Anxiety and Panic Attack

Anxiety strikes everyone at some point in today’s stressful way of life, but it doesn’t become a clinical disorder until it interferes with daily life. Anxiety disorders are more common than any other mental illness. 1 in five Americans will be diagnosed with anxiety or panic disorder ever year. On the positive side, anxiety and panic disorders even have the highest cure rate.

Anxiety and panic disorders cost the United States over $2 billion each and every year according to The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. Nearly a 3rd of everything spent on all mental disorders goes to anxiety and panic disorders.

Ruling out physical illness when a patient presents with anxiety or panic costs the country nearly $twenty-one billion each year. Symptoms of anxiety and panic often resemble much more serious physical illnesses. A panic attack looks nearly identical to a heart attack. Doctors often have to rule out heart attack many times before panic disorder can be diagnosed.

Pain or tingling in the extremities, shortness of breath, plus heart palpitations occur in both panic attacks and heart attacks. Indigestion, insomnia, headaches, plus stomach issues are also frequent symptoms of panic and anxiety disorders. Patients having a panic attack for the 1st time often end up in the emergency room. Panic disorder patients often need to go thru many diagnostic tests to rule out physical disease. Anxiety disorders and panic attacks cost businesses and workers lots of time and lots of money. The cost of anxiety and panic disorders can be measured in lost productivity, pain and suffering, lost wages and lost profits, addiction problems, and more. In the worst case, the person suffering with an anxiety or panic disorder becomes housebound. The panic attack victim lives in fear of another attack.

Anxiety and panic can be very effectively treated. Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), hypnotherapy, self-hypnosis, NLP, plus prescription medications all can be used to cure anxiety plus panic rather quickly and usually permanently. In therapy, patients learn to prevent future attacks and also learn how to manage their current symptoms.

Too often panic attack victims delay treatment out of fear and shame. Many people fear being labeled ‘crazy’. Ironically, anxiety plus panic disorders are both common and easy to treat. Medical professionals no longer use terms like ‘insanity’ and don't see anxiety plus panic as shameful.

The terms ‘anxiety plus panic’ don't refer to specific diseases. Anxiety plus panic are symptoms of a large group of psychological disorders called ‘anxiety disorders’. When a long period of stress peaks in a panic attack, an anxiety disorder has developed. Panic attack becomes set as a habit known as a conditioned response. The anxious person lives in fear of having another panic attack. The fear of another attack actually causes another attack. The fear of having another attack has got to be removed in order to interrupt the panic attack cycle.

Chronic forms of anxiety plus panic disorder can sometimes require ongoing treatment but can be managed. Depression, anxiety, and panic can all occur together. Medication for depression may be a element of anxiety and panic treatment in some cases. Sometimes medication can be a brief measure that's combined with therapy and then discontinued.

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), social anxiety disorder (SAD), and panic disorder are all common forms of anxiety disorders.