Posts Tagged ‘anxiety treatments’

For those of us who suffer with anxiety attacks, we know what it feels like. Our heart pounds. We get butterflies in our tummy. We agonize and fret over everything and anything.  We have hot and cold sweats.  Our throats go dry and we have difficulty swallowing, just to name a few.

If you are experiencing any of the above, then you may well be suffering with anxiety attacks.

Anxiety attacks can transpire out of the blue.  I have spoken with plenty of people who have said "my life is great; I don’t understand why I am suddenly suffering with anxiety attacks".  That’s the nature of the beast.  There is no designated format for anxiety attacks.  They can happen to people whose lives are going really well, as well, as those who lives are not going so well.

This is why anxiety attacks are so tricky to diagnose.  It’s not like having a cold or some other illness, where there symptoms are typical and simple to observe and diagnose.

Understanding what anxiety attacks are will assist you to have more control. It’s normal to worry and feel tense or scared when under pressure or facing a taxing situation. Anxiety is the body’s natural response to danger, an automatic alarm that goes off when we feel threatened.

From my personal understanding off living with anxiety attacks, I am aware of the fact that the more you think about the anxiety the stronger the symptoms become.  The stronger the symptoms, the stronger the anxiety attacks become.  Then you’re in the realms of a viscous circle.   This is when it becomes really tough to over come your anxiety attacks.

It’s not till you truly become aware of the fact that your thoughts have manifested your anxiety, so it stands to reason that if you have shaped the anxiety attack then surely you can UN-create the anxiety attacks.  This part is really hard for people to understand.  And I know precisely how they feel!  When I was told this, I rejected it.  Why would I want to do this to myself?  It did not make sense.

But at the end of the day no matter how much I tried to take no notice of that fact, it was true, my thoughts where the origin of my anxiety.  I experimented with it.  The more I focused my energy on the anxiety the stronger my anxiety attacks became.  So with the help of a therapist, I was able to work on my thoughts and beat my anxiety.

I am not anxiety free, although I am able to prevent my anxiety before it becomes a full blown anxiety attack.

Another thing to bear in mind, is that anxiety may be unpleasant, but it isn’t always a awful thing. In fact, anxiety can help us stay aware and focused, spur us to action, and prompt us to solve problems. But when anxiety is continuous or overwhelming, when it interferes with our relationships and activities-that’s when you’ve crossed the line from normal anxiety into the territory of anxiety disorders.

If you would like some help with anxiety? Then, please read on. Below are some very useful tips to help with your anxiety.

  1. Breathe Correctly

Researchers at The University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre have pinpointed one of the reasons why breathing is so important when we can be suffering from  anxiety. They found that we frequently hyperventilate when we are in an anxious state. This is correct, as you and I know. We are conscious of short and rapid breathing  which in turn creates small brainwaves, all contributing to our stressed state.

If we could do with help with anxiety, we will have to learn to breathe using the abdomen muscles. By doing this we create much longer breaths which produce slower  brainwaves. That is the kind of relaxed breathing we do when we are composed and serene. While we are conscious of this, we can learn this technique and it really  does calm us down, if done appropriately.

  2. Meditation
A large amount of people are put off by the idea of meditation and even yoga because they just feel it is too complicated to learn and that they will never have the time to do it.  All you have to do is to find the quietest place in your home.

You can choose to sit down or even lie down. The principal thing is to feel comfortable. Focus on your breathing and practice letting air fill your  lungs and then when exhaling, feel the abdominal muscles tightening. The secret here is that you are able to shut out all the clutter, noise from  around you, while you concentrate solely on your breathing. You will be amazed at how much calmer you will feel and you may not need help with anxiety.

  3. Diet
Certainly getting the right nutrients, minerals and vitamins can really help in creating optimal conditions so that our brain functions just as well as our  body. Any foods that can increase the levels of serotonin can enhance our mood. That can always lower anxiety levels. The best foods, are the complex carbohydrates which are the whole grains, fruit, vegetables and nuts. Did you know that the element called tryptophan helps in calming  and is contained in some dairy products and also turkey meat?

4. Herbal remedy for anxiety?
Lots of herbs are now known to help keep anxiety at bay. The better known ones are valerian, camomile, passion flower and winter cherry. These actually work  and there are no nasty side effects either, unlike the anti anxiety medications prescribed in massive doses across the populace.

