Anxiety is a universal emotion. It is normal for people to experience it from time to time for any number of reasons. As an evolutionary response to stress, anxiety helps us to cope better with unforeseen and unpleasant situations by helping us to focus better on the current situation at hand.
Sometimes, however, this anxiety/panic can manifest itself in the form of recurring anxiety and panic attacks that can make normal life difficult. In such a case, the sufferer can be classified as a patient of an anxiety or panic disorder. Unlike mild anxiety which many witness as a response to a stressful event, an anxiety disorder can last for months to years and usually has no apparent, logical cause.
Since an anxiety disorder is a mental condition, the best way to treat it is to understand it. Anxiety is essentially the manifestation of fear about future events, or sometimes, even the past memories. The patient often becomes paralyzed thinking about the future and experiences several uncomfortable symptoms such as difficulty in breathing, increased heart rate, a feeling of impending dom, etc.
One way to treat anxiety is to educate yourself about it, it’s causes and cures. A few handy tips that can help you to control or curb your anxiety completely are:
1. Relaxation Techniques – Relaxation is the antithesis of anxiety. A patient suffering from anxiety has difficulty putting his mind at rest and keeps worrying about one thing or the other. Common sense, therefore, dictates that relaxing your mind can be a very effective antidote to anxiety.
You should try meditating, preferably in a quiet environment. Light a few candles, put on some soft, relaxing music (nature sounds are very effective in this). Fold your legs under your hips (the meditative stance) and breathe in deeply with your eyes closed and try and focus on pleasant thoughts and memories. If possible, join a Yoga class – it’ll help you tremendously in relaxing your mind.
2. Breathing Techniques – One of the most commong physical symptom of an anxiety/panic attack is difficult, rapid breathing, caleld hyperventilation. Hypervantilation increases the oxygen level in the body and reduces the carbon dioxide levels, which can lead to a feeling of light headedness or even cause you to faint.
A person suffering from an anxiety condition should try and breathe through their diaphgram (this is the bony part of your chest that moves up and down as you breathe, right above the abdomen). Also, try taking in slow, deep breaths. This can help you tremendously in controling your anxiety.
3. Adjustments in Diet – Certain diet elements, such as nicotine, alcohol, caffeine or other stimulants can cause an anxiety attack since they trigger adrenaline release in the body. Adrenaline is one of the main stress chemicals. Oily, heavy foods should also be avoided. Try eating a light, protein and carb rich diet with plenty of green vegetables and fruits.
4. Exercise – Exercise can improve your mood exponentially. Exercise helps to burn stress chemicals and eases the mind. A jog through a park or a long bike ride can be a great way to improve your mood and keep anxiety at bay. Make daily exercise a part of your routine. Not only will it help control anxiety, it will also help check your weight, giving you a better self image and more confidence.
In part two of this article, I will explore other methods to control and curb anxiety, such as cognitive therapy, behavior therapy, and medication.
Anxiety is a universal emotion. It is normal for people to experience it from time to time for any number of reasons. As an evolutionary response to stress, anxiety helps us to cope better with unforeseen and unpleasant situations by helping us to focus better on the current situation at hand.
Sometimes, however, this anxiety/panic can manifest itself in the form of recurring anxiety and panic attacks that can make normal life difficult. In such a case, the sufferer can be classified as a patient of an anxiety or panic disorder. Unlike mild anxiety which many witness as a response to a stressful event, an anxiety disorder can last for months to years and usually has no apparent, logical cause.
Since an anxiety disorder is a mental condition, the best way to treat it is to understand it. Anxiety is essentially the manifestation of fear about future events, or sometimes, even the past memories. The patient often becomes paralyzed thinking about the future and experiences several uncomfortable symptoms such as difficulty in breathing, increased heart rate, a feeling of impending doom, etc.
Personally, I relied on yoga, exercise and a number of advanced techniques listed in Joe Barry’s book, Panic Away. From my own personal experience, these are the techniques I would recommend:
1. Relaxation Techniques
Relaxation is the antithesis of anxiety. A patient suffering from anxiety has difficulty putting his mind at rest and keeps worrying about one thing or the other. Common sense, therefore, dictates that relaxing your mind can be a very effective antidote to anxiety.
You should try meditating, preferably in a quiet environment. Light a few candles, put on some soft, relaxing music (nature sounds are very effective in this). Fold your legs under your hips (the meditative stance) and breathe in deeply with your eyes closed and try and focus on pleasant thoughts and memories. If possible, join a Yoga class – it’ll help you tremendously in relaxing your mind.
2. Breathing Techniques
One of the most commong physical symptom of an anxiety/panic attack is difficult, rapid breathing, called hyperventilation. Hyperventilation increases the oxygen level in the body and reduces the carbon dioxide levels, which can lead to a feeling of light headedness or even cause you to faint.
A person suffering from an anxiety condition should try and breathe through their diaphragm (this is the bony part of your chest that moves up and down as you breathe, right above the abdomen). Also, try taking in slow, deep breaths. This can help you tremendously in controlling your anxiety.
3. Adjustments in Diet
Certain diet elements, such as nicotine, alcohol, caffeine or other stimulants can cause an anxiety attack since they trigger adrenaline release in the body. Adrenaline is one of the main stress chemicals. Oily, heavy foods should also be avoided. Try eating a light, protein and carb rich diet with plenty of green vegetables and fruits.
