The Effect of Sleep Disorders in Your Daily Life
Filed under: Anxiety Drugs, Panic Causes, Panic Hypnosis, Panic Therapy, Panic Tips
If your job or home responsibilities are causing you a considerable amount of stress, you may find that you haven’t been sleeping on a regular basis either. Getting the right amount of rest can do wonders to help you cope with stress and reduce your level of nervousness. Here is some information about sleep disorders, as well as how you can avoid developing this condition.
First, you’ll need to figure out how much sleep you need depending on your age group. Teenagers usually need about nine and a half hours of sleep every night, but adults can function normally with about seven hours. However, millions of people do not get nearly enough sleep, which means that the body is not able to renew itself at a normal rate. This is one of the reasons that sleep disorders develop, since your body is more likely to fall out of the natural rhythm of sleeping, and stress and anxiety are sure to develop as a result. Not getting enough sleep will also weaken your immune system, which means you’ll be more prone to sickness, which will cause you to have to spend more time away from performing daily tasks.
Sleep disorders are quite common in teens, due to a condition called delayed sleep phase syndrome. Due to the hormonal changes that are happening in the body during this time, teenagers tend to be ‘night owls’ and want to stay awake when the rest of the family is preparing for bed. This also means that your son or daughter will want to sleep later in the morning, and won’t get the recommended nine and a half hours of sleep, since school starts early in the morning and throws their sleep schedule off. This could cause significant lack of concentration in school, and can be treated by attempting to ‘train’ your teen to go to bed an hour or two earlier than they usually would, so that they can wake up refreshed.
If you are eating foods that you are severely allergic to without knowing it, you could also be experiencing sleep disorders like sleep apnea, which is when individuals stop breathing temporarily without sleep. You may also experience insomnia due to indigestion, which is when you have severe difficulty falling asleep, and stay awake for extremely long periods of time without feeling especially sleepy–until it’s almost time for you to wake up.
If drinking a glass of water or warm milk doesn’t quite help with your sleep disorders, you may want to try eating a banana or a bowl of oatmeal a few minutes before going to bed. These foods are rich in tryptophan and serotonin, which will help you to to relax and will make sleeping easier. You can find out more about sleep disorders by visiting www.webmd.com
Experienced any Anxiety Panic Attack Disorders in the Past??
Filed under: Anxiety Stories, Panic Causes, Panic Therapy, Panic Tips
If you have experienced stress-related disorders in the past, or if you’re noticing that your stress level is definitely starting to affect your health, you’ll want to find out all you can about protecting yourself so that you can avoid having an anxiety panic attack. Here are some of the indications that you may be having a panic attack, as well as some methods you can use for treatment.
First, it is important to realize that it is normal to experience a moderate amount of anxiety in everyday life. The things that may occur at school or home tend to cause a considerable amount of stress, and if you have a large project to finish or are making a major life change, it is completely natural to feel stressed. However, when you notice that you are anxious the majority of the time, or that you dread the ‘normal’ activities that will make your day run smoother, it is time to seek help.
A panic attack happens when you have a sudden surge of fear that feels completely overwhelming. An anxiety panic attack is a lot more intense than just feeling ‘regular’ feelings of anxiousness, and unfortunately, this condition is a lot more common than you think. About one in every seventy five people in the world will experience an anxiety panic attack at some point in life, but there are ways for you to treat this condition.
When the fear or stress that you experience has become intense, try to get to a place where you can calm down and gather your thoughts. If you can not slip away to be by yourself, try counting to yourself or concentrating on your breathing so that you can calm your body down. This will also help to slow your heart rate and will take away any numbness or tingling you may feel in your fingers and toes, which are common symptoms of an anxiety panic attack.
You can also decrease your chances of having a panic attack by paying attention to the foods you eat. Some people are not able to tolerate coffee or other drinks that contain caffeine, so if you are already leading a pretty high-strung life, you may want to opt for drinking tea or fruit juices in the morning in order to get the right amount of antioxidants for the day. You may also want to cut down on eating foods that are high in sugar, since these can cause anxiety panic attack symptoms in both adults and children.
In order to find out more about how to protect yourself from having panic attacks, visit sites like www.medicinenet.com or www.webmd.com.
