ANXIETY (PANIC) ATTACKS

Panic attacks are brief periods of acute anxiety often giving the sufferer an intense fear of dying or losing the ability to reason. At first the attack occurs unpredictably, but tend to become linked with certain places such as a small lift or crowded shops. Some of the symptoms are:­

• A sense of breathing difficulty
• Chest pains
• Dizzy
• Feeling faint
• Feeling light headed
• Palpitations
• Sweating
• Trembling

These symptoms are often accompanied and therefore worsened by a fast, shallow breathing (hyperventilation) leading to pins and needles and a feeling of depersonalisation (a state of feeling unreal, in which there is a sense of detachment from self and surroundings) and often derealisation (a feeling that the world has become unreal. Sufferers often describe the feeling as looking at the world through a glass screen). Panic attacks are frightening and very unpleasant, but they normally only last for a few minutes and cause no physical harm. They are also very rarely associated with physical illness. Breathing slowly and deliberately into a paper bag covering the nose and mouth may relieve the hyperventilation...(more)

Beneficial Treatments...(more)