Natural Help For Panic Attacks
Prescription medications often aren’t the ideal solution for many sufferers of panic and anxiety attacks. In some cases, the drugs simply don’t work, or they make the panic attacks worse. In others, the associated side-effects of the drugs are intolerable.
Medications prescribed for panic attacks usually include powerful psychoactive benzodiazepines and antidepressant selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Both of these drugs have significant undesirable side-effects including apathy, sexual dysfunction, depression, suicidal thoughts, weakness and even amnesia.
The medical community is frequently dismissive toward panic-attack sufferers. The tendency for doctors to either flippantly recommend ineffective “breath into a paper bag”-type suggestions or leap to prescribing powerful, mind-altering drugs is well-reported by people with panic disorders. Certainly, panic attacks are a psychological condition, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t serious or the suffering they cause isn’t real.
Dealing With a Panic Attack
When a panic attack strikes, there are some effective temporary techniques you can employ to help get you through the attack, including:
Breathing exercises – not breathing into a paper bag, this can actually make a panic attack worse by reducing the flow of oxygen to the brain, but breathing slowly in through the nose and out through the mouth. You must do this slowly to avoid hyperventilating (getting too much oxygen).
Talk with your spouse or another supportive person – this is one of the most effective coping mechanisms. Having someone else to focus on during the attack allows your mind to focus on something else and helps short-circuit the panic-spiral.
Affirmation – this technique involves slowly repeating a coping statement to yourself over and over. For example, “No one dies from panic attacks. I will let this pass and I will be fine.” The act of repeating the affirmation can have a calming, meditative effect.
Preventing Panic Attacks in the First Place
All of the methods above may help you cope with a panic attack, but merely coping is not enough. Practical and effective drug-free self-treatments are available that can help you get your anxiety attacks under control and reduce their frequency and severity.
Visit our website to learn more about safe, natural ways to stop panic attacks and general anxiety.
Steven K. Goodwin is a health and fitness writer for Health-Summit – an online magazine for physical health and mental well-being.
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