There are several therapy choices for agoraphobia sufferers seeking help with their condition. Conventional medical alternatives are medication and psychotherapy or there are complementary and self help therapies.
Psychotherapists will usually treat agoraphobia with CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy). The reason CBT works for treating phobias is because it helps to reduce the negative thoughts and behaviours that trigger the anxiety.
There are several highly effective panic attacks self help guides available online that have helped many thousands of people overcome agoraphobia. By teaching you to be in control of your anxiety these self help programs will help you eliminate panic attacks. Eventually with repeated exposure to anxious situations your panic will simply fade away.
EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) is a self help therapy that can be used to help cure agoraphobia. This is rather like acupuncture that works on the emotions by tapping certain points of the body with your fingertips. The theory behind EFT is that the tapping helps release emotional stresses that are causing the phobia.
Exposure Therapy can be used to treat agoraphobia. The person is taught some relaxation techniques and asked to imagine situations in which they have experienced panic attacks. They then learn to bring their anxious feelings under control using the relaxation techniques that they have been taught. The next step of the therapy is to then expose themselves to real situations and to apply what they have learned.
Agoraphobia sufferers can also be helped with the aid of hypnotherapy. With hypnosis you either have the option of visiting a professional hypnotherapist or you can listen to recorded hypnotherapy sessions either on CD, DVD or MP3 downloads. If you shop around you will find hypnosis recordings for all types of phobias and anxiety including agoraphobia.
Herbal anxiety remedies and flower essences can give temporary support and are a safe alternative to prescription drugs. There are ready made herbal products specifically created for aiding panic and anxiety. These will usually contain Valerian, Lavender or Passion Flower. The “Rescue Remedy” Bach Flower Essence is available in health stores and is very good for restoring calm.
The alternative to natural therapies is medication. The medications used for agoraphobia are anti-depressants and sedatives. Medication should be avoided unless absolutely necessary as it can cause severe and unpleasant side effects. Medication only attempts to treat the symptoms of anxiety and not the cause. Unless the root cause of the problem is treated then there is not going to be a long term cure.
It may be difficult for an agoraphobia sufferer to seek help if it’s not possible for them to leave their home; but there is much that can be done. There are so many things that you can do to help yourself from within your own home thanks to the internet. Most of the self help programs and hypnosis recordings can be downloaded straight onto your computer.
To learn more about the help available for agoraphobia sufferers please click the link below…
What causes panic attacks isn’t always clear but the symptoms are intense. The victim begins feeling dizziness, chest pain, a choking feeling, hot flashes or chills, nausea, heart palpitations, sweating, shortness of breath, trembling and numbness. They may have a fear of being out of control, going crazy or even dying. This panicked sensation might make them feel as though they need to escape the situation somehow, and yet they are paralyzed to inaction. Agoraphobia involves anxiety about being in situations that are hard to escape, the fear of being alone, the fear of detachment from others, a sensation of utter helplessness and the fear of losing control in public places. In a third of all panic disorder cases, agoraphobia and panic attacks are combined.
The treatment for agoraphobia and for panic attacks is aimed at helping individuals function better in everyday life. The success of treatment depends upon how bad the agoraphobia and panic is. Some people with agoraphobia begin to feel nervous in public, while others remain in their homes for weeks on end, absolutely petrified of the outside world. The most successful treatment combines medication with cognitive-behavioral therapy. Cognitive behavioral therapy seeks to give the patient a newfound sense of control by helping the individual understand what is happening during panic and anxiety attacks and how to handle unwanted thoughts or physical reactions. The individual learns what is realistic and unrealistic and gradually learns to control irrational fear through continued exposure.
The first line of defense against agoraphobia and panic attacks are the Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor and the Serotonin Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitor class of antidepressants because of their limited side effects. Not all patients take to these types of panic attack medication options, however. Sometimes doctors prescribe Benzodiazepines, a type of sedative that is good at reducing muscle tension and promoting relaxation; although Benzodiazepines may lead to tolerance, dependence and withdrawal anxiety. Since these concerns worry doctors, they might prescribe Tricyclic Antidepressants for their more severe patients instead. While this kind of antidepressant is very effective at combating attacks of panic, side effects include a drop in blood pressure, constipation, urinary retention, blurry vision and dry mouth in some patients.
