Curing Panic Attacks

To the degree that the trigger stimulus or stimuli can be isolated and identified it can then be managed (avoided) or eliminated completely, then the panic attack can be avoided or completely eliminated.

While panic attacks are not necessarily life threatening, they do feel that way and have been described by some as the worst experience a person can have short of a true biological, life threatening condition.

There is some evidence to suggest that women who have recurring panic attacks may be at a higher risk for heart attacks but in general a panic attack can often be relieved quickly by simply making an immediate exit from the current situation the victim is in. For example, some people get panic attacks when they are in a social gathering. They may begin to feel the symptoms of the panic attack coming on but by simply leaving the gathering the symptoms quickly subside.

However, the fact that panic attacks are not life threatening, does not mean that they are not life debilitating. Just as a heart attack victim has an elevated risk of having a second heart attack without sweeping lifestyle changes, panic attack victims often have additional attacks.

The reason for that is two fold. The first and most obvious is that without treatment the trigger stimulus has not been managed or eliminated. The second reason is in the very nature of panic attacks themselves.

Panic attacks produce such unpleasant, severe physical symptoms, the victim is left in extreme fear even after the attack subsides. They are left in anxiety that the symptoms will return without warning and this stress alone is sometimes enough to trigger a panic attack. It is most often this residual fear that leaves a sufferer wondering, is there a cure for panic attacks.

In extreme untreated cases, a sufferer may experience behavioral changes in the form of avoidance, specifically agoraphobia which can severely diminish their quality of life. They begin to avoid social situations, neglect friends and family, can't perform their jobs and in the most severe situations, can't even leave their homes, paralyzing them socially and economically.

Reference: http://www.apa.org/topics/anxietyqanda.html