We normally react to stress by feeling anxious.  It helps us deal with tense situations, study harder or even keep focused on delivering a speech for example.  For the most part, it helps us cope with life’s difficult situations. It becomes a disabling anxiety disorder when it becomes an excessive, irrational fear of everyday events.

Our anxiety can be accompanied by physical effects such as heart palpitations, shortness of breath, chest pain, stomach ache, headaches and nausea. This is the way the body is preparing to deal with a perceived threat. Blood pressure, heart rate and sweating increase and blood flow to the muscles also increases. However, at the same time function to the immune and digestive systems is inhibited. This is what is referrred to as the fight or flight response. Some outward signs include sweating, trembling and pale skin.

The person suffering from an anxiety attack might also feel a sense of dread or panic, but not the almost paralyzing terror suffered by a person having a panic attack.

People who are suffering from anxiety disorders are three to five times more likely to seek medical treatment and six times more likely to be hospitalized for psychiatric disorders than other people.

When a person is having an anxiety attack they usually feel out of control. They experience very little warning prior to having one and then don’t know how to handle it when it comes. Most people who suffer from anxiety attacks end up visiting their doctor and usually they are given a prescription for a tranquilizer. Unfortunately, this is not the answer. It’s just a bandaid solution and does not get to the root cause of the attacks.

Sometimes there are physical problems that are contributing to the anxiety, such as hormonal fluctuations with the ovaries or the thyroid gland. Also, those suffering from hypoglycemia can also show symptoms of anxiety when their blood sugar levels suddenly drop. Blood tests can determine any of these causes.  Once a physical cause is identified, then the next step is to correct the problem with some form of treatment.

However, for many people, there is not a physical cause for their anxiety. Stress is invariably involved in the majority, if not all, cases of anxiety attacks. Following are some of the ways to combat stress and prevent future anxiety attacks:-

• The first thing you must do is make a conscious effort to relax and breathe deliberately and slowly;
• Call a relative or a close friend to give you support;
• Don’t expect too much from yourself; accept the things you cannot change;  realize that not everything is in your control;
• Take a hot bath;
• Grow in your faith;
• Learn some relaxation and exercise techniques such as meditation and yoga;
• Buy a few relaxation CDs and listen to them as soon as you think you are getting anxious;
• Surround yourself with things that you love;
• Schedule some alone time for yourself and do something you love to do such as listening to your favorite music or reading a good book.

We are never going to be able to eliminate stress from our lives.  We just have to learn some ways that work for us in reducing the stress levels and have some techniques to fall back on when we start to feel anxious.  It is possible to live a happy life, free from anxiety attacks.  Many people have done it, including myself.  It will take some effort of your part, but it is so worth it.

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