Suffering with Anxiety Disorders?
Filed under: Anxiety Stories, Anxiety Symptoms, Panic Causes
If you have been having trouble sleeping lately, or haven’t been eating regularly, you may have one or more anxiety disorders due to extreme stress. Here is some information about the different types of conditions and disorders that are associated with stress, as well as ways that you can treat them.
There are five main types of anxiety disorders–generalized anxiety, OCD, panic disorder, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and social phobia. If you are generally anxious, this could be due to high-stress situations you may be experiencing at home or on the job, and chemical imbalances in the brain caused by food or lack of amino acids could play a role in your condition as well. Individuals with OCD, or obsessive compulsive disorder, have to have things in their home or office a certain way, or will develop compulsive habits such as opening and closing doors a set number of times each day, or washing their hands several times consecutively. PTSD is the body’s reaction to a dangerous or painful event that may have taken place in a patient’s life. Children can experience this disorder as well, and the condition may be characterized by not talking for months at a time, as well as symptoms like bed wetting and acting out in school.
If you want to try natural treatments for anxiety disorders, you may want to try supplements like 5-HTP, which is a very effective treatment for getting rid of depression. You can also try SAM-e, which helps to increase the levels of serotonin in the body and improve your mood. Taking more B vitamins has also been proven to help with anxiety disorders, so taking a multivitamin that is high in B12 and B6, as well as purchasing separate dosages of the supplements may help. Your diet may also be contributing to the level of stress or nervousness that you feel. If you’re eating foods that are high in sugar and artificial dyes, your body may be reacting negatively to these substances; this is quite common in children, so a change in diet may definitely help.
There are a number of new treatments on the market for disorders associated with nervousness and social disorders, so if you or your child is experiencing symptoms, be sure to talk to your family physicians to get referrals to licensed therapists that can help you to work out your feelings and uncover the reasons for your nervousness or sadness. More traditional medications such as Praxil and Prozac are also available at most doctor’s offices, so medication in addition to therapy may be what you need to start–and complete–the healing process. For more information on anxiety disorders and how you can get the help you need, visit www.nimh.org or www.webmd.com.
Struggling with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) ?
Filed under: Anxiety Symptoms, Panic Causes, Panic Hypnosis
If you or a loved one are struggling with OCD, or you need to know more about the condition in order to provide the right type of therapeutic treatments to a patient, there are a number of medical articles that are now available on the subject, which is a welcome change from previous years. Here are some of the best resources for finding out more about obsessive compulsive disorder, as well as possible treatments you may want to try.
OCD actually is an anxiety disorder that includes unwelcomed thoughts and repetitive behavior. Having to count the amount of steps that it takes to get from the front door to the car, or closing doors a certain amount of time before leaving the house or the office are characteristics of this condition, and people with obsessive compulsive disorder also have a tendency to be obsessed with getting rid of germs and dirt, which means that they may have to sanitize or wash their hands over and over several times during the day.
People with OCD feel as though something tragic will happen to them if they do not complete all of their rituals in the course of a day. For instance, some patients feel that if they lose count of their steps when they are walking, a family member may be injured if they do not start counting their steps from the beginning. Some people also think that something tragic will happen to them, or that they will not be attractive or smart enough to handle social situations properly until they have fulfilled all of their rituals.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder can be brought on by a particularly traumatic experience in the past, and can last for years, especially if it is not detected and treated properly. In many cases, the negative thoughts can be associated with the dangerous or depressing event that has taken place in the life of the patient, so psychotherapy treatment may be effective in treating patients of all ages who are struggling with an anxiety disorder.
Therapy may include getting the patient to uncover the reasons why they are dealing with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) , and having them discuss how they feel each day when rituals are not performed. Performing the various ‘habits’ will provide temporary relief from the anxiety or nervousness, but these methods have to be performed several times a day in order for patients to feel some sort of normalcy, which is why the disorder is so debilitating. Pictures, music therapy, and simply talking out their problems can prove to be rather effective, and a number of medications, such as Anafranil, will also help to reduce anxiety symptoms. For natural treatments, SAM-e and 5-HTP will help to increase serotonin levels and keep the condition under control and live free from panic disorder
If you want to recover from the negative effects of your anxiety, take a positive step with the most effective panic attack cure available on the market today.
