Wouldn't it be great to be able to reduce the level of panic you experience in your life? To minimize the number of panic attacks that curl up the pit of your stomach? Wouldn't it also be great to realise you are not alone and that there is assistance available for those who suffer from panic attacks, a panic disorder, or even worse, agoraphobia? For the myriads of people who do suffer from panic attacks, panic disorders and quite typically, the subsequent agoraphobia(defined by Merriam-Webster Online as "the fear of being helpless in an inescapable situation that is characterized by the avoidance of open or public places") that often accompanies them, there is relief available that can help you reclaim your life, move forward and live your life with no more panic.
In order to get to this stage and experience no more panic, there are steps you need to take first that will ensure your success at overcoming the anxiety that often accompanies a diagnosis of panic disorders. Firstly, you will need to understand what anxiety and panic attacks are, the situations that cause them to manifest in your life and why, and the steps you need to take in order to help lessen their effect or even better, to quell them completely.
So, Step 1, let us examine what anxiety is and how overcoming anxiety can help you on your path to experiencing your life with no more panic. Considering that anxiety is often the underlying cause of your panic attacks or panic disorder -- you are considered to have a panic disorder if you have more than four panic attacks in any given month, or you spend a consecutive month being afraid as a result of an earlier panic attack -- this is the area of concentration you will want to focus on when seeking treatment. Simply, anxiety is your mind being overly stimulated in the fear department by any number of particular situations that may make you feel edgy. By being afraid of something, you are giving the power to control your life over to someone or something else. While you probably know this fear is irrational, the anxiety it produces quite typically renders a person helpless to avoid it. It is then that anxiety, the associated fear and the characteristic panic attacks it causes begin their cyclical existence in your psyche. It is for that reason -- the cycle of fear and anxiety -- that understanding and being able to pinpoint the situations that cause this fear, and thus your anxiety, are going to be key in helping you to overcome anxiety. Many people are unsure of what situations set off their panic attack.
So, Step 2, begin to write in a daily journal all the details you can remember about your day. This will help to reveal what places, situations and people you may be consciously or subconsciously avoiding in an attempt to subvert the onset of a full blown panic attack. In order for you to live your life with no more panic, this is going to be a crucial piece of the puzzle to solve. It may be as distinct as being afraid to drive a car because of an entrenched fear of being caught in traffic or being in an accident, or it may go much deeper and reveal fears you did not even know you had, for example, let us say every time you pass a grave yard you experience a panic attack yet you are unsure as to the reason why. Now that you have written notes that can help you determine something like this to be the case, you can work on any fear that you might have that could be associated with a grave yard such as death or severe illness, or maybe just a deep-seated fear of being abandoned and the grave yard representing such an action. Once the cause of your fear has been singled out, you are ready to take the next steps necessary to eliminate the fear and anxiety from your life and live with no more panic.
