Thomas J Bronson asked:




Our life has become a mass of complications today. We are all fighting our private worries and each of us is bogged down by some tension, sorrow, trauma or fatigue. Our speed of life has increased so much that we can’t relax even when we are holidaying. Every second man has his own share of stress, anxiety and panic.

A more complicated version of normal everyday worry is anxiety disorder and panic attack. Let us begin by trying to understand what panic attacks are.

Short periods of intense anxiety, during which the patient is plagued by acute manifestations like increased hear beat, trembling, sweating, hot flushes or chills, nausea, giddiness, breathlessness, butterflies in the stomach, paresthesias, derealisation or depersonalization, may be termed as Panic Attack. The disorder may be diagnosed in accordance with the guidelines provided in the Diagnostic and Statistic Manual IV of the American Psychiatric Association.

The anxiety disorders also include phobias, social anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress, obsessive and compulsive disorder and one that is found most commonly found, generalized anxiety disorder.

Sometimes the disease may arise out of purely physical causes such as Vitamin B deficiency, tapeworm infection, inner ear infection or may also be a result of drug or alcohol abuse. However, studies have shown that the disease may have hereditary factors responsible for it – one’s genes, in the presence of certain environmental factors create the panic attack disorder.

Anxiety attack cure is possible – there can be a three-pronged process for the same:

*Lifestyle changes – incorporating more relaxation and more humour into one’s daily routine

*Sessions with a psychotherapist – counselling and psychological therapies have proved to make quite a difference to the life of a patient of anxiety or panic disorders

*Medication – a variety of medicines are available for panic and anxiety disorders

Without doubt, the best panic attack treatment is relaxation. The various spas and the massage centers specializing in acupuncture and acupressure and the yoga and the Thai Chi training institutes are some places where relaxation may be attained. These methods help the anxiety-ridden mind and body to relax so totally that there is a slow but steady ebbing of the mental tension. Most of these relaxation techniques work through causing sleep to envelop the patient – a good sleep does away with most of the anxiety woes.

A modification of one’s timetable and lifestyle may lead to increased peace of mind and less of tension. Time spent in the company of children and pets is time spent well – children and pets have the capacity to drain your body of negativity and refuel you with positive energy. Laughter therapy is one more way of combating panic attacks – for this join a laughter club or check out the comedy shows on your television. Do not forget that laughter is quite definitely the best medicine. Also helpful are meditation and spirituality – they help you maintain your balance in this mad, mad world.

However, these cannot be the only mode of therapy in serious and severe cases – at best, these can be used side-by-side or after the psychotherapies. With the psychoanalyst are available several possible treatments for anxiety attack and panic. The best and most popular among these is Cognitive and Behavioural therapy – called CBT in short. CBT has two parts – first – make the patient aware of how various thoughts flit in and out of his mind and second – making him strong to fight the onset of a panic attack. This is arguably the best panic attack treatment because it chiefly addresses the nub of the problem – the patient’s mind. The patient, within a few sessions, gains on his will power and positive thinking. He now begins to make an effort to fight, instead of aid the start of a panic attack.

The other arrows in the psychotherapist’s quiver are Exposure Therapy or Gradual Exposure Therapy. At times the cause of the patient’s panic can be traced to a particular agent or factor often called the fear factor or phobia of the patient. In exposure therapy, patient is made to come vis-a-vis with this fear factor of his – albeit under controlled surroundings only and under the eye of the psychotherapist. Once he tolerates a less severe form of the fear factor, he is exposed to a more severe form and so on. Finally, at the end, patient is now capable of facing the severest form of the fear factor – he sheds his fears totally.

Sometimes, medicines are involved with psychotherapist’s treatment and lifestyle changes to impart an effective anxiety attack cure – however, most clinicians avoid medication as the sole treatment program as these drugs often have side effects. They are all mostly tranquilizers and work by changing the neurotransmitter level in the brain. The major drug classes are:

>Benzodiazepines – alprazolam, clonzepam, diazepam
>Buspirone
>Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors – paroxetine, sertraline, fluvoxamine
>Serotonin Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitors – Venlafaxine, Tramadol
>Tricyclic Antidepressants – Amitriptyline, Trimipramine

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