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Anxiety is often described as "stressful" and "restricting" by the people who suffer from it. The symptoms can begin suddenly and decrease quality of life by causing a person to avoid their usual activities in fear and stress. Sufferers often dream of having the ability to cure anxiety.

The classical symptoms of anxiety include increased worrying, rapid breathing, sweating, and panic. In addition to this, sufferers also report a feeling of impending doom or of dying. The combination of these very physical symptoms with these two common fears results in patients believing that something is physically wrong with them. Commonly, people mistake anxiety for depression. Even doctors must rule out depression in patients with severe anxiety; the symptoms are that similar.

It is difficult for many people to stop the continuous cycle of anxiety they experience. The anxious cycle can start if a person experiences as few as one symptom. When a person starts working out, for instance, their level of fear may increase as they sense their heart beating faster. The level of anxiety you experience will increase as your system copes with the stresses. Of course, these new changes lead to greater anxiousness which leads to more symptoms. As the cycle becomes more frequent, the number of anxiety experienced increases; this can make it hard to end or prevent future anxiety attacks.

What is wonderful to know is that now we have a proven therapy for stopping this vicious cycle, one that can actually cure anxiety. It is termed Interoceptive Exposure and functions through exposing the anxiety sufferer to the physical manifestations of anxiety over and over again in a controlled, safe setting. The subject causes these feelings by hyperventilating (sometimes breathing through a small straw) for a short while. As one purposefully copes with these sensations, he or she experiences several changes which offer the assistance needed to prevent anxiety from plaguing his or her daily existence.

By exposing yourself to these sensations repeatedly, your anxiety will actually decrease in time. The reason this method works so well is that planned exposure allows you to experience your fear in a controlled manner. As you live through the panic, you learn that, despite how scary the attacks are, they are actually not dangerous. Learning this gives you power over the anxiety, and your anxiety will decrease in both severity and frequency.

As you progress through the Interoceptive Exposure treatment, your anxiety will occur less frequently and be less intense. You will learn that the symptoms related to anxiety are not dangerous and are in fact manageable. This treatment is often successfully used to cure anxiety, and will put you well on your way to taking control and stopping anxiety.