Frequent Panic Attacks
Posted by Healthy Life on Feb.13, 2009, under Health and Fitness
Panic attacks are one of the most frequently experienced disorders in the world. It is estimated that 4 or 5 out of a hundred people are severely affected by it, in one way or another. Because of panic attacks, a casual mood can turn into an eye-popping, jittery, can?t sit-still-on-the-chair mood, like what a husband feels when he?s eagerly waiting for his wife to give birth to their child.
A ?little? anxiety is not a bad thing. It helps protect you from harm or potential danger, real or imagined, like other emotions. Let me explain.
Human beings are the most fascinating and intriguing creatures on earth. The biggest reason why we dominate the animal kingdom is because of the way the human brain functions. One of the most distinctive features of the human being is the ability to have feelings. Although we do not necessarily conclude that animals do not have feelings, as evidenced through research on the way they react to certain situations, human feelings have the depth and significance that go far beyond what animals can attain.
For feelings that deliver us good, we expound ways to improve it further. For feelings that deliver us harm and pain, we also try to minimize it or get away from it as much as we can. Anxiety is no exception. There is no need to totally eradicate harmful feelings because at least some of them are not 100% harmful. In small ways they also do us good. The idea is to control and not be controlled. Let us take fear as an example
Fear, as you know, is one of the most infamous feelings we have as human beings. It is one of the biggest (if not the biggest) deterrents to our success. Yet in spite of the negative perception we may have about fear, it also has its little good side. Fear prevents us from getting hurt, both physically and emotionally. The ?little? fear inherent within us is actually good for us. We need that ?little? amount of fear. It prevents us from getting too aggressive.
The same is true with panic. A ?little? panic can serve as a form of defense. But being engulfed with excessive panic may hinder you from performing your normal activities and may deter you to take action especially on not-so-common activities.
However, if you have only one option to facing a panic attack, like it or not you have to find the right approach to contain such attack and suppress this discomforting feeling.
Panic attacks are actually a product of the mind, an imagination of a perceived threat or danger that can be controlled. In reality, such danger does not exist. Even the worst scenario that you can perceive under these circumstances are not life threatening.
Life is too short to be preoccupied with anxieties that hinder your growth. So learn to live with, its not so bad after all.
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Jason Rickard is the owner of Your Favourite Shop – Offering White Noise and Relaxation CDs – Visit Hapa Health for more articles. |
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By N2H
February 13th, 2009 on 9:56 pm
Prevalence And Comorbidity
The high prevalence of concurrent psychiatric disorders is the most damaging criticism of the diagnosis of generalised anxiety disorder (and many other anxiety disorders). Epidemiological studies in Europe suggest that the illness has a lifetime prevalence of 4·3–5·9% and a probable 12-month prevalence of 1·2–1·9%. Comorbidity with major depression is present in three out of five cases and a similar proportion have other anxiety disorders. 42 Only two out of five patients seek treatment for their disorders 43 and for these patients the rates of full or partial remission in the long term (5 years or more) are fairly disappointing at 38–41%. Comorbidity with personality disorder is a major handicap to recovery. 44,45 Comorbid diagnosis is associated with greater social and occupational impairment than generalised anxiety disorder alone and also confers a worse prognosis. 45,46 Attempts have been made to regard primary generalised anxiety disorder (ie, when generalised anxiety disorder is the initial illness that the patient has diagnosed) 47,48 as fundamentally different from the secondary equivalent; comorbidity during follow-up is increased for secondary generalised anxiety disorder. 49 The association of anxiety with depressive symptoms is the most difficult aspect for the clinician in forming a diagnosis. This combined disorder, which has been called “cothymia”, 50 is given separate status in ICD-10 as “mixed anxiety and depressive disorder”, but only when “neither type of symptom is present to the extent that justifies a diagnosis if considered separately”. 11 However, even using this restricted definition, mixed anxiety and depressive disorder is by far the most common mental disorder in epidemiological surveys and raises the 1-week prevalence of neurotic disorder to one in eight in men and one in five in women. 51
