Many of the results of untreated anxiety and panic attacks cannot only be devastating psychologically; they can be life threatening as well. A person who continually experiences the physical symptoms of anxiety, such as heart palpitations, stomach and digestive ailments or insomnia, can become physically ill as a result. The anxiety sufferer may become homebound out of fear of having a panic attack in front of peers at a job or in public. The person may decide to avoid the things that cause anxiety, such as driving or performing routine life activities like grocery shopping or spending time with friends and family. Worse yet, the anxiety sufferer may stop getting regular medical care for existing health issues they may have out of fear of being labeled as unstable.

Physical Concerns

In addition, anxiety can cause other health problems to become worrisome or increase in occurrence. In fact, the health problems may be at the root of their worrisome tendency – it’s a vicious cycle that has no end. For example, a person who is anxious about their stomach pains may go on to develop ulcers, which are life threatening. The more they worry about dying from their stomach pain, the worse their physical condition becomes. Or the person may become so depressed from not wanting to leave the house may be so worried that they develop social phobias and then even suicidal tendencies.

Anxiety left untreated over time can cause high blood pressure, which can lead to premature heart failure. Anxiety can cause hormonal imbalances in both men and women, which is detrimental to health and well-being. This hormonal imbalance can contribute to thyroid function issues, diabetes, immune deficiencies, and other illnesses that can cause serious consequences. More often than not, people become anxious due to a seemingly small issue, but because they worry so much and can’t control the anxiety, the build-up of endorphins causes their body to work overtime. This causes strain on the body as a whole.

Left untreated, anxiety is also a leading cause of obesity. People often eat out of emotional needs and stress. Being tense as a result of having anxiety is one reason that people may overeat and don’t get enough exercise. Then the heavier that a person gets, the harder it is to leave the house to exercise, and the worse the anxiety symptoms become. The irony is that exercise has been shown to improve the symptoms of anxiety, and so it’s actually beneficial for a person who has anxiety to exercise on a regular basis. Yet, without proper care from a health care professional, many fail to realize they need this regular exercise in order to combat their anxiety.

There are ways that the effects of anxiety can be reduced and in many cases eliminated. Living a healthy lifestyle that includes regular medical care, whole foods that are high in vitamins and nutrients, supplementing with natural products, and a good balance of exercise and rest is the best treatment for anyone experiencing anxiety.

Why Do Panic Attacks Happen?

Though panic attacks generally appear to take place at random, they are actually a part of a natural human response commonly known as “fight or flight” that just happen to take place out of turn. Fight or flight reflexes inundate the body with hormones (including adrenaline) that are intended to help it protect itself from danger. It has been said that suffering a panic attack is one of the scariest, most distressing and uncomfortable experiences a human being can endure.

You can stop panic attacks naturally without medication.

What are the Signs of an Attack?

Below is a list of the most common panic attack symptoms. Diagnostic criteria for a true attack state that at least four of the below symptoms must be experienced, that the symptoms must have been developed abruptly, and that they must have reached a peak within 10 minutes of their onset.

• Increased heart rate, intense pounding of the heart or palpitations
• Profuse perspiration
• Trembling or shaking of the body including limbs, digits, shoulders or lips
• Shortness of breath or the sensation of being smothered
• Sensation of choking
• Discomfort or pain in the chest area
• Abdominal stress, pain or nausea
• Feelings of dizziness, wobbliness, lightheadedness or weakness
• Feeling of loss of touch with reality or loss of touch with self (depersonalization)
• Feelings of loss of control or fear of going insane
• Intense fear of dying or feeling that you are dying
• Numbness or tingling throughout the body
• Waves of intense cold (chills) or heat (hot flashes)
• Intense feelings of terror or dread

How Long Does an Episode Last?

The American Psychological Association states that the symptoms of a panic attack typically last for about half an hour. It is not uncommon, however, for panic attacks to be as short as 15 minutes in duration. On the other hand, some people suffer from series of panic attacks that can go on to add up to hours at a time.

Stop panic attacks naturally without medication.

Have You Had Panic Attacks?

After reading about panic attacks, including information about symptoms and duration, you should have a pretty good idea if what you have experienced is a true panic attack. Review the list of symptoms again, and ask yourself: did what you experience include at least four of the listed signs of anxiety attacks? Also, does your episode fall within the range of duration that is deemed common for true panic attacks?

Even though you’re getting a good start on knowing what’s going on in your body by reading this, you should speak with a medical professional if you think you may be experiencing these attacks. Your doctor knows you best and will be able to properly diagnose what you are experiencing if it is indeed an anxiety attack. Your physician will also be able to recommend a course of treatment for you as well as suggest ways to prevent these episodes in the future.

If you’d prefer NOT to take prescription medication for panic attacks and/or anxiety, there are alternative and natural options. You can stop panic attacks naturally without prescription medication.

