Cure Panic Attacks - Interoceptive Exposure Treatment
Everyone who suffers from panic attacks knows how frightening they can be, and you never know when one is going to happen. Some people even go so far as to avoid activities they like to avoid an attack. Doctors are researching ways to cure panic attacks to give these people their freedom back.
A quickened heart rate, dizziness, excessive sweating, and shallow breathing are some of the usual symptoms of a panic attack. These signs often occur in conjunction with a feeling of impending disaster or a sense of imminent death. Panic attack victims tend believe that the symptoms are result of something being physically wrong; fairly often, they believe that a heart attack is what is actually occurring.
Having panic attacks can start a cycle that is difficult to stop. This begins when a person becomes anxious when they experience even one typical symptom. For example, a person may begin to become fearful as soon as they start exercising because they feel their heart rate becoming faster. Your body will then react to your anxiety you will begin to experience more symptoms. This will cause more anxiety, which in turn causes more symptoms. This cycle can lead to more frequent attacks, and makes it difficult to stop panic attacks and prevent panic attacks from happening in the future.
The good news is that there is a very effective treatment designed to stop this cycle and cure panic attacks. Interoceptive Exposure, as this treatment is called, works by having a person purposely experience physical symptoms of a panic attack in a controlled environment. This works by having the person induce these sensations, such as breathing through a small straw for a few minutes. When you repeatedly and consciously confront these sensations several things will occur to help you prevent panic attacks from ruling your life.
When you continually force yourself to experience the sensations that you fear, the first thing you find is that you will become less and less anxious about them. Facing your fears in a controlled situation teaches you over time that there is no reason for you to feel your irrational fear, and the cycle of anxiety which controls you can finally disappear.
Over the course of the Interoceptive Exposure therapy, your bouts of anxiety should trouble you less often and with less intensity as well. You'll discover that the physical feelings you experience due to these anxiety attacks are not life threatening and can be managed. This therapy has proven to be highly successful as a means to cure panic attacks, and you will find yourself on the road to controlling and eventually eliminating your panic attacks.
Panic attacks are debilitating to the people who suffer from them. The physical symptoms are often accompanied by a devastating sense of impending doom or even death and can often be mistaken for the symptoms of a heart attack. Interoceptive Exposure is an effective treatment designed to help cure panic attacks. It works by having a person consciously experience physical symptoms of a panic attack in a controlled environment. By frequently and deliberately facing these sensations you learn to prevent panic attacks from taking over your life. By recreating the symptoms your anxiety weakens over time and this is how Interoceptive Exposure therapy can stop panic attacks entirely.
Published April 19th, 2008
Filed in Health