What is Panic Puzzle
Panic Puzzle is an online anxiety treatment program, using combination of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and many effective alternative treatments to help anxiety suffer to gain full recovery. Panic Puzzle was created by Rich Presta, he is also the creator of the famous “DrivingDear” program, another great product to help driving phobia sufferers to conquer their Fear of driving.
There are many people benefit from Panic Puzzle, you can see some testimonial at the end of this review.
Who is Rich Presta
Rich Presta, an expert in self-improvement and personal development. He also suffered from anxiety attack since 1992, and through the experience of fighting anxiety, he has developed a systematic way to help other sufferers, and successfully helped many people achieving different levels of recovery. During the days, he was suffering from anxiety disorder, he has promised himself to do something important when he gained full recovery, that’s why he has created these programs to help people!
In one of his letters, he mentioned:
“When I was struggling with panic and anxiety disorder like you may be, I made a lot of promises, quite honestly, out of sheer desperation. When I was in the midst of panic, unsure how or if I would crawl out from under it, I promised that if I was ever able to overcome my anxiety and lead a normal life again, I would do something important. That I’d be a better person. That I wouldn’t forget the fear.”
“It’s been a long time since I suffered like I did then, and my life now isn’t just normal, it’s extraordinary. I have a wonderful wife and family that I love more than I ever knew I was able and it’s hard to even believe I’m even the same person I was back then. In a lot of ways, I’m NOT the same person.”
“I did overcome my anxiety, and I remember my promises. I haven’t forgotten what the fear was like, or how REAL it was. Because of my past challenges I AM a better person, and I try every day to do something important, to help people with anxiety, panic, and phobias overcome their fears and reclaim their lives.”
Panic Puzzle and Driving Fear is 2 of his successful program to help people, see the testimonials on their website.
Agoraphobia and Panic Attacks
Filed under: Anxiety Symptoms, Panic Causes, Panic Therapy, Panic Tips
There is phobia that is linked to the experience of panic attacks, and that is agoraphobia. Agoraphobia is the fear of open spaces or of being in crowded, public places such as shopping markets. It is a fear associated with leaving a safe zone, such as the home.
Because of a feeling of being vulnerable, people who experience this fear often suffer from panic attacks in these “open” situations. It is true to say many people who have regular panic attacks experience different degrees of agoraphobia. Some have a lingering background anxiety about being away from home should they experience a panic attack. Other people are so immobilized by this fear that they find it very difficult to leave their home for even a short period.
The thinking behind agoraphobia usually follows the line that were a panic attack to occur, who would look after the person, how would he or she get the assistance and reassurance they needed? The vulnerability grows from the feeling that once victims of agoraphobia are caught in the anxiety, they are suddenly unable to look after themselves and are therefore at the mercy of the place they find themselves in and the strangers around them. In its extreme form, agoraphobia and panic attacks can lead to a situation where people become housebound for numerous years. Please note, this is by no means a hopeless situation, and I always need to reinforce the fact that something only becomes hopeless once the person really believes that to be the case.
To begin with, the primary issue that needs to be addressed is the belief in the safe zone. To clarify, when I talk about safe zone, I am referring to the zone where the person believes panic attacks do not occur, or at least occur infrequently. As comfort is found there, it is where the person tends to spend more and more time. The safe zone of anxiety is a myth sustained by the mind. The mind has developed a habit of thinking that dictates that being inside the safe zone is the only place to feel secure and avoid agoraphobia and panic attacks. If agoraphobia is an issue for you, watch as your mind comes up with reasons why it believes only a certain area is safe and another is not. Those reasons range from being near the phone or people you trust to having familiar physical surroundings to reassure you.
The reality of anxiety is that there is no such thing as a safe zone. There is nothing life threatening about a panic attack, and therefore sitting at home is the same as sitting under the stars on a desert island. Of course, your mind will immediately rush to tell you that a desert island is a ridiculous place to be as there are no hospitals, no tranquillisers, no doctors, NO SAFETY.
You need to review your previous experiences of panic attacks. Aren’t you still here, alive and well, after all those attacks during which you were convinced you were going to die?