The personality trait neuroticism, or negative affectivity, characterises the link between anxiety and depression. 52 Neuroticism seems to develop early in life and has led to the suggestion that the highly comorbid anxiety and depressive disorders, together with a dependent, avoidant, or obsessional personality, are part of a general neurotic syndrome 8,53,54 and should be separated from single disorders that are often self-limiting and have a reasonable outcome. However, even after comorbidity is taken into account, a core generalised anxiety disorder associated with substantial social dysfunction still exists. 42,55,56 Generalised anxiety disorder is now accepted as an illness that results in substantial morbidity and leads to poor quality of life. 57,58
Outcome
Generalised anxiety disorder is typically regarded as a chronic illness. Most patients are still highly affected 6–12 years after diagnosis, 44–45 and in one study, personality disorders showed less stability and greater improvement over 2 years than all anxiety disorders. 59 Most of these studies were done in affluent countries with wide access to treatment and even here, long-term morbidity remains high. One of the problems in assessment of outcome is determination of the role of concurrent disorders such as hypochondriasis, 60 social anxiety disorder, 61 or avoidant personality disorder. 62 Avoidant personality disorder itself is very difficult to distinguish from generalised social phobia, 63 and so the negative outcome could be as much a consequence of generalised anxiety disorder acting as a precursor of these other disorders as from the original anxiety disorder.
There are no specific associations between anxiety and other physical disorders–the association with thyrotoxicosis is often cited but the anxiety in this disorder is often recognised as qualitatively different from other spontaneous anxieties. Mortality is raised in patients with generalised anxiety disorder, 64 but not specifically from suicide. 65 The cost of care for generalised anxiety disorder is high because of its chronic nature, although the cost (mainly of consultations with non-psychiatric clinicians) is less than that of panic disorder or post-traumatic stress disorder. 66 The cost of treatment for anxiety with comorbid depression or general neurotic syndrome is nearly twice that of a single diagnosis of generalised anxiety disorder. 67
February 13th, 2009 on 9:58 pm
Anxiety disorders are astonishingly common. They include Panic, Phobias (including Agoraphobia and Social Phobia), Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and Generalised Anxiety Disorder. For many people self-help is a viable way forward and this is why we wrote our book Free Yourself from Anxiety. We aim to show you, step-by-step, how to set up and follow an individually tailored self-help programme.
Part one looks at lifestyle, because very often the way you live is contributing to Anxiety. By making simple changes you can get yourself fit and ready to tackle your Anxiety driven behaviours.
Part two shows you how to challenge your Anxiety in a safe controlled way, by setting small goals that take you gradually towards letting go of anxious behaviours.
Part three shows you how to recognise your anxious thinking, challenge it, and ultimately change it.
Part four explains how to delve into some of the deeper issues that may be driving Anxiety. We also suggest where it might be appropriate for you to seek professional help.
Our aim in this book is to be as comprehensive as possible. Each reader will be able to decide which aspects of the recovery programme they need to complete and which are not relevant to them. In addition we have only discussed proven safe techniques.
Throughout the book we have used the words of Anxiety sufferers who are in various stages of recovery to illustrate our points
The authors
Emma Fletcher is a UK-registered counsellor with 20 years experience of helping anxiety sufferers and of training counsellors and volunteers on anxiety help-lines. She remains firmly committed to the self-help principle and believes that much of her work consists of giving her clients the tools to enable them to live more effectively. This book is an attempt to bring those tools to a wider audience.
Martha Langley is a professional writer and journalist. She has more than 10 years experience as a volunteer on helplines for people dealing with Anxiety and has also been a one-to-one mentor and recovery group leader. This has given her an insight into the difficulties faced by people trying to put self-help techniques into practice. Her aim in Free Yourself from Anxiety was to explain these techniques, to explain the reasoning behind them, and to make practical suggestions that will give every reader the best chance of recovery.
Free Yourself From Anxiety ISBN 978-1- 84528-311-7 is available from bookshops, book websites and Amazon.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Free-Yourself-Anxiety-Self-help-Overcoming/dp/1845283112/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233135806&sr=1-1