Today, there are a huge number of techniques, hundreds of articles and books have been written on getting rid of anxiety disorders, but patients continue to go to all possible doctors, undergo many examinations and look for non-existent symptoms of a deadly disease. Fear thereby increases even more, and it becomes more and more difficult to convince a person of the groundlessness of his fears. Ideally, such a person should be immediately referred to a psychotherapist or neurologist, but unfortunately, few therapists are sufficiently knowledgeable in this matter, and continue to conduct examinations and seek answers to countless patient complaints.
Essence of disease
The diagnosis of panic disorder is usually made in conjunction with "vegetovascular dystonia", "vegetative crises" or "symptomatic adrenaline crises". Basically, panic attacks are a symptom of one of these diseases, but they are treated on their own, vegetovascular dystonia is alsoMost cases are diagnosed by a psychotherapist or a neurologist. The disease can occur both on its own and immediately turn into a panic disorder. Disease symptoms:
- Anxiety, anxiety, restlessness.
- High blood pressure.
- Chest pain, palpitations, tachycardia.
- Feeling of suffocation, feeling of a lump in the chest.
- Dizziness, lightheadedness, severe weakness.
- Change in body temperature, chills, fever, sweating, "cold sweat".
- Abdominal pain, upset stool, nausea.
- Severe tremor.
- Unpleasant sensations in different parts of the body, tingling, numbness, feeling of cottony legs or hands.
Danger of disease
Fear. This is perhaps the most important symptom that necessarily accompanies any panic state. At the same time, a person to some extent loses a sense of reality and adequacy, at such moments a real animal instinct works for many, they can either be dumbfounded and afraid to even move, or fuss and try to escape, and everything is to blame for a strong fear of dying or going crazy. In the future, the patient on a subconscious level develops a fear not only of the experienced symptoms, but also of the place in which they manifested themselves. This is how all kinds of phobias appear, fear of closed space (it is impossible to get out of there, in case of an attack), fear of heights (where you can lose consciousness and fall), fear of the crowd or open space (a sense of shame if an attack occurs onpeople). This is the main danger of the disease, a person, experiencing another panic attack, acquires more and more phobias, becomes isolated, feels more and more sick and helpless. At the same time, doctors shrug their shoulders, not finding any physical diseases in him, and the person, feeling worse and worse, is convinced that he has a rare, incurable and undiagnosed disease. Only with a competent approach of the therapist, the ability to calm and explain to the patient that nothing mortally dangerous has happened to him, and also to reason with him to turn to a psychotherapist, the healing process is possible. In a rather neglected state, it may be necessary to determine the patient for some time in the regional psychoneurological dispensary, but in general, drug treatment is sufficient, most often these are antidepressants in combination with tranquilizers, and one of the methods of therapy.
What's Really Happening
In fact, a panic attack is an uncontrollable emotion that occurs not when the body needs to respond to a real danger, but in situations that are completely unusual for this. Most often, a person sets himself up for the development of an attack, as a result of which panic disorders develop. The physical symptoms of this condition are a normal response to the release of adrenaline.
The fact is that fear is the strongest instinct of self-preservation, therefore, at the moment of danger, absolutely all living beings receive a brain signal: "Fight or flight." On theobtaining the necessary strength to fight or run into the blood and a huge amount of adrenaline is released. The heartbeat and breathing become more frequent, blood pressure rises, and the imaginary numbness of the limbs, wadded legs - in fact, overstrain of the muscles that prepared for a quick run from a frightening situation.
Why does this happen
So, we figured out that uncontrolled panic disorder is not a fatal disease, but a normal reaction of the body to danger. The problem is that there is no danger. And attacks occur in completely calm, non-fear situations: when traveling by public transport, in line at a supermarket, in an elevator, or during an important meeting. The first time anxiety panic disorder starts unexpectedly, but some common "precursors" can still be traced. These are stresses, regular lack of sleep, unbalanced nutrition, bad habits - in a word, all this can be called deterioration of the body. Sometimes the disease manifests itself after some serious shock: the death of loved ones, a divorce, or even a banal move to another country and the process of adaptation in it.
Development, causes, treatment
For a patient who regularly experiences panic disorder, the symptoms seem unbearably severe and very frightening, in fact they do not carry any danger at all. It’s impossible to die, go crazy, or even faint from them, but it’s the incomparability of the body’s response to external stimuli that scares a person,more precisely, their absence.
Several factors influence the development of the disease. The main role is given to hereditary predisposition, this does not mean that the disease will certainly make itself felt, but the likelihood of this increases significantly. In this case, it would be very advisable to carry out regular preventive measures, as well as a more careful attitude to your lifestyle.
The second most likely to experience panic disorder (about one in five patients) are changes in the central nervous system associated with childhood and adolescent psychological trauma. At the same time, some internal conflicts, open or subconscious, can accompany the patient all his life. And since children's grievances, feelings of insecurity and children's fears cannot find another way out, they result in disturbing states. Various methods of psychotherapy conducted by a specialist will help identify and cure childhood and youthful traumas.