Having anxiety attacks is almost certainly one of the most unnerving bodily feelings you can ever receive.  One of the major tribulations with having anxiety attacks is that, it can’t actually be seen by anyone else, so you can feel totally isolated and by yourself.

Heaps of times the individual who is suffering from an anxiety attack does not know what is going on, which contributes to the amount of the anxiety.

Having anxiety attacks can be soul destroying, it can actually turn your life upside down.  I have not got this from a book; I have lived with anxiety attacks for over 20years, also my Mum has suffered with anxiety attacks as well.

My anxiety attacks would appear out of the blue, I may well be out shopping having a enjoyable time, then that dreaded feeling of not feeling right would start to creep up on me, then that feeling would get stronger and more powerful and before I knew it I would be having a major anxiety attack in the middle of a shop.

  I can tell you it is really frightening, but those of you reading this will have some sort of insight of what i mean.  That unpleasant feeling where you start to feel all hot and uptight, your vision starts to go and you feel like the shop is drawing in on you.

How I would depict my feeling is like this, I was aware of everything that was going on around me, but I felt like a part of me had withdrawn into myself, if that makes sense.  For me I just desired quite, I could not deal with with anyone talking to me.  I had to focus on what was taking place with me.  I don’t know what I thought would happen but I just needed to gain control.

What I found really hard was trying to get my husband to understand what was happening to me.  To try and get him to recognize how I was feeling and what having anxiety attacks was doing to me mentally, physically and emotionally. 

It was pointless really; know one known’s what having anxiety attacks are like unless you have experienced them for yourself.

What extremely saddens me is that the only treatment for anxiety and panic attacks the doctors are recommending is tablets. Do not get me wrong  taking medication to assist me get back control of my anxiety and panic attacks does help. But I’m aware that taking medication solely serves to mask the anxiety it’s not actually a cure.  Yes you might go weeks, months or perhaps years without a anxiety or panic attack.  But it can return back.  It comes back because you have not addressed the actual reason for the anxiety.

When figure out what is causing your anxiety, you may doubtless find that you’ll be able to realize a more effective treatment.  I recognize from personal expertise that it will be terribly arduous and distressing to work through your anxiety, however there is value in it, in the long run. You ought to recognize that external factors, such as work and home stress will cause us to feel moments of anxiety when they are not handled, but why is it that some individuals can just house this stress and others can’t? It’s because of our hormones and the balance of them in our bodies.

We tend to all have moments which stress us out and cause us to feel wired or anxious. These moments can persist with us and leave us feeling worried over things, but if your body is making the right balance of hormones, it’s unlikely that these situations can cause you to possess a panic attack in the future. However, if your body is not making enough dopamine, that is the pleasure and youth hormone, and enough serotonin, which is the "feel good" hormone, then it’s probably that your body is making way too much cortisol, which is the hormone that creates us feel a lot of stress. This imbalance is probably inflicting you to become depressed, anxious, sleepless and you would possibly even be having panic attacks.

However it’s not simply these factors that can contribute to you having anxiety, it might conjointly be that it runs in the family.  Although it’s not been medically proven there are thousands of case studies that have been done on the family connection.  For me my mother suffered with anxiety and panic attacks and i spent a chunk of my childhood observing this behaviour.  Guess what i learnt that behaviour, i learnt to worry, i learnt to panic in stressful situations.  I’m not blaming my mum it is not her fault.  It’s simply a fact of life, that as kids we have a tendency to are like sponges and take in everything that’s happening around us.

So it sort of made sense to me, if i learnt that behaviour then surely i may un-learn that behaviour.  It’s about owning what are your thoughts and feelings and letting go off the thoughts and feelings that aren’t yours.  This doesn’t happen over night but by being persistent and sticking at it, over time your thoughts do win through, you’ll be able to replace old behaviour patterns and replace them with new ones.  Ones that will enhance your life not destroy your life.

Bear in mind, anxiety and panic attack treatments don’t all come in prescription form and they don’t seem to be all expensive or lifetime commitments, therefore go searching a little bit and see what you’ll realize when it comes to more natural anxiety attack treatments that truly treat the underlying problems so that you can feel in control again.