Anxiety is a growing epidemic in this world. There is one type of anxiety that is more common than the rest and that is the panic disorder.
People with the panic disorder have feelings of terror that strike suddenly and repeatedly with no warning what so ever. They can never predict when they will have an attack, and many have intense anxiety between the attacks because they worry about when the next one will occur. These attacks can come on at any time, even when your asleep. Normally, they last about ten minutes but it differs in different people. During an attack, your heart pounds, your hands might tingle or feel numb, you have bad chest pains, you go from being hot, to being cold, and you may feel nauseated or dizzy.
This disorder has affected about five million adults and children in the U.K. and the U.S. combined. It is twice as common in women as it is in men. Most of the time it is inherited through family members, however, not everyone who experiences the panic attacks will have the disorder itself. Some people have one attack and then never have another one. However, is important for you to see a doctor or seek help if you ever experience this.
D. Roger Tilton, Ph.D. was responsible for some of the studies on panic attacks and he stated that the rapid heartbeat and “respiratory” sensations are normal sensations of mobilizing you for fight or flight, the fainting is caused by the sudden drop in your blood pressure but your blood pressure immediately goes up when the anxiety comes on which makes fainting almost impossible.
Cognitive therapy is a form of therapy for depression or anxiety in which the goal is to diminish symptoms by correcting distorted thinking based on negative self- perceptions and expectations.
Cognitive-behavior therapy has been shown in a number of studies to be the best treatment for anxiety disorders. It is the most effective for helping people overcome their panic attacks. 80-85% of people that use this technique become panic free, normally within only eight treatment sessions.
Cognitive therapy has two main components to it. Number one is identifying your negative thinking, and number two is changing your negative thinking. This is what causes you to feel so much anxiety to begin with. Cognitive therapy helps you to recognize what exactly you are doing to cause this because some people don’t even know they’re doing this to themselves.
Cognitive therapy, in my opinion, is the best treatment for the anxiety panic disorder.