Anxiety
When people think of anxiety attacks the most common image that comes to mind is that of a frightened overly excitable person. This is a misconception; the truth is that people who suffer from anxiety attacks are not cowardly. The Anxiety Disorder Association of America (ADAA) estimates that over 40 million Americans suffer from anxiety disorders.
Although the disorders may vary in range of severity one thing holds true for all of them; they are all subject to anxiety attacks. With such a staggering number of Americans dealing with the trauma of sudden anxiety attacks, how could one think of them as somehow less able to handle life?
Understanding the anatomy of an anxiety attack helps to weed out myths that have long since shrouded the disorder. In centuries past those who were afflicted with the disorder found themselves imprisoned, institutionalized, and even put to death.
Society’s innate need to categorize and classify makes those who do not fit in to a particular mold undesirable and therefore easy to dismiss. Anxiety attacks are a symptom and the impetus of a larger problem. All anxiety disorders function with the concept of avoidance; avoiding pain, fear, and death.
Anxiety attacks are quite simply the living embodiment of the sufferers worst fears. Many of the symptoms of an anxiety attack mimic much more serious health problems, such as a heart attack.
Impending feelings of doom, heart palpitations, chest pains, dizziness; these things happen almost simultaneously during an attack and can leave a sufferer devastated. The only redeeming feature is that these attacks only last for a few minutes each time.
Anxiety attacks are so debilitating that sufferers completely alter there lives just to avoid them. Imagine waking up one day and deciding that you are no longer going to leave your home for fear of having an anxiety attack. This preposterous idea happens every day in the U.S. and is gaining momentum.
One only needs to turn on the television to see the plethora of medications on the market to treat anxiety. With so many people being diagnosed each year, the pharmaceutical companies are rushing to meet the demand.
Medication is not the only answer. People who suffer with anxiety attacks need to find a solid support base that they can depend on during recovery. Many disorders call for the psychological intervention to get past previously experienced traumas that may have created the disorder in the first place.