Anxiety Panic Attacks and Fear

If you have ever had anxiety panic attacks in your life, you have known mortal fear. I never realized how serious an anxiety panic attack was until I had my first. I don’t know if anxiety attacks run in families, but in mine they sure do. My mother used to have them all the time. By all the time, of course, I mean once a month, but it seemed often enough. After one of her anxiety attacks, things were not the same for weeks.

It could happen anywhere, and her reactions were unpredictable. Sometimes, she would start screaming at us hysterically. Other times, she would get confused and disoriented. The worst of them, strangely enough, were the times when she just simply broke down in sobs. She would get so upset, and nothing we could say or do would change it.

Growing up, I thought she was just crazy. To tell you the truth, I sort of resented her for her anxiety panic disorder attacks. I felt like she was emotionally holding my family hostage. I didn’t realize that anxiety panic attacks were beyond her control, or if I did realize it, I did not pay attention to that fact.

So when, around the age of 25 I developed anxiety panic attacks, it was a terrifying experience. Suddenly, I realized what mortal terror was. When you have an anxiety panic attack, you can’t do anything. You can’t think, you can’t act, you can’t control your thoughts and emotions. Sometimes, you are so completely overwhelmed that you can lose control of your own behavior. Losing that kind of control is a truly terrifying experience.

Fortunately, there are more treatments for anxiety panic attacks than there were when my mother first got her symptoms. First of all, of course, there are anxiety support groups. These are a great way of dealing with the difficulty that anxiety panic attacks place on your life. People in your support group are really the only people who can surely understand you. Aside from that, the drugs have gotten much better. Anxiety treatment is better than it has ever been before, and every year they seem to be coming out with new drugs.

Aside from drugs, however, there are some pretty interesting and novel treatments. There is therapy of course, and there is also hypnosis. You hear very different things about the effectiveness of hypnosis in treating anxiety panic attacks. Some people swear by it, but others aren’t so sure. So far, I have had some positive results with it, but it is too soon to tell.