The last and, perhaps, the main reason for the development of panic attacks are anxious and suspicious features of a person's character. In the same stressful circumstances, it is people with similar personality characteristics who develop nervous system instability and panic disorders as a result.
Features of an anxious and suspicious character
- Lack of confidence in yourself and your own abilities.
- Increased anxiety.
- Excessive attention to one's own feelings.
- Emotional instability.
- The need for increased attention fromhand loved ones.
Treatment methods
The problem of identifying and making a correct diagnosis is that a person himself does not seek help from the necessary specialist. Basically, people prefer to attribute to themselves non-existent fatal diseases, but deliberately avoid a psychotherapist. But for a patient with diseases such as vascular dystonia, as well as anxiety and panic disorder, this doctor is treating.
Today, there are many technologies that can both alleviate and completely relieve the patient from seizures, among them: cognitive behavioral therapy, psychological relaxation, neurolinguistic programming and many others. It is the doctor who will be able to determine the methods of psychotherapy or pharmacological prescriptions that must be followed in the future. It should be noted that therapy is selected purely individually, taking into account the course of the disorder, the duration of the disease, the causes of its occurrence, concomitant diseases and the nature of the patient himself. Sometimes, in order to calm a person’s nervous system, it may be necessary to be admitted to a regional psychoneurological dispensary, after discharge from which, you should also contact a psychotherapist to complete the treatment.
Panic attacks with the right choice of therapy can be completely cured. The reliability of this was confirmed by the results of unique studies of their kind conducted in 2010 by specialists from one of the research institutes of psychiatry, psychotherapy andnarcology. They consisted in identifying the most effective methods of treatment for certain symptoms of panic attacks. The experiment involved 120 patients diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, divided into three groups of 40 people each, who were treated with various methods of psychotherapy:
- The first group received only medication.
- The second group received drug treatment in combination with cognitive behavioral therapy.
- The third group, in addition to psychotropic drugs, underwent a course of integrative psychotherapy.
According to the results of the study, the most effective results were obtained by the group taking medication in combination with one of the types of therapy (about 75% of patients from the second and third groups). Whereas treatment with only pharmacotherapy did not bring proper results. Less than half of the group were able to feel like completely he althy people and avoid relapses for a long period of time. Thus, specialists from the Research Institute of Psychiatry were able to prove the need for both drug treatment and the necessary therapy, which is selected purely individually for each patient.
Panic and Anxiety Scale
For a more convenient determination of the severity of the disease, a special test was developed. This is a special scale of severity of panic disorder, created so that everyone can determine the level of their panic disorder with the help of simple questions.disorders. In accordance with the results of the test, a person himself, without the help of specialists, will be able to determine the severity of his condition.
Is it possible to defeat the disease on your own
Often, patients try to cope with panic disorder on their own. Sometimes relatives or even not very competent doctors help them in this, giving advice: “Pull yourself together” or “Ignore”. Remember that this approach is completely wrong. The sooner the patient seeks help from a specialist, the faster he will achieve normalization of the condition. The patient may use some techniques on his own, take medicinal herbs to calm the nervous system, or fight, for example, bad habits in order to help himself, but the main treatment must be carried out under the guidance of a professional. Today, the choice of specialists in the treatment of anxiety disorders is huge, it can be a nearby clinic or a mental he alth center, the main thing is to take the first step and begin treatment.
Help yourself with panic attacks
Helping yourself during an attack is quite real, because everything starts with our thoughts. It happens something like this: having got into a frightening situation, a person thinks: “Well, there are so many people here (few people, closed / open space …) now I will feel bad, I will fall (I will die, I will suffocate, I will run away, I will start hysterical …) and everyone will look at me. This is approximately how a person accelerates his negative thoughts to catastrophic proportions, andafter a while, he really starts to feel bad, without even thinking about the fact that he himself provoked an attack. After all, from the very beginning, he is led by anxiety and fear, and you should try to switch your attention from them.
- Take a break. Start counting people or cars passing by, remember the words to a nursery rhyme or favorite verse. The main thing is to give yourself completely to this activity and focus on these thoughts.
- Breathing. By learning to control your breathing, you can control an attack. In a relaxed state, human breathing is calm, deep and unhurried. In a state of stress, it becomes much more frequent, becomes superficial and fast. When an attack approaches, try to control it, make sure that it remains deep and measured, in this case, you will be able to significantly reduce the symptoms of a panic attack, or avoid it altogether.
- Relaxation. It has the same effect as breathing regulation. If you remain relaxed, the attack will not start. Learn to relax your muscles as needed, many special techniques you can find on the Internet.
These simple self-help methods will only help relieve attacks, but not the disease. Therefore, at the first symptoms, do not hesitate, be sure to contact a specialist in a mental he alth center for qualified help. Only a properly selected course of treatment will help you get rid of the disease and again feel the joy of life. Panic-anxiety disorder is quite manageable.
