Anxiety and Panic Attacks

Life can be like a roller coaster, but you have a high chance of success of overcoming anxiety if you seek help from a psychologist.

Symptoms of high anxiety and panic attack can include:

• Heart palpitations
• Rapid pounding heart
• Tightness of chest
• Difficulty in breathing
• Butterflies in the stomach
• Hyperventilation
• Tremors
• Dizziness
• Weakness all over
• Tingling hands
• Dry mouth
• Feelings of warmth or cold
• An overwhelming urge to escape
• A feeling of going mad
• Intense fear of losing, control
• Fear of collapse perhaps with a heart attack
• Fear of death or insanity
• Fear of embarrassment

Panic attacks happen when the body’s emergency button is being pressed continuously—the experience can be terrifying. In the long term, the experience and avoidance of high anxiety may lead to:

• Restriction of life’s activities
• Loneliness and social isolation
• Relationship problems
• Physical symptoms of stress
• Depression
• Sleep disturbance
• Low self esteem
• Loss of confidence
• Exhaustion and demoralisation
• Fatigue

You are not alone—one in ten people in their lifetime suffer from at least one panic attack.

• Many sufferers of high anxiety have very strong will-power but have fallen into anxiety traps
• The treatment of choice is a cognitive behavioural program delivered by a psychologist
• With guidance panic attack, high anxiety and phobias are curable
• The success rate of treatment using cognitive behavioural techniques is 80 - 90%
• Recovery can be complete

Psychological Treatment methods using Cognitive Behaviour Therapy give a high chance of long term and successful results. With psychological treatment you can:

• Understand the real cause of panic attacks.
• Control your symptoms using controlled breathing techniques.
• Desensitise your anxiety by following a professionally designed desensitisation program.
• Learn new strategies of controlling symptoms.
• Learn how your present approach to managing anxiety may be making the problem worse not better.
• Practice cognitive coping strategies.
• Overcome your worse fears – slowly, manageably and completely.

Phobias

Phobias result from an undesired, irrational and uncontrollable fear. Common phobias include:

• Agoraphobia – fear of leaving the house
• Social Phobia – high anxiety in and avoidance of social situations
• Driving phobia – avoidance of driving or fear of driving
• Travel – high anxiety when and avoidance of traveling
• Public speaking phobia
• Claustrophobia – fear of enclosed spaces

What are anxiety disorders? Are they common?

Everybody knows what it's like to feel anxious - the butterflies in your stomach before a first date, the tension you feel when your boss is angry, the way your heart pounds if you're in danger. Anxiety isn't always a bad thing. It can help you cope with life's everyday stress. It makes you study harder for that exam, keeps you on your toes when you're making a speech, and helps you stay focused when looking for a job or asking for a raise.

But if you have an anxiety disorder, this normally helpful emotion can do just the opposite. It can keep you from coping and can disrupt your daily life. Anxiety disorders aren't just a case of "nerves." They are serious illnesses that can grow worse when not treated. They are thought to be related to the biological makeup and life experiences of a person, and often run in families. There are treatments for these disorders that can help people lead full and healthy lives. And, research is being done to find new ways to help people with anxiety disorders. What are the different types of anxiety disorders and what are their symptoms?There are five types of anxiety disorders, each with different symptoms. They include:

• Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) - constant and exaggerated (more than normal) worry and tension about everyday life events and decisions that lasts for at least six months. A person fears the worst, even though there may be little reason to expect so. Physical symptoms can also happen, such as fatigue, trembling, muscle tension, headache, or nausea.

• Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) - repeated, unwanted thoughts (obsessions) or ritual behaviors (compulsions) that a person feels they can't control or stop. A person can sometimes feel an urgent need to perform a ritual behavior, such as always washing hands three times because three is a "good luck" number and one isn't.

• Panic disorder - feelings of extreme fear and dread that strike with no warning and for no reason. These feelings can happen over and over again. A person can have physical symptoms, such as chest pain, heart palpitations (heart beating fast or skipping beats), shortness of breath, dizziness, stomach problems, feeling disoriented or not "real," and have a fear of dying.

• Phobias - includes social phobia, an extreme fear of being embarrassed, judged, or made fun of in social or work situations and specific phobia, an extreme fear of an object or situation that poses little or no danger. People with phobias often avoid certain situations (like public speaking or parties) or objects (like elevators). Phobias can affect a person's career, relationships, and daily life activities.

• Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) - involves how a person reacts to a very frightening or stressful event, such as being tortured or put in a prison camp during a war, seeing another person being hurt or killed, or raped. With PTSD, a person can keep re-living the event with nightmares and flashbacks. They can feel numb, depressed, angry, irritable, and jumpy. Family members of victims can also develop PTSD.

At Rose Park Psychology we have specialist clinical psychologists available to treat all the anxiety disorders.