If you have ever had a panic attack, you know how terrifying they are. If you have them regularly, you are likely to notice that you are restricting your activities. You may feel the need to have a safe person with you when you go anywhere unfamiliar or where you have had an attack before. Panic attacks can generalize very easily. This means that if you had a panic attack in the grocery store, your brain might decide that all stores or even public places are unsafe.
The good news is that panic attacks are one of the easier parts of anxiety to stop for most people. I will provide you with education to understand what is happening and tools to use to start managing the attacks at the start of treatment. We will then work together to fine-tune what works for you. You will start noticing a decrease in intensity and frequency of your panic attacks quickly. We can then work on the underlying anxiety issues in more depth to prevent them from causing other problems.
It is important to understand that panic attacks are a combination of emotions, physical symptoms, and thoughts. Each episode is usually short, peaking after about 10 minutes and starting to end by 30 minutes, but this can vary greatly. To the person experiencing the attack, it feels much, much longer. Panic attacks can either be set off by a trigger or happen unexpectedly which increases the fear of having another one. The emotional part is the intense fear and may include fear of dying or going crazy (during the attack) and fear of having another attack (between episodes). This fear will subside as we treat the physical and cognitive symptoms.
Therapy for panic attacks is very effective and can alleviate your symptoms quickly. You don’t need to suffer like this. Contact me today to learn how therapy, either by secure video or in my office, can help you feel better quickly.