There are a number of alternative medicines that have been used to help stop anxiety attacks, some of which have met with great success. Yoga meditation and self hypnosis also help to bring anxiety attacks under control, and when mastered can help prevent them altogether.

Alternative medicines and anxiety attacks

Peppermint tea is a wonderful way of calming the body. The aroma, taste and reaction that it causes in the body helps to relax muscles and distract the mind. It can also produce a feeling of wellbeing.

Herbal treatments are extremely popular for treating panic attacks, and can produce some very effective results. Herbs such as St Johns Wart, Passion Flower and even Lavender produce reactions that can help ease the likelihood and symptoms of a panic attack.

Aromatherapy has been a wonderful tool in reducing stress and also helps with the reduction in panic attacks. Smells trigger certain responses in the brain, and this includes opening pleasure centers and reducing stress – two vital keys when looking to avoid and control anxiety attacks.

Just like modern medicine, alternative medicine is not for everyone and it could be that such methods aren’t best suited to a certain type of panic attack. But by experimenting with treatments you should be able to find what works best for you, and slowly look to eliminate such attacks from your life.

Whilst there are many reasons for panic attacks, from different triggers to various diagnosis of conditions, there is a fairly common way of helping to calm yourself when you are experiencing a panic attack, a way that is common because it does work.

By making sure you run through the procedure below you can help yourself ease through the reaction that a panic attack can bring, enabling you to calm down.  This is not a medical treatment, and doctors should be consulted if panic attacks become a major issue.

How to help yourself calm down

Firstly relax all your body.  It sounds tough but try to physically relax the muscles, noting areas that are especially tense.  Try to keep your mind focused on relaxing them one at a time.

Once you have done so, and are almost consciously aware of all your muscles, start to tense each muscle group in turn – slowly, with pauses in between.  Don’t worry about how to group the muscles, just keep it general such as ‘left arm’ or ’stomach’.

Keep your breathing slow and methodical as you do so, deep and slow breaths in and out.

By forcing the mind to focus on the body it helps to remove the trigger that set the panic attack in the first place, allowing you, or the person who is experiencing the panic attack, to calm down more easily and quickly than they would otherwise be able to. With practice, or perseverance, you can stop panic attacks naturally.

For more information on how you can stop panic attacks naturally, click here.

Stress is easily one of the most common causes of panic attacks, and even in those that it doesn’t cause the panic attack in, stress can make the reactions to such attacks far worse than it would otherwise be. So it is important to try reduce the amount of stress that you subject yourself to.

To help stop panic attacks you should follow these tips

* Exercise. Exercise works in a number of ways. Firstly fit and healthy people are far less prone to stress of panic attacks (which is not to say they are immune to them). But also exercise helps work stress out of the body in a physical manner, and produces serotonin, the feel good chemical, which helps combat stress.
* Yoga. Again a great way of producing serotonin, yoga also helps the body relax and teaches you to be able to focus on muscle groups and breathing in a way that becomes almost 2nd nature, really helping get you through a panic attack.
* Massage. Another great way of relaxing muscles and almost pushing your stress out.

So by focusing on methods of helping you combat stress you can both reduce the likelihood and the severity of a panic attack.

For more information on how to stop panic attacks naturally, click here.

Anxiety Attack

Anxiety attacks, or panic attacks, are episodes of intense panic or fear, which occur for no apparent reason. Anxiety attacks can occur suddenly and without warning – when this happens the sufferer generally experiences a feeling that their life is about to end. Sometimes, there is an obvious circumstance that causes the attack, like having to drive in heavy traffic or getting stuck in an elevator, but often times there is an unknown “trigger” that causes it.

An anxiety attack generally lasts for a few minutes, but can go on for as long as thirty minutes for some people, depending on how severe it is and how they cope with it. Many anxiety sufferers can feel one coming on, with a strange sense of nervousness just before one occurs. During an anxiety attack, a person feels such an intense fear that they often feel as if they will die of a heart attack or from not breathing. Many feel terrified that they will lose control in front of other people – worst yet endanger others if they are at work or driving a car. The physical symptoms of an anxiety attack seem so severe that the person experiencing it loses touch with reality and focuses on their heart pounding in their chest, their rapid breathing and their sudden urge to vomit or faint. The anxiety attack will most often peak at ten minutes into the state of panic and it can be especially frightening to be in public, where there is no safety or place to escape, when it occurs.

So what does an anxiety attack feel like? Here are the most common symptoms associated with a full-on anxiety attack:

• Heart palpitations or chest pain / tightness
• Trouble breathing or hyperventilation
• Sweating excessively
• Trembling or shaking uncontrollably
• Feeling that you will pass out or fall
• Hot flashes or chills
• Feelings of being detached or surreal
• Nausea, “butterflies” or stomach cramps
• Feeling that you are losing control or going mad

This only begins to explain the sheer terror that someone feels when he or she experiences an anxiety attack. The worst feeling for most adults is being in a place where there is no room to escape to a safety zone when experiencing an anxiety attack. This can happen in public places, elevators, cars, the office, stores or anywhere else so the anxiety sufferer often avoids these places at all costs – causing them a significant loss of normal lifestyle.

