When Anxiety Becomes Aggravating

Anxiety disorders represent one of the most common mental illnesses, afflicting approximately one in 10 in the general population. In ordinary life, everyone experiences some form of anxiety. When a threatening situation is perceived, a life changing decision is made, a test result is expected, or good or bad news is anticipated, acute anxiety and heightened anticipation builds up and gradually fades once the stressful situation is resolved or removed.

Acute anxiety is therefore a necessary part of everyday life; however, chronic anxiety – continual anxious feelings which do not fade or diminish – can impede an individual’s ordinary functions, creating compulsive thoughts, irrational and obsessive fears, and unwanted and repeated eccentric behavior in otherwise normal, emotionally balanced individuals.

When anxiety begins to either gradually or suddenly take control of mental and behavioral functions, anxiety disorders develop. Without some type of medical or psychological treatment, anxiety disorders will persist. Such disorders typically fall into a broad range of categories.

Phobias

Phobias are intense fear reactions to specific objects, people or situations, often prompted by a previous negative experience with the feared situation, person or object. The most widespread of all anxiety disorders, some phobias are relatively common, such as the fear of snakes or spiders or the fear of flying.

Social Phobias

Social phobias are often particularly socially incapacitating and prevent phobia sufferers from leading so-called ‘normal’ social lives and forming relationships with people. Social phobia sufferers often wind up engaging in anti-social behavior and suffer from depression due to their lack of social skills and attendant isolation.

GAD (Generalized Anxiety Disorder)

Generalized Anxiety Disorder is a general feeling of malaise, often manifesting in a general anxiety which spreads to all aspects of life. Constant worry about careers, finance, money, health and general welfare without any significant cause for such fear causes anxiety sufferers to regularly suffer from poor concentration, irritability, trembling, tension and shortness of breath.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder prompts unnecessary and often bizarre, repetitive behavior that is encouraged by the constant thought that omission of the compulsive act will result in destruction or impending disaster.

Panic Disorders

Panic disorders can be sudden or situation oriented and results in inappropriate and exaggerated physical and emotional responses in the body when confronted with false threats or danger. Panic attacks leave sufferers with frightening feelings of insanity and loss of control of mental facilities.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Post-Traumatic stress sufferers experience heightened levels of anxiety in the aftermath of a shock or stressful event such as a death or natural disaster. Normally, anxiety levels lessen over time; however, post traumatic sufferers find that anxiety and stress levels remain stable or increase with the passing of time.

Anxiety disorders frequently accompany other dangerous illnesses and conditions as well, such as anorexia, bulimia or substance dependence and one condition may lead to the other.

Anxiety disorders are not purely psychological in origin. Medical conditions, like thyroid problems, or anemia can cause long-term anxiety in sufferers. Physiology plays an important role, as does heredity. Changes in brain neurotransmitters, which are responsible for secreting hormones, which regulate anxiety, can also cause chronic long term anxiety disorders.

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Preventing Acute Anxiety from Becoming Chronic

For the majority of the population, anxiety, stress, fear and worry need do not cause illness, since strong feelings subside after the stressful situation has passed. Butterflies tend to abate once a speech has commenced before a large audience; fear immediately recedes when a mother learns that her son is unhurt and safe after a violent earthquake; and agitation passes after completing a two hour exam. Anxiety creates the necessary emotional and physical conditions for an individual to perform at his or her very best, under trying and sometimes very stressful circumstances.

Uncontrolled Anxiety

But in some cases anxiety levels do not recede; rather, they increase and remain constant, even when the stressful situation is absent. Anxiety becomes overwhelming and the affected individual will go to any length to avoid situations, objects and individuals that induce the feeling of panic. The mind and body begin to associate particular activities, objects and situations with overwhelming panic and emotions, individuals become conditioned to behave in ways that avoid confrontation with the disabling and anticipated anxiety, and are constantly living in a heightened state of tension.

In anxiety disorder sufferers the brain cortex takes only a few seconds to perceive a situation and initiate the body’s panic response, it then overuses the response, even with no apparent cause.

Anxiety begins to develop into a mental illness when it becomes excessive, frequent and intense without any real cause and refuses to subside but rather becomes less localized and more general. Fears that are completely irrational plague the sufferer and he or she will have problems concentrating and performing every day activities.