4. Exercise
Exercise can improve your mood exponentially. Exercise helps to burn stress chemicals and eases the mind. A jog through a park or a long bike ride can be a great way to improve your mood and keep anxiety at bay. Make daily exercise a part of your routine. Not only will it help control anxiety, it will also help check your weight, giving you a better self image and more confidence.
In part two of this article, I will explore other methods to control and curb anxiety, such as cognitive therapy, behavior therapy, and medication. These are covered in detail in Joe Barry’s Panic Away – the book that helped me banish anxiety attacks forever.
From my own personal experience, I have realized that certain solutions work better than others. I am a staunch believe in the no-medication philosophy, because the kind of drugs that are used to treat anxiety and panic disorders can mess up with your body completely, and I won’t even talk about their scope for abuse.
From the top of my head, these are the five best methods I could think of that are effective in treating a panic disorder.
1. Cognitive Therapy
The focus of cognitive therapy is to force a change in set patterns of thinking and beliefs in order to remove the underlying cause of a panic attack. All forms of panic disorders have certain triggers. The aim of cognitive therapy, therefore, is to help the patient overcome anything that triggers their anxiety. Strategies to combat panic attacks include rational self-talk, cognitive restructuring, training to challenge underlying fears and beliefs, and checking the flow of negative thoughts.
2. Behavior therapy
Behavior Therapy aims to fight panic disorders by deliberately exposing a patient to his/her fears. A major cause of many panic attacks are different phobias. Through a gradul exposure to those phobias, this technique can, over time, desensitize you to your fears, letting you redefine the fear aspect of the situation or trigger.
3. Medication
Medication should always be seen as a short term measure, to be used in conjunction with therapy. Most of the medications involved in fighting off a panic disorder are powerful concoctions of drugs that have a lot of side effects, along with being highly addictive. The tendency in patients to abuse these drugs, therefore, is very high. Some of the prescription medications used to fight panic include Valium, Xanax/Zenax, etc. Studies also show that therapy is a much better solution to controlling a panic disorder than short term medications.
4. Diet
An inadequate intake of nutrients, especially vitamins and minerals can amplify the symptoms of a panic disorder. All anxiety/panic conditions are hormone controlled, which are secreted by the various glands located throughout the body. These require vitamins and minerals to function at their full efficiency. It has been noted that an irregular and inadequate intake of vitamin B and calcium has been shown to worsen anxiety symptoms. Stimulants like nicotine, caffeine, alcohol, should also be avoided in the diet as they trigger the release of adrenaline – one of the major stress causing chemicals. One should adjust his/her diet to include a healthier variety of foods, with plenty of vitamins and minerals. Also consider taking dietary supplements that can fulfill a nutrient deficiency.
5. Self-Help
I am a big believe in self help, DIY. While I understand that for those suffering from particularly severe or debilitating forms of anxiety disorders, self help can’t (and shouldn’t) be a choice of treatment. For most others (and this is the majority of us anxiety patients), self help can be very very effective. Head over to the local bookstore and look up some titles, or go online and check out some websites (including
Control Panic Attacks). There are plenty of anxiety management programs being sold on the internet, some particularly effective – like
Panic Away – which I used myself, among others, like the
Linden Method
The jury is still out on the effectiveness of prescription medication for treating panic attacks. For one, the long, long list of side-effects that such drugs makes them a pale alternative when compared to natural medicines and therapy. The best cure for any illness, whether it is physical or psychological, is something that is natural and doesn’t inject some drug cocktail into your body.
If you are suffering from an anxiety disorder or have frequent panic attacks, no doubt you have been looking for a solution that is cost-effective and safe. While prescription medication might help relieve some of the symptoms, it doesn’t erase the underlying cause of anxiety. Moreover, most of the drugs are highly addictive (since they act like depressants) and have side-effects ranging from insomnia to heart problems. In fact, the fear of taking such medications is one of the biggest reason why many people refrain from seeking professional help in treating their panic attacks.
A lot of research over the years has shown that non-traditional (i.e., non-medicinal) methods to treat anxiety are as good, if not better than prescription drugs. Most doctors, even when they prescripe anti-anxiety medication, will follow it up with therapy and eventually wean the patient off the drugs.
The best way to cure anxiety disorders is cognitive behavioral therapy. This isn’t just the best treatment for anxiety/panic attacks; it is pretty much the best way to deal with the majority of psychological illnesses. If combined with the right drugs (disregarding the side-effects), cognitive-behavioral therapy is highly effective in getting a patient rid of his anxiety. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) primarily involves educating the patient about his condition, teaching him to recognize the symptoms of his illness, conditioning his mental responses to understand and eventually remove the thoughts that lead to the illness, and finally, gaining mastery over the mental processes that lead to the mental illness.
The best part about CBT is that you don’t really need a trained professional to actively guide you through the process. This is something that, with enough dedication, can be carried out by an individual on his own. The therapy itself isn’t necessarily long; in most cases, success is achieved within 3-4 months.
Best of all, the results are permanent. Unlike medication, which can result in only temporary relief, CBT gives results that will last you forever, as it essentially reprograms the way you perceive an illness like panic attacks.
Clearly, CBT is the best way to treat an anxiety or panic disorder.
