Anxiety and Panic Attacks
Anxiety and panic attacks can come on suddenly with an overwhelming force, your heart begins to race, your blood pressure rises, and it becomes a struggle to breathe.
The symptoms of anxiety and panic attacks can often be confused with a heart attack, the most common attacks occur after a period of unusual stress situations such as a death or divorce. Some of the physical symptoms of anxiety and panic attacks include accelerated heartbeat, restlessness, feeling of dread during the day and upon waking, difficulty concentrating, stomach pain, rapid breathing, and the sudden onset of acute fear which is often triggered by a challenging situation such as crowds.
These symptoms can manifest anxiety and panic attacks, therefore is it necessary to find out what causes an attack so that you can stop it happening before it causes further harm or damage.
The causes of anxiety and panic attacks can include the poor handling of stress, hormonal imbalances, illness, nutrient deficiencies, fluctuating blood sugar levels, alcohol, drugs, excess coffee, insufficient exercise, personal and financial concerns and an inherited predisposition that may have been reinforced by your upbringing or perhaps the environment.
My dear friend Sally has been kind enough to share her own experience with you in the hope that it might help you understand that you are not alone when it comes to anxiety and panic attacks.
This is Sally’s Story of panic and how she beat it!
“My name is Sally Edmonds and I was only 22 when I had my first panic attack. I was at the shopping mall having a quick cup of coffee before venturing onto the next set of shops when I started to feel uncomfortable. My heart began to race and my whole body started to tense up. To start with I thought I must have been having an allergic reaction to something I just ate, then I started to think that maybe it was more serious; like a heart attack. I got up to find the bathroom and I became so terrified I could not even go back to the table I had been sitting at.
Unfortunately, that was the first of many anxiety or panic attacks I was to experience over the coming few years. I didn’t realize what a panic attack was until I asked my doctor who explained it to me. He did not give me much information, all he could tell me was that I had developed an anxiety disorder, prescribed some medication to help me calm down; I stopped taking the medication soon after as I feared becoming addicted or perhaps going through some bad side effects.
Most mornings I would wake up anxious with the fear of not knowing if I would make it through the day without having any anxiety and panic attacks. I began to have thoughts that I might be going crazy and do something totally out of character in front of my friends and family. I got so worked up about all this that I started to lose confidence in my own ability to control my own life. It actually influenced alot of the decisions I made over the next couple of years. It seemed everything I did was influenced by this nagging fear of anxiety.
I am sharing this story with you in the hope that I might be able to help you find your way out of your anxiety just as I did. I found this program called Panic Away, at first I was sceptical as I had not heard about it, but I took the chance and downloaded the e-book. I started reading and I felt as if Joe Barry was speaking directly to me; he know exactly what I was going through and he gave me an outline on how I could move out of my anxiety with the One Move Technique.
This technique has made a world of difference. I applied the technique each morning which happened when I experienced my worst anxiety or panic attacks and I immediately noticed a difference. Several weeks passed without any significant anxiety, I then started to do things on my own with confidence. One year on I am feeling 100% better, I do not fear anxiety creeping back because I have moved beyond it. I learnt so much about myself in those years and I now know that I have the resources within me to deal with this, I just needed some guidance. I hope I can help even just one person who is in a similar place as to where I was when I felt down and trapped in fear”.
I am so proud of Sally the way she was able to conquer her fears and that she was so willing to share her story on anxiety and panic attacks.
