Overcoming Panic and Related Anxiety Disorders

Few events are as terrifying as panic attacks, which may include sudden palpitations, chest pain, choking sensations, dizziness, and feelings of unreality, often with fear, especially of dying, losing control, or going mad. This terrifying condition often starts at about 20, or between late adolesce [...]
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Few events are as terrifying as panic attacks, which may include sudden palpitations, chest pain, choking sensations, dizziness, and feelings of unreality, often with fear, especially of dying, losing control, or going mad. This terrifying condition often starts at about 20, or between late adolescence and the mid-30s, and may follow a stressful life event; panic disorder may also have a genetic component. Part of the problem is that people often don't realize, or refuse to believe, that their sensations are in fact panic - with so many physical symptoms, they tend to assume that there is something medically amiss. This results in real difficulty in getting appropriate treatment; panic may also progress into a variety of anxiety disorders, such as agoraphobia, or other phobias. This book aims to provide solid, reliable information to help people with panic disorder realize that their sensations are explicable and curable.Topics covered include: why panic - what causes the first panic attack; symptoms and feelings of unreality; what really happens in a panic attack and why it can't hurt you; the worry of 'going mad' - the difference between psychosis and neurosis; anxiety and related anxiety disorders - agoraphobia, OCD, social phobia, etc; hyperventilation, breathing techniques; relaxation techniques - differential relaxation; the importance of a good diet; exercise to modify anxiety; dealing with misplaced and suppressed anger - understanding the misfiring of signals between the brain and the nervous system; distraction, challenging and visualization as ways of dealing with incipient panic; graded exposure (to situations that arouse anxiety); and, setting your personal goals.