There is, in fact, a broad collection of medications available for treating anxiety and panic attack such as anti-anxiety medications, antidepressants and beta-blockers. These medications can be effectively used for alleviating the overt symptoms of anxiety and panic disorders. But these are not cure. So the long term usage of medications for anxiety and panic disorder brings, in majority of the cases, disasters.

Side Effect Of Using Long Term Medications

The most widespread side effect of using long term meds for anxiety and panic attack is a high relapse rate, if the treatment is terminated. It is mainly because using these medications seldom leads one to finding the underlying causes of their panic disorder, but focus instead on treating the overt symptoms of these complications. Quite obviously, the result is, when the medication is withdrawn, the attacks start again.

Getting Hooked

The most significant side effects for using medications long term for treating panic disorder are addiction. When someone uses these medications on a long term basis for treating anxiety and panic disorder, quite possibly he or she will become drug dependent. As the habit forms, it becomes hard to live without these medications due to severe withdrawal symptoms, which can be so acute that the individual may need to undergo rehab detoxification.

This drug dependence phenomenon can be of very serious consequence. The benzodiazepines group, in particular, brings different medications for treating anxiety and panic disorder, long term usage of these medications is seriously harmful to health. Xanax, Klonopin and Valium are some known brand under this group that can offer a real addictive effect with prolonged usage. Within just 10-15 days of usage, drug dependency can occur for these medications.

Having Withdrawal

Withdrawal is experienced with the long term usage of many medications for the treatment of panic disorders and anxiety. If one suddenly stops the intake of benzodiazepines, you are at high risk for experiencing acute withdrawal symptoms like agitation, insomnia and recurrence of severe anxiety and panic attacks. Withdrawal can also be an issue of concern for long term treatment of panic attack with medications such as Paxil, Prozac and Zoloft.

Commonly Reported Symptoms

Some commonly reported symptoms of these medications may include headache, nausea, and loss of appetite, dizziness and sexual dysfunction. On the other hand, these may turn out to be apparently diminished and only appear as a result of withdrawal symptoms while the medications are used for protracted frame of time.

Bearing in mind any prescription medications for treating your problem with panic attack disorder, think twice. They are good in providing a temporary solution only. they alleviate the symptoms of these complications, but they can not provide you a permanent solution for you problem.

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Common Causes

Despite their distinctive features, all panic attack disorders share one common aspect, which is persistency characterized by overwhelming feeling of fear, anxiety and panic. The frequency and intensity of these fears lead an individual to experience immobilization, distress and disruption. The most common features of an panic attack disorder may involve an unrelenting and all-consuming form of anxiety, self-imposed isolation, emotional withdrawal, and maladaptive interaction with normal daily activities. In addition, panic and anxiety promotes lower self-esteem, depression, and even alcoholism.

Causes and Risk Factors

There is a wide number of causes that can contribute to the development of panic attack disorder in an individual. These factors may include environment, personality, family relations, brain chemicals and genetic makeup. In addition, major life stressors like marital problems or sudden death of a close one may intensify the risk. Environmental factors like financial catastrophe, early detachment from mother, critical parents play significant role in developing anxiety attack disorder. People with weaker personality traits develop anxiety attack disorder since they find themselves weak against the world and a powerful and threatening space.

The malfunction of certain neurotransmitters like serotonin, GABA and epinephrine may also lead to the development of panic disorder. Heredity plays one of the leading roles in developing such complications. A family history with mood disorder, depression, anxiety disorder or substance abuse may heighten the risk. Some people are genetically vulnerable to stress, quite obviously they are increasingly susceptible to anxiety attack disorder. A traumatic experience may also fabricate the condition. In fact, different researches show there is a strong correlation between anxiety disorder and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Common Treatment Options

A combination of breathing exercises, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and medication is successfully used in treating panic disorder. Learning to control ones breathing, the person is able to learn how to breathe using abdomen but not the chest. In fact, people with panic and anxiety exacerbate the condition with chest breathing. CBT helps in restructuring the maladaptive thinking pattern by integrating components of cognition and behavior. Anti-anxiety drugs, beta-blockers and antidepressants are commonly known drugs used for alleviating the short-term to severe symptoms of anxiety and panic disorders.

“In between attacks there is this dread and anxiety that it’s going to happen again. You are afraid to go back to places where you’ve had an attack. Unless you get help, there soon won’t be anyplace where you can go and feel safe from panic.”

