Is there a cure for panic? If panic attacks become a pattern rather than a single isolated event, western establishment medicine will often say "no" in the sense that an antibiotic cures an infection. But doctors will often prescribe any one or more mind-altering pharmaceutical drug to treat anxiety and panic. Sometimes they will also prescribe some form of cognitive behavior therapy which addresses emotional reactions and personal history. Results then vary.
I. Causes of anxiety may imply partial remedies
This twin approach of medical doctors may be taken to imply that anxiety and panic can have either physical or behavioral causes, often both. For example, physical causes may include genetic predisposition, certain drugs (whether illicit or prescribed) such as steroids, or caffeine, environmental toxins, withdrawal from alcohol (or from drugs or nicotine), possibly magnesium or other mineral deficiency, asthma, some heart problems, hypoglycemia, hyperthyroidism, and so on. Behavioral causes may include learned anxiety while still in the womb, an emotionally traumatic event, and accumulated reactions to stresses even if the stresses are positive like getting a new job or having a baby.
Undoing the causes of anxiety and panic where possible may abate the panic symptoms, although a pattern of panic attacks often also suggests that the brain itself is stuck in high anxiety mode. In other words, when panic attacks take on a life of their own, they may need to be treated independently and in addition to other related problems.
Steps can be taken nonetheless to reduce susceptibility to panic. A common, but over the long term uphelpful way is to avoid certain circumstances such as social settings that make one feel anxious. Avoidance behavior generally serves to maintain or even foster anxiety. Drugs or sometimes even natural anxiety remedies taken to reduce anxiety symptoms may be effective only so long as the calming substances are consumed, thus possibly aiding avoidance behavior unless consumed only short term or occasionally.
More healthy means of reducing panic susceptibility include avoiding illicit drugs, caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol as well as engaging in regular physical exercise, proper diet, good relaxation and sleep habits, and enjoyable activities. Slow and deep breathing exercises can prepare one to avoid the added panic symptoms that hyperventilation produces, and may be especially helpful for asthma sufferers with panic attacks. Healthy activities can raise mood, reduce lactic acid and stress hormone levels, and strengthen the body.
II. Anxiety Cures from the emotional and behavioral side
Such basics should not be overlooked or undervalued. However, other powerful treatments can be added. Generally, though not always, behavioral and emotional approaches are the more effective. Of these, one of the most effective methods is to accept one's panic attack symptoms and face one's fears. This is not to suggest that throwing oneself in real harm's way is advisable, but most panic attacks are not based on an entirely rational outlook. Many of us fear flying even though the statistics suggest we should not be.
Of course facing the symptoms of panic attacks is far from easy. First there is the overwhelming sense of terror, then the heart palpitations, rapid breathing, variously the chest pains, stomach pains, breathing difficulty, need to go to the bathroom, sweating, coldness, hot flashes, dizziness, faintness, sense of unreality, or whatever set of unpleasant symptoms one feels.
But if one can divorce panic symptoms from other diagnosed disease symptoms, if any, one knows the symptoms in themselves are not harmful and will pass away. Over time, accepting panic symptoms and facing one's fears helps assure one that the symptoms can be controlled rather than that they are in control. Sometimes the presence of a professional counselor can be reassuring, and sometimes the panic and fear can be faced in measured doses.
Indeed going it alone is seldom advisable, and even less so in the case of panic attacks in the presence of post traumatic stress disorder. Children with panic disorder may also especially need the guidance and interpretation a skilled adult can bring to bear.
A second emotion-related technique is to exercise the feeling of gratitude. In other words, when one feels the onset of heightened anxiety, cut it off by replacing it with a strong sense of gratitude for whatever one is sincerely thankful for. This may require one to exercise the feeling of gratitude when anxiety levels are lower so as to be better prepared under duress. Small as it may seem, a thankful spirit has proven effective.
Or thirdly, one may rethink false assumptions that may drive panic. Is one's well-being really dependent on controlling someone else? Is it reasonable to assume one is as vulnerable to whatever "what if" one fears as one fears one is? Could one really not cope in life without fill in the blank? If the assumption is unreasonable, write out the contrary and remind oneself of it when tempted to fly into a panic.
And other methods are known. There may not be a single quick cure that always works for everyone's panic disorder. But many have reached a point of being normal again, or of reducing susceptiility to panic attacks to occasional and weak ones. Combinations of methods targeted to individual need and the application of widely effective techniques may be the reason why so many, though not all, have been cured of panic problems.
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