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Causes of Anxiety Attacks

Anxiety Disorders

Source www.anxiety.org

If you get anxious when moving from a particular house to another or changing your school, it is completely normal. However, if you get anxious when doing even the smallest of things like going out of your home or crossing the street, you may be a victim of an anxiety disorder.

These are the most common type of emotional disorders and affects people of all ages and gender equally. In case you are facing such a problem, you are suggested to immediately visit a doctor and get some medications or therapy like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. If left attended, this can do a lot of damage to your physical and emotional health.

Environmental Factors

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You may have noticed that as you move towards the higher altitude, you start to feel more anxious and your stress level also rise. This is so, because, at higher altitudes, there are low oxygen levels, and, because you do not get enough oxygen, some particular hormones get triggered causing stress, and, hence, anxiety attacks.

Similarly, other environmental conditions can also greatly add to these problems. For instance, the people around you can also tremendously add to your stress level. Meaning, if you surround yourself with negative people you may yourself start feeling negative and vice versa. The same is the case with your financial conditions i.e. if you are facing any difficulty with your financial health, you will stay more stressed and will be a victim of more often attacks.

Brain Chemistry and Certain Medications

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Prolonged stress has a shrinking impact on the prefrontal cortex, the section of the human brain responsible for the retention and thought process. However, anxiety can shorten the prefrontal cortex, which in turn increases the size of the amygdala, and make the brain more sensitive to tension. Chronic traumas and stressful conditions also alter the brain structure and function, thus making it more receptive to stress.

In addition to all that, some drugs target the same parts of your body that plays a role in anxiety symptoms. For instance, medicines containing corticosteroids can influence the hormones the body is making. They are used in the treatment of diseases like asthma, allergies, arthritis, and bronchitis. Researches have shown that these medicines can cause some people irritation and anxiety.

Symptoms of Anxiety Attack

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The symptoms of anxiety attacks are pretty clear, and, therefore, you will be easily able to know when you are having an anxiety attack. However, this can be confused with panic attacks as their symptoms are pretty similar to it. Now, even though these symptoms vary a bit from person to person, they are approximately the same.

Some of the most common symptoms of these attacks include trouble breathing or choking sensation, feeling of losing control or going crazy, nausea or stomach cramps, and heart palpitations or chest pain among others. You may also face hyperventilation, hot flashes or chills, trembling or shaking, feel detached or unreal, or a surge of overwhelming panic, among others.

Things to Do When Having an Anxiety Attack

Recognize and Accept That You are Having an Anxiety Attack

Source www.popsci.com

When people are attacked by anxiety, they usually don't believe it. Instead, they believe that it is just a minor problem or that it's completely normal and nothing to worry about. Now, even though it is not that severe of a problem and somewhat normal, it should not be taken that lightly.

Instead, you should know the feeling and symptoms of anxiety attacks and know when you are a victim of it. You should accept it rather than fear it and should know that it can happen to anyone. In case you don't even accept that you are going through this, you will not be able to fight it off and it will worsen. Once this is done, you can move on to the fighting process by following the practices below.

Also, if you have had these attacks in the past, you will be able to easily fight it off now. But, if you are facing such a problem for the first time in life, it is advisable to visit a doctor or at least be around a friend of yours so that he can help if the situation worsens.

Try Deep Breathing

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A great way to handle your anxiety attack is by the deep breathing process. This process will help you to release your stress by relaxing your mind. In addition to all that, if your stress is caused by insufficient levels provided to your body and mind, this way, you will be able to make your body relaxed a little. Moreover, through this process, you will be able to reduce the fear and prevent hyperventilating, or helping fight the attack effectively.

For this process, you will need to breathe the oxygen into your belly and chest for four seconds before holding it for three seconds, and then again breathing out for four seconds. This is sure to help with your conditions greatly in just a short amount of time and doesn't require much effort as well.

Change Your Thoughts to the Positive Ones

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Another extremely effective practice is to change your thoughts to your positive one. This is so efficient because the major cause of stress is your negative thoughts and this will help counter that. During anxiety attacks, your mind starts to think about things that do not make much sense and are extremely negative.

So, whenever the symptoms of anxiety attacks start to emerge, you are suggested thinking about the people and things that you love. You may also remember the good times of your life or the positives of your life right now. Another thing that you can do is consider why your current thoughts may be wrong and try to find the silver lining if you are in a bad situation. This will help improve your mood, and reduce fear while also helping to improve your breathing conditions. Because of all this, you will then be able to easily fight off the anxiety attack.

