|
|
Anxiety / Panic Attacks
What are anxiety or panic attacks?
For those who do experience anxiety or panic attacks, the symptoms can include:
These symptoms can be so intense that the person becomes convinced that they're having a heart attack, which adds to their feeling of panic.
Some people also begin to feel that the reactions of their body are so extreme and so out of control that they're simply an observer of it all. Though they don't describe any kind of out-of-body experience, they do describe feeling as though they become detached from what's going on, as though the whole situation had taken on an unreal quality. This is referred to as 'depersonalisation'. It sounds as though it may be a relief from the panic attack, but it is, in fact, even more unpleasant.
There's another group of people who experience panic attacks apparently spontaneously. This is often associated with general anxiety - ongoing, grumbling symptoms coming to a peak. But panic attacks also occur out of the blue. When this happens, the fear of it reoccurring in the same situation can easily develop, leading to a phobia or general anxiety that becomes self-feeding.
Treatment
There's no magic remedy for panic attacks. However, hypnotherapy can help by bringing down stress levels and encouraging the learning of new behaviour patterns, which allows people to realise that a panic attack represents no threat to their life, and will end shortly.If panic attacks escalate into a phobia which is deeper and more disruptive, as can be the case with severe agoraphobia or social phobia, then it may be necessary to use counselling techniques to look at some of the issues surrounding the onset of the phobia and work to resolve them.
If you are looking for more information or help please contact me.