It may be that on occasions you have been driven to the hospital where they did medicate you to calm you down, but do you really believe that you would not have survived were it not for the drugs? You would have. If the same bout of anxiety had occurred on this desert island, it too would have passed, even if you were all alone. Yes, when it comes to conditions that need medical attention such as asthma, diabetes, and a whole litany or other conditions, then having medical aid nearby is a big asset, but no doctor in the world would tell someone with anxiety that there are only specific safe zones in which she or he can move.
As I know more than anyone how terrifying it can feel to move out of your safe zone as the feeling of fear is welling up inside, I do not wish to sound harsh. This course is not about chastising people for their behaviours. It is a way of looking together at solutions and seeing through the myths that form prison walls. The goal is to enable you to return to a richer and more meaningful life and ultimately defeat your agoraphobia and panic attacks. I also realize that people around you cannot understand why a trip to shops would cause you such discomfort. You will have to forgive them and try not to be upset by their lack of understanding of your problem.
If an individual such as a partner or family member has not had a similar anxiety issue, that person may often find it hard to understand and empathize with what you are going through. I am sure you have been dragged out of the house numerous times against your will, kicking and screaming. This can then lead to tensions and arguments and is upsetting as it can make you feel less understood by those around you. People around agoraphobics are often simply trying what they feel is best. If you can see that their intentions are well meaning (although often misguided), then you will be able to relate to them better and help sooth any potential conflicts.
There is one thing I am sure you will agree with, and that is that the only person who will get you out of agoraphobic thinking is yourself. These are your thoughts, and only you can begin to change that pattern. Dealing with long term agoraphobia and panic attacks is a slow process to begin with, but once the results start happening, it moves faster and faster until you reach a point where you will find it hard to believe that going out was such a difficult task.
Causes of Panic Attacks
The short and obvious answer: panic attacks are caused by high anxiety. But, what exactly is anxiety? Understanding how anxiety crops up will help you defeat panic attacks.
One of the biggest myths surrounding anxiety is that it is harmful and can lead to a number of various life-threatening conditions.
Definition of Anxiety
Anxiety is defined as a state of apprehension or fear resulting from the anticipation of a real or imagined threat, event, or situation. It is one of the most common human emotions experienced by people at some point in their lives.
However, most people who have never experienced a panic attack, or extreme anxiety, fail to realize the terrifying nature of the experience. Extreme dizziness, blurred vision, tingling and feelings of breathlessness—and that’s just the tip of the iceberg!
When these sensations occur and people do not understand why, they feel they have contracted an illness, or a serious mental condition. The threat of losing complete control seems very real and naturally very terrifying.
Fight/Flight Response: One of the root causes of panic attacks?
I am sure most of you have heard of the fight/flight response as an explanation for one of the root causes of panic attacks. Have you made the connection between this response and the unusual sensations you experience during and after a panic attack episode?
Anxiety is a response to a danger or threat. It is so named because all of its effects are aimed toward either fighting or fleeing from the danger. Thus, the sole purpose of anxiety is to protect the individual from harm. This may seem ironic given that you no doubt feel your anxiety is actually causing you great harm…perhaps the most significant of all the causes of panic attacks.
However, the anxiety that the fight/flight response created was vital in the daily survival of our ancient ancestors—when faced with some danger, an automatic response would take over that propelled them to take immediate action such as attack or run. Even in today’s hectic world, this is still a necessary mechanism. It comes in useful when you must respond to a real threat within a split second.
Anxiety is a built-in mechanism to protect us from danger. Interestingly, it is a mechanism that protects but does not harm—an important point that will be elaborated upon later.
The Physical Manifestations of a Panic Attack: Other pieces of the puzzle to understand the causes of panic attacks. Nervousness and Chemical Effects…
When confronted with danger, the brain sends signals to a section of the nervous system. It is this system that is responsible for gearing the body up for action and also calms the body down and restores equilibrium. To carry out these two vital functions, the autonomic nervous system has two subsections, the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system.
Although I don’t want to become too “scientific,” having a basic understanding of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system will help you understand the causes of panic attacks.
The sympathetic nervous system is the one we tend to know all too much about because it primes our body for action, readies us for the “fight or flight” response, while the parasympathetic nervous system is the one we love dearly as it serves as our restoring system, which returns the body to its normal state.