Panic Disorder

Panic disorder affects about 6 million American adults1 and is twice as common in women as men.2 Panic attacks often begin in late adolescence or early adulthood,2 but not everyone who experiences panic attacks will develop panic disorder. Many people have just one attack and never have another. The tendency to develop panic attacks appears to be inherited.3

Panic disorder is a real illness that can be successfully treated. It is distinguished by sudden attacks of terror, usually accompanied by a pounding heart, sweatiness, weakness, faintness, or dizziness. During these attacks, people with panic disorder may flush or feel chilled; their hands may tingle or feel numb; and they may experience nausea, chest pain, or smothering sensations. Panic attacks usually produce a sense of unreality, a fear of impending doom, or a fear of losing control.

A fear of one’s own unexplained physical symptoms is also a symptom of panic disorder. People having panic attacks sometimes believe they are having heart attacks, losing their minds, or on the verge of death. They can’t predict when or where an attack will occur, and between episodes many worry intensely and dread the next attack.

Panic Attacks Can Occur Any Time

Panic attacks can occur at any time, even during sleep. An attack usually peaks within 10 minutes, but some symptoms may last much longer.

People who have full-blown, repeated panic attacks can become very disabled by their condition and should seek treatment before they start to avoid places or situations where panic attacks have occurred. For example, if a panic attack happened in an elevator, someone with panic disorder may develop a fear of elevators that could affect the choice of a job or an apartment, and restrict where that person can seek medical attention or enjoy entertainment.

Some people’s lives become so restricted that they avoid normal activities, such as grocery shopping or driving. About one-third become housebound or are able to confront a feared situation only when accompanied by a spouse or other trusted person. 2 When the condition progresses this far, it is called agoraphobia, or fear of open spaces.

Early Treatment Is Key

Early treatment can often prevent agoraphobia, but people with panic disorder may sometimes go from doctor to doctor for years and visit the emergency room repeatedly before someone correctly diagnoses their condition. This is unfortunate, because panic disorder is one of the most treatable of all the anxiety disorders, responding in most cases to certain kinds of medication or certain kinds of cognitive psychotherapy, which help change thinking patterns that lead to fear and anxiety.

Self Help

Many people who go undiagnosed with panic disorder eventually choose self help with great success. There are many self help methods available. When it comes to panic and anxiety disorder one size does not fit all. Some people go through two or three methods before being cured.

Symptoms

Someone with an anxiety or panic disorder will usually exhibit the same symptoms, no matter what specific type they have. They’ll get a headache, start sweating, and experience muscle spasms. They’ll also experience heart palpitations which make them dizzy, light-headed or out of breath. They also suffer from hypertension, or chronically elevated blood pressure. People suffering from hypertension are in danger of suffering from strokes, heart attacks, heart failure or even arterial aneurysms, so you can imagine just how dangerous it is for someone to experience those symptoms all the time without treatment.

Anxiety disorders are considered chronic conditions. A person can begin experiencing symptoms suddenly after an event triggers them, or it can be present from an early age. The disorders flare up in times of high stress. Almost all patients diagnosed with an anxiety disorder are also diagnosed with clinical depression, and vice versa. The two always seem to go hand in hand.

Causes Of Anxiety and Panic Disorders

Numerous clinical studies have suggested that there is a correlation between anxiety and panic disorders and difficulty in maintaining balance due to malfunctions in the region of the brain known as the parabrachial nucleus. The parabrachial nucleus coordinates signals from the amygdala, the part of the brain involved in regulating emotional reactions – such as fear. There is a well-known connection between unusually high levels of SK2 potassium and anxiety as well.

There are a lot of biochemical factors that come into play as well. Low levels of a neurotransmitter called GABA – which is responsible for reducing over activity in your central nervous system – contributes to anxiety. Even chronic exposure to things like paint or varnish can cause the disorders.

Types Of Anxiety Panic Disorders

There are many types of anxiety disorders. General anxiety disorder occurs when a person suffers from long-term anxiety that is not focused on anything in particular. Panic disorder sufferers experience brief attacks of intense terror and apprehension. Agoraphobia is the fear of being in a place or situation where getting away is difficult or embarrassing. Most other phobias are classed as anxiety disorders as well. Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and separation anxiety are all anxiety disorders.

Symptoms Nearly Every Day

People with anxiety disorders suffer symptoms nearly every day. However, with treatment, AND SELF HELP METHODS it is possible for them to live more normal lives and start overcoming the fears that are holding them back.