In addition to the medication options already discussed, doctors are finding new medications to treat agoraphobia and panic attacks. For example, Buspirone achieves an anti-anxiety effect much like Benzodiazepines, although it does not cause tolerance or dependency. The one drawback is that it may take 3 to 4 weeks to show results. Doctors may also treat panic attacks anxiety with a low dosage of anti-psychotic drugs like Risperidone, Ziprasidone, Paliperidone or Olanzapine to treat incessant worrying and to help patients sleep well.
Dealing with anxiety and panic attack onset is one thing, but the aftermath following an attack is very much another. Once anxiety attacks occur, an individual can be left worried, bewildered, dismayed, emotionally strained, and embarrassed.
Fortunately, there are things that can be done that can help in assuaging all of the latter feelings and emotions and to help take your panic away. Let’s take a look at three proven ways to deal with panic and anxiety attacks after they occur and the emotional aftermath that accompanies such attacks.
Get informed about anxiety and panic coping techniques
Realize the very real causes for your panic
Understand that you are not alone in having attacks
Become Informed
Ultimately, the old cliché that “knowledge is power,” is well remembered because the statement is incredibly true. When you gain an understanding about anxiety and panic attacks treatment issues, you will be better prepared in the event that another attack occurs. While you may discover that there are no 100 percent certainties in terms of what actually makes attacks happen, you can learn about the probable causes, how to cope, and what kinds of treatments and therapies there are available to you.
Realize the Reality of Panic Attacks
Coming to the understanding that these attacks aren’t all in the mind and that your experiences are real will help you when it comes time to cope with panic episodes. You must acknowledge that your body is attempting to communicate with you and it is trying to make you aware of emotions and stress that you might not otherwise acknowledge.
Please rememberthat your bodyis possibly responding to stresses that have been placed upon you in one way or another.
Understanding that You Are Not Alone
Experts estimate that approximately ten percent of all healthy individuals in the United States at some point experience an anxiety attack onset at least one time annually. Isolation is a common cause for re-occuring anxiety.If you feel alone you may find it more of a featto overcome. Knowing that you are not alone, that many people experience the same feelings and symptoms, and that there are methods that make anxiety and panic attack management possible goes a long way in helping you get over the panic episode.
An Effective Treatment For Nonpsychotic Patients With depression
depression is a often silent disease, as people hide themselves away from the world , closeted in the darkness of their internal anguish . For far too many the anguish grows deeper as they are handed drug after drug , and still the lassitude cannot be recovered from the bubble that shrouds them. If you are tormented by severe depression where medication has been useless you may find hope in a ray of light that is beginning to clear a path, and shed some light on treating severe depression. Magnetic therapy is the treatment, and it does not consist of having to swallow dangerous pills, orhaving to be concerned about dangerous side effects.
It can be especially hard to even put out the energy necessary to correctly care for your depression, but new treatments using magnetic energy are starting to progress as more case studies substantiate the evidence of its achievements and effectiveness in clinical studies. There are more than three hundred research studies going on all around , such as Imperial University London, and California, Yale, Israel Institute of Technology, Harvard , and many more institutions of learning and research. The bulk of these research studies have seen success in their collaborate research , and offer in regards too the encouraging effects of this alternative treatment option.
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
In various ongoing clinical research studies transcranial magnetic stimulation is being employed to study the effect of magnetic energy for treating depression. Transcranial magnetic stimulation in this clinical study very simply involves pulses of magnetic energy that are used to ignite parts of the brain that cause depression.
In one study example clinical researchers used repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation and match up to traditional electroconvulsive therapy. Half the patients, which were treated with the magnetic therapy, went on requiring little if any follow up treatment , but the placebo patient grouping did need follow up treatments for their depression. A different study at the Medical Varsity of South Carolina, twenty patients being treated for depression who were unsuccessful to find help from prescribed medication were treated for fifteen to twenty minutes a day for a six weeks using pulsating magnetic therapy, and the results showed that 12 out of the 20 patients had at least a 50 % reduction in their depression symptoms.