It’s no wonder that depression is most often associated with anxiety attacks. This often follows when the anxiety sufferer avoids normal life and stays home for days at a time, not coming into contact with others or enjoying social interactions for fear of having another “fit” in front of their peers, or worse yet, strangers.

Another problem associated with anxiety sufferers are those who attempt to self-medicate themselves. This can cause symptoms to become even worse and so this type of behavior should be avoided at all costs. Instead, anxiety sufferers may want to consider using natural alternatives like aromatherapy or herbal supplements to help keep the nerves calm and reduce the chances of having another attack. Or they can seek counseling from a psycho-therapist who has experience with anxiety attacks and methods to treat them.

If you are reading this, chances are either you or someone you care about experiences anxiety attacks. It’s important to note that you can stop panic anxiety attacks for good.

Causes of Panic Attacks and Anxiety Disorders

There is a wide range of treatment plans for these maladies; however, doctors and their patients fail to analyze the root causes of anxiety disorders and panic attacks.

Panic attacks can come suddenly, while others have a definite, known cause. However, every disorder has some factor responsible for it.

Here are some common factors that cause panic attacks and anxiety disorders.

1. Genetic

Studies have revealed the fact that people can inherit their panic attacks or anxiety disorders from their maternal or paternal ancestors. The disorder can be passed on from the paternal or the maternal side of the family.

Twins are more susceptible to panic attacks; if one twin gets it, the other develops a panic attack too.

Many times, a petty domestic issue or a problem can trigger a panic attack, and genes have nothing to do it although family has.

2. Passive Nature

If you make a character study of those who suffer from panic attacks, you will be surprised to observe that passive people who hardly assert themselves suffer from anxiety disorders or panic attacks. Inability to assert oneself can be an inborn trait or could be developed owing to certain unfortunate circumstances.

3. Vitamin Deficiencies

You might feel surprised to learn that vitamin deficiencies can trigger panic attacks. However, a person who lacks vitamin B is prone to anxiety disorders or panic attacks. Vitamin B deficiency also manifests as disturbances in the inner ear, hyperthyroidism, hypoglycemia, and so on. In such a case, intake of vitamin B can solve your problems of anxiety disorder or panic attack.

Cure vitamin deficiency problems, and you will automatically cure anxiety disorders and panic attacks.

4. Phobias

Irrational fears or phobias about certain things, people, or circumstances can lead to a panic attack or anxiety disorder. People might be terrified of water, elevators, fires, heights, and so on. People who never had a phobia in their life might feel that phobias are absurd. However to people suffering from them, phobias are real. These people usually end up suffering from anxiety disorders or panic attacks as well.

5. Drugs

Some drugs can actually cause panic attacks and anxiety disorders. These drugs could be either prescribed or unprescribed. Some drugs comprise chemicals that do not agree with certain individuals. Intake of such drugs will cause irritability and restlessness, two common signs of a panic attack.

The medical world offers zillions of treatment plans for the effective management of anxiety disorders and panic attacks. Therapy offers a long-term solution to these medical problems. If you find it difficult to control a panic attack, do not hesitate to seek professional help. Do some research and find out what alternative health options may be available to you as well.

Deal with your root causes of anxiety naturally. You CAN break free from your anxiety panic attacks without medication. To learn more, click here.

Anxiety

More than forty million North American adults suffer from some type of anxiety or panic, and for many, it has a very real cost to their lifestyle.

If you find yourself arguing with your partner more frequently than normal; catch yourself side-stepping social events; or perhaps even fostering unrealistic feelings of fear or apprehension there’s a good chance you are experiencing some type of anxiety disorder.

Undoubtedly, you’ve heard the term “panic attack”.  The reality is that panic attacks are real, but they are just one of many types of anxiety disorders. One myth surrounding anxiety is that having an anxiety disorder somehow makes you a bad or weak person. Everyone has had feelings of anxiousness or fear at some time or another. How a person deals with those feelings is what determines if it is ruling your life or not. For a growing percentage of society, the impact of anxiety is very real, and that only reflects cases that are reported. What is really alarming is that many adolescents and children are also affected by stress and anxiety attacks.

The body’s basic response to stress is significant in how a person protects themselves from perceived treats. It measures a person’s chances for survival when faced with danger or a potentially dangerous situation. A person can either face the stress and fight back, or retreat and take flight.