When either of these systems is activated, they stimulate the whole body, which has an “all or nothing” effect. This explains why when a panic attack occurs, the individual often feels a number of different sensations throughout the body.
The sympathetic system is responsible for releasing the adrenaline from the adrenal glands on the kidneys. These are small glands located just above the kidneys. Less known, however, is that the adrenal glands also release adrenaline, which functions as the body’s chemical messengers to keep the activity going. When a panic attack begins, it does not switch off as easily as it is turned on. There is always a period of what would seem increased or continued anxiety, as these messengers travel throughout the body. Think of them as one of the physiological causes of panic attacks, if you will.
After a period of time, the parasympathetic nervous system gets called into action. Its role is to return the body to normal functioning once the perceived danger is gone. The parasympathetic system is the system we all know and love, because it returns us to a calm relaxed state.
When we engage in a coping strategy that we have learned, for example, a relaxation technique, we are in fact willing the parasympathetic nervous system into action. A good thing to remember is that this system will be brought into action at some stage whether we will it or not. The body cannot continue in an ever-increasing spiral of anxiety. It reaches a point where it simply must kick in, relaxing the body. This is one of the many built-in protection systems our bodies have for survival.
You can do your best with worrying thoughts, keeping the sympathetic nervous system going, but eventually it stops. In time, it becomes a little smarter than us, and realizes that there really is no danger. Our bodies are incredibly intelligent—modern science is always discovering amazing patterns of intelligence that run throughout the cells of our body. Our body seems to have infinite ways of dealing with the most complicated array of functions we take for granted. Rest assured that your body’s primary goal is to keep you alive and well.
Not so convinced?
Try holding your breath for as long as you can. No matter how strong your mental will is, it can never override the will of the body. This is good news—no matter how hard you try to convince yourself that you are gong to die from a panic attack, you won’t. Your body will override that fear and search for a state of balance. There has never been a reported incident of someone dying from a panic attack.
Remember this next time you have a panic attack; he causes of panic attacks cannot do you any physical harm. Your mind may make the sensations continue longer than the body intended, but eventually everything will return to a state of balance. In fact, balance (homeostasis) is what our body continually strives for.
The interference for your body is nothing more than the sensations of doing rigorous exercise. Our body is not alarmed by these symptoms. Why should it be? It knows its own capability. It’s our thinking minds that panic, which overreact and scream in sheer terror! We tend to fear the worst and exaggerate our own sensations. A quickened heart beat becomes a heart attack. An overactive mind seems like a close shave with schizophrenia. Is it our fault? Not really—we are simply diagnosing from poor information.
Cardiovascular Effects Activity in the sympathetic nervous system increases our heartbeat rate, speeds up the blood flow throughout the body, ensures all areas are well supplied with oxygen and that waste products are removed. This happens in order to prime the body for action.
A fascinating feature of the “fight or flight” mechanism is that blood (which is channelled from areas where it is currently not needed by a tightening of the blood vessels) is brought to areas where it is urgently needed.
For example, should there be a physical attack, blood drains from the skin, fingers, and toes so that less blood is lost, and is moved to “active areas” such as the thighs and biceps to help the body prepare for action.
This is why many feel numbness and tingling during a panic attack-often misinterpreted as some serious health risk-such as the precursor to a heart attack. Interestingly, most people who suffer from anxiety often feel they have heart problems. If you are really worried that such is the case with your situation, visit your doctor and have it checked out. At least then you can put your mind at rest.
Respiratory Effects
One of the scariest effects of a panic attack is the fear of suffocating or smothering. It is very common during a panic attack to feel tightness in the chest and throat. I’m sure everyone can relate to some fear of losing control of your breathing. From personal experience, anxiety grows from the fear that your breathing itself would cease and you would be unable to recover. Can a panic attack stop our breathing? No.
A panic attack is associated with an increase in the speed and depth of breathing. This has obvious importance for the defense of the body since the tissues need to get more oxygen to prepare for action. The feelings produced by this increase in breathing, however, can include breathlessness, hyperventilation, sensations of choking or smothering, and even pains or tightness in the chest. The real problem is that these sensations are alien to us, and they feel unnatural.
