Panic Attacks Support Group

I know that when I first started to have panic attacks I was always worried about my heart, health, body, and that I was dying everything that WAS panic WAS my thoughts about what I felt at that EXACT moment...

I know A LOT of the people here are looking for answers to WHY they now have panic , also wondering things that they can do to help them selves over come panic and make it through attacks with ease...

Somethine that made a HUGE impact on me when doing all my study on panic what happens to the body, why I react the way my body reacts , and once I learned that panic couldnt hurt me I THEN wanted to try diffrent things to help me DEAL with and OVER COME panic attacks

There are MANY things that I tried

Oils

Therapy

Talk Therapy

Support Group Meetings (In real life and online)

Doctors (all kinds)

Tests

Looking up information OVER AND OVER again about panic

Massage

Accupuncture

and MANY MANY more though SOME of these helped me along the way NONE of these where the answer for me personally there are THREE things that have SAVED my life and MIND lol.....

1.) Meditation (I started this with baby steps starting with 1-8 mins at a time and using a ipod and CD's to help with visual guided mediations then I built up from there to doing 30mins with the CD's and then from there able to do it in my mind alone with NO noise for 30mins as well)

2.) Belly Breathing (learning to breath with your stomach NOT your chest a good way to see this is to place one hand on your chest and one on your tummy lay down , with a pillow so you can see, and breath normal see which hand moves, MOST people the chest hand moves which is fine BUT not the way you SHOULD breath so to lessen the panic attack times and help your body relax in general many tests have proven the health benifits on belly breathing)

3.)CBT (Cognitive behavioral therapy, THIS is such a help but take MANY MANY months and TIME in order to have this work for you but if you DO invest the time and effort into the CBT it CAN work for anyone anytime anywhere!)

With saying those three that Are great for me (personally)

I would like to tell you a small bit MORE about CBT so that you may see if this is what you would like to try as well--- is so please let me KNOW I have TONS of information,papers,charts,ect....

There is empirical evidence that CBT is effective for the treatment of a variety of problems, including mood, anxiety, personality, eating, substance abuse, and psychotic disorders

CBT includes a variety of approaches and therapeutic systems; some of the most well known include cognitive therapy, rational emotive behavior therapy and multimodal therapy. Defining the scope of what constitutes a cognitive–behavioral therapy is a difficulty that has persisted throughout its development

A basic concept in CBT treatment of anxiety disorders is in vivo exposure—a gradual exposure to the actual, feared stimulus. This treatment is based on the theory that the fear response has been classically conditioned and that avoidance negatively reinforces and maintains that fear.

Through exposure to the stimulus, this conditioning can be unlearned; this is referred to as extinction and habituation. CBT also looks at an individual's way of thinking and the way that they react to certain habits or behaviors.A specific phobia, such as fear of spiders, can often be treated with in vivo exposure and therapist modeling in one session. Obsessive compulsive disorder is typically treated with exposure with response prevention.

Social phobia, also known as social anxiety has often been treated with exposure coupled with cognitive restructuring, such as in Heimberg's group therapy protocol. Evidence suggests that cognitive interventions improve the result of social phobia treatment.

CBT has been shown to be effective in the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder, and possibly more effective than pharmacological treatments in the long term.In fact, one study of patients undergoing benzodiazepine withdrawal who had a diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder showed that those who received CBT had a very high success rate of discontinuing benzodiazepines compared to those who did not receive CBT. This success rate was maintained at 12-month follow up. Furthermore in patients who had discontinued benzodiazepines it was found that they no longer met the diagnosis of general anxiety disorder and that patients no longer meeting the diagnosis of general anxiety disorder was higher in the group who received CBT. Thus CBT can be an effective tool to add to a gradual benzodiazepine dosage reduction program leading to improved and sustained mental health benefits.