The trick with this kind of magnetic treatment called TMS for short, is to accurately place the magnetic fields over the precise region of a research patients brain is in need of recirculation . It is understood from the ending results of scanning patients that suffered with depression that there is a reduced activity and blood flow in the left frontal lobe, an quarter of the brain above the forehead that is involved in thinking and planning. In the case studies and treatment electromagnets are placed over the cerebral cortex of the brain over the left frontal lobe to apply a magnetic field that passes thru the cranium and into the brain to get the brain networking working at normal levels. The electromagnetic pulses are comparable to the power levels employed in MRI’s, but stated to be better focused. As an end result researcher found that the repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation that was employed as opposed to traditional electroconvulsive therapy was effectual in the management of non-psychotic patients tormented by severe depression. Keep in mind these patients being studies suffered from extreme cases of depression, but magnetic therapy using static magnets have been very successful in treating other types of deseases, illness, and chronic pain as well.
Electromagnetic pulse therapy has been used successfully, in cases of Arthritis epilepsy, Parkinson’s Disease, migraines and with some schizophrenia. Compared with electroconvulsive therapy, which works by inducing a seizure, TMS is reasonably benign. Patients do not need sedation, and the clinical patients did not appear to experience deterioration in cognition or memory functioning, this treatment option does run a extremely small chance of an involuntary seizure.
http://news.bio-medicine.org/medicine-news-2/Magnetic-stimulation-may-be-as-effective-as-electroconvulsive-therapy-in-treating-severe-depression-8940-1/ Magnetic Arthritis Relief.com
When dealing with anxiety, desperation and frustration overcomes most people. Effective strategies are available to resolve your anxiety related problems.
Understanding the benefit of distracting your mind from your anxiety actually is a huge step to cure your anxiety Other than this option you might even have to seek expert medical advice and also ask your doctor for suitable solutions.
A head-on approach to your fear is what is required in order to deal with anxiety. Whenever you are feeling overcome with unreal fear, step back and do not react in your normal manner of fighting the fear. Accept the fear as an occurrence and the knowledge that you can deal with the fear in a constructive manner.
Distracting your mind will help you deal with anxiety.
Applying mind control by thinking pleasant thoughts can help overcome the anxious feeling.
If you feel that anxiety is starting to build up on you, take a break immediately if possible. Divert your attention by walking away and focusing on a new subject. Remember your pattern of breathing through your diaphragm. Once you have done whatever you can to handle any situation or problem, just let it go. Focus on something else and reorganize yourself. Your energy will be restored and you will have learned a valuable lesson on coping with your anxiety. Learning to handle your anxiety is important but letting go of the situation is equally important. Be satisfied that you just dealt with your problem head-on and defeated it. Move on with your day knowing you don’t have to fear anxiety.
There is no harm in realizing that learning how to deal with anxiety can also involve having to seek professional advice. A doctor and medical caregiver can help ease your anxiety more effectively by explaining to you what you need to do in order to overcome your anxiety. They might even recommend temporarily taking antidepressants and other drugs that aim at curing anxiety.
The good news is that after learning how to deal with anxiety you will realize that it is certainly possible that you will be able to cope with the condition – no matter how severe it may be. By standing up and realizing that you have fears and learning to dispassionately observe your fear you will have taken an important step in coping with anxiety. Distracting your mind too is effective as too is seeking the advice of experts.
Overcoming panic attacks can be accomplished once you have learned to deal with them.
Finally realizing that you do not have to suffer from panic attacks will be an immediate relief. Once you have found the solution to panic attacks, you will learn a permanent answer to help you live a normal life.
A therapist can teach techniques that allow you to learn to relax when you sense a panic attack. By drawing deep breaths in and out of the diaphragm, the patient does not have that out of breath feeling that comes from taking short breaths caused by anxiety.
Fortunately, when it comes to learning how to overcome panic attacks there are several useful methods that are known and which anyone can try with a reasonable chance of success. There are solutions that virtually guarantee that the patient can cure themselves without even needing to visit a doctor or even step out of their homes.
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