Common Panic Attack Therapies

March 23rd, 2010 Posted in Mental Health

Many people have found relief for panic attacks through therapy.  Since every person and their situation is unique, the time frame the therapy can take to show improvement can vary greatly.  Sometimes you may need to wait a few months before you can start to experience any progress.

Patience is the most important consideration when commencing panic attack therapy.  One type of treatment can be effective for one person rather quickly, while another person may require more time, or even a mix of different therapy methods to improve their anxiety attacks.

Try to be flexible and avoid setting specific goals for recovery such as “This method has to work in one month or it’s a failure.”  This is a guaranteed way to disappoint yourself and ensure that you don’t see results.  Give whichever therapy method you try a fair chance and give it time to show results.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a common and usually successful method to treat panic and anxiety disorders.  CBT is used to encourage people start to alter their thoughts and behaviors.  If you are seeking anxiety or panic attack therapy treatments, it is very likely that you will encounter this in some form.

When you start out with CBT, you will probably design a plan with your doctor.  You might be given assignments to be done on your own such as jotting down your individual goals that you will use to gradually expose yourself to circumstances that may cause anxiety or panic attacks for you.  You will likely be keeping a journal to record your thoughts and feelings as well as a way of looking back to see your successes in your recovery.

Depending on your situation, you might also be prescribed medicine.  There are a good deal of medicines for anxiety attacks out there that can be quite effective.  Medication, though is not a solution.  It just turns down the volume of your anxiety so that you can start to look for an effective recovery program.

Here are some good practices you may given as part of your panic attack therapy regimen.  Please ask your doctor though before you begin any of these on your own.  These exercises are supposed to emulate some of the physical symptoms of panic attacks so that you get accustomed to experiencing them knowing that you are in full control of the situation and gradually desensitize yourself from them.

First, you might try to breath heavily for a few seconds or so.  Most panic attacks begin with hyperventilation, so if you can begin to do this on your own, you may start to feel more relaxed and stop an anxiety attack before it starts.

Also try turning around several times to create a feeling of dizziness.  Dizziness is another common indicator of panic and anxiety attacks.

Run in place or adopt an aerobic exercise routine to increase your heart rate and get used to that experience.

Anxiety attack therapy can be a useful means of curing anxiety disorders by slowly getting you comfortable with typical physical symptoms of a panic attack.  Again, it may take some patience to experience measurable success in your recovery so stick with whatever program or form of therapy your doctor suggests.