5 Things You Need to Know About Anxiety Attack Treatment

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1. Understand Prescription Anxiety Medications

There are a variety of prescription drugs that your doctor can prescribe to treat your anxiety attacks, also known as panic attacks. If your anxiety attacks occur frequently, you might want to consider taking a daily medication to help prevent the attacks from happening altogether. Some antidepressants, such as Prozac, Zoloft, Lexapro and Paxil, can be used to help prevent a lot of the symptoms of general anxiety disorder, including the attacks. Benzodiazepines, like Xanax and Klonopin, treat an anxiety attack that is already in progress. These medications are extremely addictive and people tend to build a tolerance rather quickly to them, so they should be used sparingly and only as needed. They can also have side effects like drowsiness, dizziness and confusion.

2. Choose Natural Remedies for Anxiety Treatment

Natural treatments and medications are typically free from the side effects that you might have from a prescription anti-anxiety medication. Kava Kava, valerian root and St. John's Wort have been used to treat anxiety, but use caution when taking herbal remedies as some herbs can actually make anxiety worse. The herbal remedies listed here should be easily found in a health food store.

3. Try Therapy Treatment

Cognitive behavior therapy is a type of therapy that helps you change your thinking patterns in a way that will help relieve your anxiety attacks. Exposure therapy is often used to help in the treatment of anxiety attacks, especially if there's a specific phobia triggering the attacks. In exposure therapy, an individual is exposed to his fear in a safe, controlled environment while learning new skills and behaviors to deal with the anxiety.

4. Relax, Kid

Different forms of meditation and relaxation are beneficial in anxiety attack treatment. Simple deep breathing can help combat anxiety attacks. Yoga requires concentration that can distract you from what's causing your anxiety. Yoga also encourages deep breathing and relaxation, which help prevent and treat anxiety.

5. Maintain a Healthy Body for a Healthy Mind

Take good care of your body to help ease your anxiety. The healthier you are, the easier it is to deal with stressful situations, keeping your anxiety in check. Exercise is probably the simplest way to keep your anxiety levels low to nonexistent. When you exercise your body releases endorphins, which are the body's natural feel good chemicals. When you exercise hard, you sleep better, breathe easier and generally just feel good about yourself.

About this Author

Kathy J. Tanner holds a certification in Neuro-Linguistic Programming and is working toward becoming a personal trainer. She focuses much of her freelance writing on health and fitness topics. Kathy currently trains five days a week, and enjoys strength training and cycling.

Last updated on: 11/18/09

Member Comments

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by arlen on May 19, 2008 at 7:48 AM

One important thing to note is that you never want to use alcohol or non-prescription drugs as a mood regulator to ease the pain of anxiety.

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