Controlling Anxiety

Taking proactive steps to reduce general anxiety can be extremely helpful in coping with stressful circumstances and preventing intense anxiety from degenerating into a full-blown anxiety disorder. In many cases, following an at-home, self-treatment therapy course such as Panic Away can even cure or greatly diminish anxiety disorders without the need for formal treatment. Some suggestions for self treatment include:

*Learn relaxation techniques. Breathing techniques and relieving everyday stress through relaxing methods and using fluid poses in yoga, tai chi, or meditation dissolves tension and reduces the accumulation of anxiety. Numerous scientific studies, beginning in the 1970’s, have reported that yoga improves mood, beats depression and reduces anxiety, making it an effective treatment for controlling mood and mental disorders, and making the nervous system less reactive. Indulging in regular aromatherapy, music therapy and massage can also have a relaxing effect on the body.

*Get regular sleep, eat balanced meals, and engage in aerobic exercise. Adequate sleep and proper rest is essential to reducing irritability and regular exercise boosts the body’s natural endorphin levels, which are known to release tension. Anxiety is also linked to nutritional deficiencies in many studies, illustrating the importance of supplementing the diet with high quality, premium nutritional supplements.

*Focus upon positive thoughts and create a tension releasing ritual. Positive thinking may become difficult as the mind continually fills itself with negative thoughts. Encouraging the mind with happier thoughts can enable sufferers to be better prepared to deal with anxious thoughts and fears.

*Develop a social network. Creating bonds and cultivating relationships can create outlets for sadness and tension and discourage social isolation. Developing a social network with understanding and caring people can make it much easier to cope with anxiety symptoms.

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The CBT Self-Help Solution for Panic Attack Sufferers

While panic attacks alone are not dangerous, living under the constant fear and threat of an impending attack is socially and emotionally incapacitating. Fortunately, panic attacks can be controlled, lessened and even eliminated altogether, by taking control of the underlying anxiety fuelling the panic attacks through self, group or individual therapy.

Many sufferers often combine therapeutic options with drug therapy. Anti-anxiety and anti-depressant drugs can be used to successfully eliminate panic attack symptoms altogether, however due to drug dependence risks and ineffectiveness after drug therapy cessation, the lifelong use of anti-anxiety or anti-depressant drugs is undesirable to control attacks.

What is desirable, however, is controlling anxiety and eliminating the underlying fears which prompt attacks through private and group coaching and CBT, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. For those interested in pursuing self-therapy, a large number of self-treatment CDs and private workshops are based upon conquering panic using CBT-like techniques.

CBT

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a patient-centered series of sessions which teaches sufferers to manage panic attacks in various stages, culminating with practicing stress coping techniques in low anxiety situations, to desensitize the patient to the potential panic trigger. In many cases, the brain is “conditioned” to elicit a particular panic response to various stressors, so Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a process of “de-conditioning” these automatic reactions and reconditioning the body and mind to behave and think differently to no longer recognize ordinary situations as inherent dangers or threats.

The process concentrates on handling, coping with, mastering and then eventually completely overcoming panic attacks. Modified versions of CBT are offered through many online courses, clinics, and self help treatment programs with high success rates.

CBT concentrates upon eliminating the behaviors and thoughts associated with stimulating panic attacks, and replacing them with positive thinking practices and behaviors to help sufferers cope in various stages.

Stages of Coping

In the first stage, patients learn about panic itself. Education and awareness about what causes panic is the first step to self-mastery over the problem. Anxiety is accepted as a natural and normal response; panic however is regarded as an excessive and inappropriate response in ordinary circumstances. Not only does the patient learn why panic attacks happen, the patient also learns that the core assumptions believed by panic attack sufferers – for example, that the sufferer will die, or that the sufferer is having a nervous breakdown – are untrue as well.

Behavioral patterns are also changed as well, with step two teaching sufferers effective breathing techniques that induce relaxation and create calmness. Shallow, rapid breathing encourages hypertension which only stimulates panic attack symptoms. Deep, even, abdominal based breathing not only creates a physiological feeling of calmness and relaxation, but also gives patients a psychological feeling of self control. This is combined with the stage three instruction on how to handle and distract panic thoughts and turn them into positive reinforcing thoughts.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy then concludes with the ultimate challenge: practicing anxiety-coping skills in controlled low-anxiety situations. Patients will soon realize that the thoughts, beliefs and fears underlying the panic attacks are excessive, eccentric and unnecessary. The sufferer will then gradually elevate to medium anxiety situations, then high anxiety situations, until finally panic attacks diminish in frequency and severity and eventually disappear.

UltraFitnessDynamics Review: Panic Away Program by Barry Joey McDonagh