The stress of today’s modern lifestyle often causes people to experience cognitive and somatic symptoms. These symptoms often result in periods of intense anxiety. They are usually linked to a panic attack or in more popular terms, an Anxiety attack.
Anxiety Attack
An anxiety attack is not yet recognized as a formal medical term. This is a condition referred to by the affected people to describe things like a pounding heartbeat before an upcoming event. Some people use it to explain the terror or fear that is similar to a panic attack. The fact is that the definition of an anxiety attack depends on the symptoms experienced by a person.
Some people experience an anxiety attack as a response to an unknown threat. Some people refer to the various heightened anxious moments of daily life as an anxiety attack. In some cases panic attacks are mistaken as anxiety attacks.
The symptoms of an anxiety attack
Anxiety attack has both emotional as well as physical symptoms. Here is a look at the symptoms.
- Emotional symptoms: A feeling of dread or apprehension, trouble in concentration, tension and jumpiness. Another very common emotional symptom is the anticipation of the worst. Looking for danger signs, feeling a blank mind, restlessness and irritation are some of the other common emotional symptoms.
- Physical symptoms: A pounding heart beat is one of the main physical symptoms of an anxiety attack. Heavy sweating is another common symptom. An upset stomach with a frequent diarrhea and urination is another sign. Shortness of breath and dizziness are also common.
- Some people experience twitches and tremors as well as muscle tension.
Fatigue, insomnia and headaches are other common physical symptoms of an
anxiety attack.
Anxiety attack treatments
There are a number of treatments for an anxiety attack that range from therapy and medication to complimentary treatment.
Therapy
Cognitive-behavior therapy – The cognitive-behavioral therapy focuses on cognitions. It helps the patients to identify and do away with the negative thought patterns as well as irrational beliefs that tend to fuel their anxiety.
Exposure therapy – the exposure therapy requires an anxiety disorder patient to confront his or her fears in a controlled and safe environment. The patient is repeatedly exposed to his or her fears in imagination as well as in reality. The more a patient learns to face his or her fear without any harm the more his or her anxiety diminishes.
Medication
There are some types of medication available for certain type of anxiety disorder symptoms. However they can be habit forming and may cause some harmful side effects, hence they should only be taken after consulting a doctor.
Complimentary treatment
The complimentary treatment involves a total of 30 minutes of exercise 3 to 5 times every week. Also included are the relaxation techniques like meditation and controlled breathing. Hypnosis has also emerged as a very popular complimentary treatment.
Eric Sjoberg, is a San Diego Therapist and support clients by principles of Somatic Therapy. Contact him if you are looking for therapist in San Diego.