The fight or flight syndrome is a person’s reaction to stressful circumstances, even in the ordinary course of life. Such reactions or choices are inherent in your modern fight for survival. Your fight or flight reaction is stimulated the moment you are faced with a potentially dangerous situation. The smell of danger keeps the adrenaline rushing through your veins, and gets your heart beating faster. This is what makes you feel faint or weak. The strange thing is that it is your body’s way of preparing you for fight or flight! Just try running when you feel like this. You might be surprised at how fast you can run! At the fight or flight stage, you have a choice to make; you can either become aggressive and face the danger, or be passive and retreat.

Allowing yourself to become exposed to fight or flight situations regularly can be stressful and dangerous to your health. It can backlash and lead to heart ailments, migraines and soaring blood pressure, and for many it leads to social withdrawal.

However it doesn’t have to rule your life. If you or a loved one experience continuous bouts of fear, concern, or apprehension of some unknown event, now is the time to examine your lifestyle. Manage and eliminate your anxiety today.

What causes panic attacks? Panic attacks usually have psychological and physical issues at their root. Most of the time, women get more panic attacks than men. Here are some common triggers.

·    Memories of an unpleasant past

·    Traumatic incidents of childhood

·    Sensitivities and allergies to certain drinks and foods

·    Alcohol and drug abuse

·    Upsetting experiences

·    An innocent everyday event

What happens to people who suffer from panic attacks? They find that panic attacks usually result in what is commonly called “situational avoidance.” People who have suffered panic attacks have a tendency to avoid people, places, and situations that have triggered a panic attack previously. Some people even stop going out. This is the most damaging thing panic attacks can ever do. A person who reaches this stage loses all chances of living life normally.

So, how can you avoid panic attacks? You can easily tackle panic attacks by natural ways. Here are some quick tips for you.

·    Avoid soda, chocolates, caffeine, and tea.

·    Learn to breathe deeply. The best way to nip a panic attack in the bud is to breathe slowly and deeply whenever you feel one coming on. This simple technique prevents hyperventilation and this, in turn, prevents light-headedness and dizziness…two sure signs of a brain that contains too much oxygen.

·    Plenty of exercise is a great way to fight panic attacks. Panic attacks are usually associated with a wild rush of adrenaline, and physical exercise curbs this tendency. Some people feel that physical activities cause panic attacks. If you are one of these, you had better avoid exercise regimes for the time being and stick to something that works for you.

·    Try aromatherapy. Sweet smells have a way of calming the most nervous people. You can use scented candles in your bedroom. Alternatively, you can use essential oils. Find out what smells take you back to a pleasant time in your past. Some examples are the smells of certain flowers, baby powder, painted walls, and so on.

·    Meditation can drive the worst panic attacks away. Meditate to the accompaniment of soft, soothing music. Simultaneously, learn positive thinking. It helps curb a panic attack.

·    Try relaxation techniques such as counting backward from hundred to one. There are zillions of relaxation techniques out there, and what works for you need not necessary work for another. You have to research them and select one that suits you best.

The above-mentioned methods should help you deal with panic attacks. A lot depends on how hard you work at dealing with your panic attacks. You must discover the root causes of your problem. This understanding will help you deal with panic disorders and start living a normal life again.

To learn more about what you can do to help alleviate your panic attacks, click here.

What are anxiety panic attack symptoms? Intense feelings of terror and panic. The person feels that they are losing control and will experience all the symptoms of being incredibly frightened. These include increased heart rate, sweating and shaking etc. These attacks can come suddenly and without warning. They can last for about 5-30 minutes, but the actual symptoms can last quite a bit longer.

Causes of anxiety attacks:

Treatment: It is very important to treat anxiety attacks early or they will become habitual and may develop into something worse if neglected. They will not just go away. Managing and treating anxiety can involve a number of viable alternatives that you can use either instead of, or in conjunction with medicine.

Yoga is a good alternative medicine and can be used to reduce stress and regain control over you. Mediation, breathing exercises and physical positions help you to relax and release tension. Yoga’s calm yet disciplined approach to life can cut down panic attacks and allow you to improve the quality of your mental and physical health.

Eating better and exercising will help you to keep your body on a more even keel and will relieve stress. This can often help with panic or anxiety attacks. Excess of junk food can cause mood swings, which can aggravate your condition.

Sometimes you cannot find a cause for these panic attacks and it is often this that makes many sufferers so upset. If you are having anxiety attacks on a regular basis, correct diagnosis and options for treatment should be discussed with a doctor, but for many people understanding anxiety and exploring alternative treatments can minimize the impact of panic attacks. Do not feel that you will just have to live with these attacks and the suffering that comes with it. Knowledge is power. Explore options for treatment as early as possible and get your life back in control again.

If you suffer from panic attacks and anxiety and want relief… if you’re tired of trying pills, potions, and therapy… If you’d like to eliminate anxiety once and for all, as safely, naturally, and as effectively as possible… then it’s time to take control of your fears.

Visit Panic Away