Anxiety Attack

Anxiety Attack

Panic disorder is characterized by the occurrence of anxiety attacks (panic attacks) in which a veryintense sense of terror is experienced which is accompanied by physical symptoms, such as tachycardia, shortness of breath, dizziness, a sensation of tingling, nausea even in the most acute cases sensation of imminent death.

This process is the physical manifestation of the anxiety process, it is a very annoying real sensation that impacts the person who suffers from it, that the person tends to anticipate their attacks, that is, live a continuous state of alert that the attacks reappear and that makes them more intense and frequent.

ANXIETY ATTACKS

Anxiety attacks can occur at anytime, anywhere and without warning, but fear reappears with more probability in those situations in which a panic attack was suffered, hence the tendency to avoid exposing oneself to such situations.

This disorder often entails a change of life as the person stops doing tasks and activities for fear of new attacks, which leads to depressed moods and a deep sense of uncontrollability over his own body.

 SYMPTOMS OF THE ANXIETY ATTACK

·        Tachycardia

·        Chest pain

·        Difficulty breathing

·        Dizziness

·        Palpitations, heart jolts or elevation of heart rate

·        Sweating

·        Tremors or shaking

·        Feeling short of breath or shortness of breath

·        Feeling choked

·        Oppression or chest discomfort

·        Nausea or abdominal discomfort

·        Instability, dizziness or fainting

·        Derealization or depersonalization

·        Fear of losing control

·        The feeling of imminent death

·        Paresthesias (feeling of numbness or tingling)

·        Chills or suffocations

TREATMENT OF THE ANXIETY ATTACK

Therapy for anxiety attacks consists of different phases:

1. Control of physiological body activation through training in breathing, muscle relaxation and vagal innervation.

2. Redefinition of the fears produced by this physiological activation through cognitive therapy.

3. Habituation and control of panic symptoms, because of the different exposure strategies, such as interoceptive exposure to dreaded body sensations and live exposure, which involves the exposure in real life in a systematic and progressive to the dreaded situations.

All these strategies are supported by materials and help documents for an optimal development of the therapy.