Having experienced extreme panic attacks myself, I remember that on many occasions, I would have this feeling that I couldn’t trust my body to do the breathing for me, so I would have to manually take over and tell myself when to breathe in and when to breathe out. Of course, this didn’t suit my body’s requirement of oxygen and so the sensations would intensify—along with the anxiety. It was only when I employed the technique I will describe for you later, did I let the body continue doing what it does best—running the whole show.
Importantly, a side-effect of increased breathing, (especially if no actual activity occurs) is that the blood supply to the head is actually decreased. While such a decrease is only a small amount and is not at all dangerous, it produces a variety of unpleasant but harmless symptoms that include dizziness, blurred vision, confusion, sense of unreality, and hot flushes.
Other Physical Effects of Panic Attacks:
Now that we’ve discussed some of the primary physiological causes of panic attacks, there are a number of other effects that are produced by the activation of the sympathetic nervous system, none of which are in any way harmful.
For example, the pupils widen to let in more light, which may result in blurred vision, or “seeing” stars, etc. There is a decrease in salivation, resulting in dry mouth. There is decreased activity in the digestive system, which often produces nausea, a heavy feeling in the stomach, and even constipation. Finally, many of the muscle groups tense up in preparation for “fight or flight” and this results in subjective feelings of tension, sometimes extending to actual aches and pains, as well as trembling and shaking.
Overall, the fight/flight response results in a general activation of the whole bodily metabolism. Thus, one often feels hot and flushed and, because this process takes a lot of energy, the person generally feels tired and drained.
Mental Manifestations: Are the causes of panic attacks all in my head? is a question many people wonder to themselves.
The goal of the fight/flight response is making the individual aware of the potential danger that may be present. Therefore, when activated, the mental priority is placed upon searching the surroundings for potential threats. In this state one is highly-strung, so to speak. It is very difficult to concentrate on any one activity, as the mind has been trained to seek all potential threats and not to give up until the threat has been identified. As soon as the panic hits, many people look for the quick and easiest exit from their current surroundings, such as by simply leaving the bank queue and walking outside. Sometimes the anxiety can heighten, if we perceive that leaving will cause some sort of social embarrassment.
If you have a panic attack while at the workplace but feel you must press on with whatever task it is you are doing, it is quite understandable that you would find it very hard to concentrate. It is quite common to become agitated and generally restless in such a situation. Many individuals I have worked with who have suffered from panic attacks over the years indicated that artificial light—such as that which comes from computer monitors and televisions screens—can can be one of the causes of panic attacks by triggering them or worsen a panic attack, particularly if the person is feeling tired or run down.
This is worth bearing in mind if you work for long periods of time on a computer. Regular break reminders should be set up on your computer to remind you to get up from the desk and get some fresh air when possible.
In other situations, when during a panic attack an outside threat cannot normally be found, the mind turns inwards and begins to contemplate the possible illness the body or mind could be suffering from. This ranges from thinking it might have been something you ate at lunch, to the possibility of an oncoming cardiac arrest.
The burning question is: Why is the fight/flight response activated during a panic attack even when there is apparently nothing to be frightened of?
Upon closer examination of the causes of panic attacks, it would appear that what we are afraid of are the sensations themselves—we are afraid of the body losing control. These unexpected physical symptoms create the fear or panic that something is terribly wrong. Why do you experience the physical symptoms of the fight/flight response if you are not frightened to begin with? There are many ways these symptoms can manifest themselves, not just through fear.
For example, it may be that you have become generally stressed for some reason in your life, and this stress results in an increase in the production of adrenaline and other chemicals, which from time to time, would produce symptoms….and which you perceive as the causes of panic attacks.
This increased adrenaline can be maintained chemically in the body, even after the stress has long gone. Another possibility is diet, which directly affects our level of stress. Excess caffeine, alcohol, or sugar is known for causing stress in the body, and is believed to be one of the contributing factors of the causes of panic attacks (Chapter 5 gives a full discussion on diet and its importance).
Unresolved emotions are often pointed to as possible trigger of panic attacks, but it is important to point out that eliminating panic attacks from your life does not necessarily mean analyzing your psyche and digging into your subconscious. The “One Move” technique will teach you to deal with the present moment and defuse the attack along with removing the underlying anxiety that sparks the initial anxiety.