Count or Try the Grounding Techniques

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So, another efficient tip to help you get through anxiety attacks quickly and easily is to count. This way, you will be able to get your mind off of the thing that is causing the stress, and, therefore, will help weaken and eventually end the attack. This will do this by making you focus on this rather the thing worrying you. For this reason, rather than normal counting, you should count the threes or the sevens or subtract numbers. You could also multiply or find the prime above one hundred or even count backward.

Another thing that you could do is to try the grounding technique. This technique will have the same effect as counting but will require a bit more focus, and, therefore, will be a bit more effective. So, for this, you are required to find the thing that you can taste, the two things that you can smell, the three things that you can hear, the four things that you can touch, and the five things that you can see.

Focus on a Particular Object and Practice Mindfulness

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Focusing on a single item around you can also be helpful. This will have a similar effect to those of the counting and grounding techniques. It will distract you from what caused the attack and will also reduce the effect of various symptoms. For this, you are suggested to focus on a moving object as it requires more attention. For instance, you may follow the movement of the clock hands or the moving cars outside the building. However, focusing on a still object and trying to figure exactly what colour, shape, and size it is of can also be very helpful.

Another thing that you can do is practice mindfulness. This, again, will help you to regain focus and will help you to know the reality and stay connected with your surroundings. For this, you are suggested to feel the texture of your shirt or pants or you can dig your feet into the ground.

Inhale Lavender and Meditate

Source www.verywellmind.com

Meditation can greatly help with your anxiety attack.s For instance, it will help ease up your mind and release some of the tension. It will also help you to focus more and be peaceful, all helping to reduce the effects of the attack. For this reason, whenever you feel anxious, you should practise meditation by sitting comfortably and closing your eyes before breathing naturally. You are suggested to focus on the breath and let your body move freely and notice the movement of the body. This way, you will be able to forget why you were anxious in the first place, helping ease your condition.

You may also inhale lavender to lower the impact or the attack. Lavender is known to have a calming effect, and, therefore, has been in use against anxiousness and depression for a long time. This will help relieve some of the symptoms by relaxing your mind, and, because of this reason, it has even become a part of certain medications. For this, you can rub lavender oil onto your wrist and smell it. However, if you just took benzodiazepine medicine, avoid this as this can then cause drowsiness.

Visualize a Safe Place and Know That This Will Pass

Source www.verywellmind.com

Another great way to cope with the anxiety attack is to remember the safest place that you can. Once you know what it is, try to focus on the smallest of the details of the place; the smell, the patterns on the things around, and the taste of the fruit if any. However, you need to make sure that this place is peaceful, quiet, and relaxing or it may worsen the situation rather than improving it.

You also need to know that this is just a little part of your life and that it will pass as well. If you worry too much about it, it will have a deeper impact on you and will affect very badly. Do not let the anxiousness control you but control the anxiousness yourself.

Face Your Fears

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Another great way to help with your anxiety attack is to face your fears. This is so, because, if you keep them hidden within, they will build up inside you and damage you even more than you could imagine. Though it is difficult to face something that you fear, this will help get rid of the thoughts that are causing the anxiety attack, and, therefore, will effectively counter the attack. By keeping them hidden within, on the other hand, you may cause even severe health problems in the future.

Now, you could either think about your fears and try to fight them off yourself. Or, you could talk to a friend or a professional. The psychiatrist can effectively talk to you about what you are feeling and help solve them. If your attack is caused by a particular anxiety disorder, the psychiatrist may also be able to help you by the means of various therapies.

Medications are Available to Manage Severe Issues

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If your situation is extremely severe and you get anxiety attacks often, you are suggested to get some medications. Now, for this, we suggest you visit a proper doctor and get a prescription from him rather than rely on our tips completely as the severity of the situation, and, therefore, the amount and strength of the medication vary from person to person.

Even so, you should know about the various medications for these attacks. So, these include medicines with benzodiazepines and various antidepressants. These antidepressants usually include SSRIs like Zoloft, Prozac, Lexapro, Paxil, and Celexa which are also used to treat various anxiety disorders. The most commonly prescribed medicines consisting of benzodiazepines are Valium and Xanax. However, you should consult a doctor before using these medications as they are addictive.

Now, it's the Valium and Xanax that are highly addictive, the antidepressants could also have bad effects on your health. For instance, these can cause nervousness, fatigue, agitation, nausea, weight gain, drowsiness, insomnia, diarrhea, sexual dysfunction, increased sweating, headaches, and dry mouth.

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