment or self-care is likely to be most helpful for people whose attacks are relatively infrequent or mild, or as a follow-up to therapy or drug treatment. Relaxation and desensitization practice are known to help people learn to recognize and cope with the triggers that set off their panic episodes, and some may be able to develop these skills on their own or with the help of support groups.

Professional therapists can help people with more severe cases or those who haven’t been able to find or master the right coping techniques on their own. Cognitive therapy can help panic attack sufferers identify and understand what their brain and body are doing in the throes of an attack. This knowledge can be a key to getting the situation under control. Behavioral treatment often involves “practicing” situations that trigger the attacks, and learning how to either avoid them or desensitize yourself to them.

Therapy and self-help may not be enough for some people, especially those diagnosed with full panic disorder. A number of medications can alleviate and sometimes even eliminate their symptoms. Anti-anxiety drugs (the benzodiazepines, like alprazolam and clonazepam) and anti-depressants (SSRIs are often the first choice) have both been shown to reduce and even eliminate symptoms.

For some people a relatively brief course of medication will get the disorder under sufficient control for therapy and self-treatment to take over. Others may need to take these drugs on a long-term basis.

Ultimately, no single approach to “curing” panic attacks is going to work for every person and every attack. There is too much individual variation in peoples’ experience, and too much scientific uncertainty about what causes these debilitating episodes. But whatever the underlying cause of a panic attack, even if a definitive cure is not likely, there is plenty of evidence that the disorder can treated and brought under control completely enough to enable the susceptible person to live and function normally, without the shadow of fear distorting their daily lives.

And if you are looking for a full blown guide with in-depth answers, solutions and advice that will result in alleviating your panic attacks, then you’ll want to checkout our eBook, ”Alleviate Panic Attacks & Change Your Life”. AlleviatePanicAttacks.com is one of many places to get SOUND information on Cure For Panic Attacks – Period.

Basic Panic Attacks Information To Understand

“Panic attack” is a phrase you sometimes hear people use casually when they feel a bit stressed or pressured by everyday life. But a real panic attack is much more than a feeling of nervousness or of being rushed or harried, and it can be readily distinguished by the intense physical sensations that accompany an episode. Though the precise symptoms vary in different people and at different times, when in the grip of an attack, a sufferer may tremble, sweat, have trouble breathing, dizziness and nausea, the heart may pound or even feel like a heart attack is coming on. It’s not surprising given the intensity of these feelings that panic attack victims even feel they are dying. There is usually no clear cause for the beginning of a panic attack—it is just an “irrational” unmotivated event. Eventually, however, people who are prone to these episodes develop intense fear and anxiety about the experience recurring, which can in turn become a trigger, causing even more attacks. This is why it is imperative that someone who suffers from this condition gathers and understand panic attacks information.

There are ways of treating people who suffer from panic attacks. Various kinds of medication are available, and there are a number of therapeutic approaches that can help people gain control of their experience and lessen the intensity or even prevent a full blown attack. Unfortunately, too few of the people who are prone to this disorder realize that help is available and reach out for treatment.

Behavioral therapy can be helpful for many people. In this approach the person may be taught to deliberately relive or invoke some of the symptoms they have experienced. If they can learn to do this deliberately, the symptom itself becomes less frightening. Once the victim recognizes under controlled conditions that in fact he or she is not actually in danger of dying, the fear of that particular symptom will decrease and become less of a trigger to cause or intensify future panic attacks.

Another therapeutic approach focuses on learning to relax. At the first indication of an attack onset, the person is trained to direct the attention toward internal tensions—relaxing first in the head and upper body, and gradually through the entire body. Learning and practicing breath control is another key element of relaxation therapy, since rapid breathing and pounding heart are primary symptoms. Conscious deep slow inhalation and exhalation can help bring those reactions under control.

The essential element of these techniques is teaching the panic attack victim to recognize what is happening early enough that they can begin to take control of the experience before it is completely debilitating. Then, hopefully, the first signs of an attack will not simply bring on more panic. Instead they will cue the person to remember these learned coping mechanisms and the reassuring knowledge that “this too shall pass.”

Anxiety is the general underlying cause of panic attacks for most people. There are a number of other specific psychological disorders associated with panic attacks—post-traumatic stress victims are highly vulnerable, as are people with obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD). These illnesses share with panic attacks the unpredictable and uncontrolled intrusion into the sufferer’s mind of thoughts and fears they cannot control. OCD is actually a kind of behavioral response to panic through repetitive actions—it’s just not a healthy behavioral response, because it becomes just as uncontrollable as the panic or anxiety it seeks to allay.

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